Curriculum Intent
“Learning a language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures; It helps to equip pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life”.
In the Modern Foreign Languages department we wish to open doors for our pupils. We endeavour to hone a variety of skills relating to our subject, including: communication, researching, presenting, reasoning and metacognition, to name but a few.
It is our aim that our curriculum is broad, varied and vibrant. We wish to allow pupils to explore languages – be that French, Spanish or Mandarin – and enable them to broaden their language knowledge, skills and cultural understanding. Through this understanding, we wish to enable our students to consider others’ points of view, ways of life and to develop a tolerance and mutual respect for all citizens of the world.
As a department, MFL teachers are committed to supporting all language learners in developing a deeper understanding of the role that languages and play in our world.
All of our languages teachers have a passion for their subject and a strong understanding of how languages link to the wider world. A key part of this is sharing with pupils the opportunities learning languages may bring to our pupils, whether they actively use languages themselves in the future, or merely use the skills that language-learning has developed with them, in a different context.
We teach our pupils that differences exist, and that these should be embraced and celebrated. In the MFL department, we go beyond the taught curriculum to provide opportunities to embrace new experiences, including MFL club, trips abroad and to local events and meals. We strongly believe that this gives MFL pupils of St Wilfrids the best chance of success in the wider world.
Homework
The MFL department sets relevant, challenging and topical homework that will help learners progress throughout the course. We provide pupils with opportunities to revisit prior learning in a timely manner, all with the benefit of access to teacher support via designated in-school sessions and Google Classroom.
A key feature of our MFL homework is that pupils will be required to undertake some language memorisation, due to the nature of learning a language. This can be time-consuming for pupils, therefore we encourage the ‘little and often’ approach, with a focus on lots of repetition. As memorisation is such an essential part of language-learning, pupils are taught how to self-quiz in MFL lessons, and are encouraged to use their Knowledge Organisers and many other resources to support them in this.
Pupils in all key stages will be set a range of skills as homework tasks, to ensure the fundamental assessed skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking are practised.
Assessment
Staff routinely provide opportunities for formative and summative assessments to assess the progress of learners over time, this allows for appropriate intervention to be put in place to allow them to achieve their very best. We regularly implement retrieval activities within lessons as part of formative assessment and to aid pupils wit memorisation of key vocabulary and skills.
End of module assessments give pupils an opportunity to showcase what they have learnt over the course of the taught topic, whilst demonstrating the key skills and grammatical knowledge that they have developed along the way in various new or different contexts. These assessments will comprise a range of skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking. Teachers will guide pupils in their revision, whilst also helping pupils to grow into independent learners, responsible for their own learning and progress.
BCCET EYFS to KS2 MFL Overview
Knowledge Organisers
Year 9:
Year 11: