As the MFL lead at Cullercoats Primary School, I believe that learning another language gives our children far more than just another subject on the timetable. It gives them lifelong skills that open doors.

Through learning French, children develop confidence in communication, curiosity about the wider world and the ability to connect with people beyond their own community. These are skills which stay with them long after they leave our school. I have seen this first hand with my own children who have travelled extensively after finishing school, exploring new places and embracing new cultures. At Cullercoats we want to inspire that same sense of adventure and ignite in every child the passion for travel and language learning.

Subject Lead - Mrs Debbie Davison

INTENT

Cullercoats Primary School offers a relevant, broad and vibrant foreign languages curriculum intended to inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety of topics and themes. All pupils are encouraged to achieve their full potential through high expectations and excellent standards in their foreign language journey - the ultimate aim being that pupils will feel willing and able to continue studying languages beyond key stage 2.

The four key language learning skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing will be taught and all necessary grammar will be covered in an age-appropriate way across the primary phase. This will enable pupils to use and apply their learning in a variety of contexts, laying down solid foundations for future language learning.

The intent is that all pupils will develop a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages, finding them enjoyable and stimulating. Learning a second language will also offer pupils the opportunity to explore relationships between language and identity, develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and the world around them with a better awareness of self, others and cultural differences. The intention is that they will be working towards becoming life-long language learners.

IMPLEMENTATION

All classes will have access to a high-quality foreign languages curriculum using the Language Angels scheme of work and resources. This will progressively develop pupil skills in foreign languages through regularly taught and well-planned weekly lessons in both KS1 and KS2. Children will acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge organised around age-appropriate topics and themes.

Each class in KS1 and KS2 has an overview of units to be taught during the academic year to ensure substantial progress and learning is achieved. Each teaching unit is divided into 6 fully planned lessons.

· Each unit and lesson will have clearly defined objectives and aims.

· Each lesson will incorporate interactive whiteboard materials to include ample speaking and listening tasks within a lesson.

· Lessons will incorporate challenge sections.

· Reading and writing activities will be offered in all units. Some extended reading and writing activities are provided so that native speakers can also be catered for.

· Every unit will include a grammar concept which will increase in complexity as pupils move from Early Language units, through Intermediate units and into Progressive units.

· Extending writing activities are provided to ensure that pupils are recalling previously learnt language and, by reusing it, will be able to recall it and use it with greater ease and accuracy. These tasks will help to link units together and show that pupils are retaining and recalling the language taught with increased fluency and ease.

The progression within the 6 lessons in a unit can be described as ‘language Lego’. Blocks of language are taught and, over the course of a 6-week unit, pupils are encouraged to use these blocks to build more complex and sophisticated language structures.

Early Language units are entry level units. Intermediate units subsequently increase the level of challenge by increasing the amount and complexity (including foreign language grammar concepts) of the foreign language presented to pupils. These intermediate units are suitable for Year 4-5 pupils or pupils with embedded basic knowledge of the foreign language. Progressive and Creative Curriculum units are the most challenging units and are suitable for Year 6 pupils or pupils with a good understanding of the basics of the language they are learning. Units are planned to ensure that the language taught is appropriate to the level of the class and introduced when the children are ready. Children will be taught how to listen and read longer pieces of text gradually in the foreign language and they will have ample opportunities to speak, listen to, read and write the language being taught with and without scaffolds, frames and varying levels of support. Previous knowledge is gradually built upon as lessons continue to recycle, revise and consolidate previously learnt language whilst building on all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Knowledge and awareness of required and appropriate grammar concepts will be taught throughout all units at all levels of challenge. Though grammar is integrated and taught discreetly throughout all appropriate units, rules and patterns will be taught by level of challenge:

· We start with nouns and articles and 1st person singular of high frequency verbs in Early Learning units.

· We move on to the use of the possessive, the concept of adjectives, use of the negative form, conjunctions/connectives and introduce the concept of whole regular verb conjugation in Intermediate units.

· We end with opinions and introduce the concept of whole high frequency irregular verb conjugation in Progressive units.

IMPACT

The progressive nature of the planned units guarantees progressive learning and challenge across the school. Units increase in level of challenge, stretch and linguistic and grammatical complexity as pupils move from Early Learning units through Intermediate units and into the most challenging Progressive units. Activities contain progressively more text (both in English and the foreign language being studied) and lessons have more content as the children become more confident and ambitious with the foreign language they are learning.

Early Learning units start at basic noun and article level and teach pupils how to formulate short phrases. By the time pupils reach Progressive units they will be exposed to much longer text and will be encouraged to formulate their own, more personalised responses based on a much wider bank of vocabulary, linguistic structures and grammatical knowledge. They will be able to create longer pieces of spoken and written language and are encouraged to use a variety of conjunctions, adverbs, adjectives, opinions and justifications.

Pupils will continuously build on their previous knowledge as they progress in their foreign language learning journey through the primary phase. Previous language will be recycled, revised, recalled and consolidated whenever possible and appropriate.