Modern Foreign Languages at Shelley First School Intent Learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster children's curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable children to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping children to study and work in other countries. Our French curriculum encourages our children to develop an interest in learning languages by making learning active, sequential and enjoyable. It aims to deepen their understanding of the world and provide an insight into another culture. Children learn to express themselves more clearly in another language, which provides them with a solid foundation for practical conversational use in real-life. Whilst French is not formally taught until KS2, children at Shelley First School are exposed to French from EYFS. We believe this encourages our children to develop an interest in learning another language and catch children an age where they are able to pick up language skills easily. They will access quality first teaching delivered by a language specialist. This allows the children to experience the language from an authentic source. In Key Stage 2 the children will be taught by their class teachers who will be following the Rachel Hawkes scheme. Implementation We offer a clear progression for the development of speaking and listening and vocabulary acquisition. There are resources to support the teaching and learning opportunities for all pupils. We use a variety of the following techniques to encourage children to have an active engagement with MFL:
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Games – in order to develop vocabulary through repetition, reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
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Role-play – these should relate to the situations the children may find themselves in the future.
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Action songs and rhymes – to develop phonetic skills, memory skills and to further vocabulary.
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Reading and writing quality materials.
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We build children’s confidence through praise for any contribution they make in the foreign language, however tentative.
Impact At Shelley First School, we are enabling pupils to make substantial progress in French. The teaching provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further foreign language teaching at key stage 3. It enable pupils to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing, focused on familiar and routine matters, using their knowledge of phonology, grammatical structures and vocabulary.