Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Curriculum Statement

Intent:

At The Mount Stewart Schools, we believe that learning a language enriches the curriculum, providing excitement, enjoyment and challenge, helping to create enthusiastic learners and to develop positive attitudes to language learning throughout life.  The language that we have chosen to teach is Spanish.  Our vision is to build their language learning skills and become all-around global citizens. We teach Spanish as a Modern Foreign Language to prepare our children for a rapidly changing world.

Learning another language prepares our children for life in modern Britain, in which work and activities increasingly involve using languages other than English.

We aim to foster pupils' curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world around them and their own language. We intend that through learning Spanish, our pupils will develop an awareness of cultural differences and develop a tolerance of diversity within society.

Our children will acquire and develop language skills, using what they have learned in various contexts with increasing competence and confidence.

 We intend that everyone learns:

• Read, speak and write the Spanish language, and learn about the Spanish culture.
• Build foundations for foreign languages teaching at high school.
• Enjoy complex, adventurous and unique linguistic structures.
• Learn from other dual-language pupils

Implementation:

We follow the requirements of the National Curriculum, which can be seen in the document below.

Our planning, e.g. The Long Term Plan for Spanish, exemplifies a progression of curriculum content, skills and technical language from Years 3-6, coherent and rigorous. To support our planning and ensure that the work planned was appropriately rigorous, Language Angels schemes of work formed the basis of planning when deciding on which units to teach and when they would be taught. A complete suite of teaching resources is provided for every lesson. Interactive teaching materials are provided for all classes. Covering a wide variety of topics (including cross-curricular topics) with all instances of the foreign language pre-recorded using a native speaker and fully controlled by the teachers. The scheme has been adapted to suit the needs and interests of the pupils at Mount Stewart. Medium Term Plans detail the teaching and learning in each session. They refer to prior learning and learning, which is to follow to ensure that the teaching is coherently planned and sequenced. They show the 'key knowledge' content for the Knowledge Organisers in each unit and the End of Unit Assessment content.

Our no-ceiling approach to the teaching of Spanish in all our sessions. All children are supported so that they can achieve the outcome of the lesson through challenging but achievable tasks to allow the experience of success in academic assignments. Language Angels cover a wide range of cross-curricular units linking to familiar curriculum topics.

Some of these include:

• • World War II
  • Healthy Eating
  • The Romans
  • The Tudors
  • Habitats
  • The Planets

• Pupils are encouraged to use their exercise books and Knowledge Organisers as reference materials to support them if needed. Strategies for understanding and retaining knowledge such as cognates and identifying patterns in language are taught and practised. Essential Knowledge, e.g. vocabulary words and phrases and phonics/grammatical concepts, are revisited and practised in lessons so that children learn more and remember more as they progress through school. Knowledge Organisers of units completed and links to prior learning are made are referred back to deepen understanding.  
• As a school, we have developed positive behaviour for learning for building resilience and independence across the curriculum. This is exemplified in Spanish lessons, where pupils have the confidence to take part in oral sessions to practise their growing language skills. They are not afraid to ask for help when they need it or indicate that they need further clarification of the learning. This is a direct result of the good relationships built around the school between staff and pupils, encouraging children to 'have a go' and not worry about making mistakes!

Impact:

Language Angels automatically link the teaching to the 12 attainment targets set out in the DfE Languages Programme of Study for KS2 and give teachers a comprehensive history of pupil learning and progression in the primary language learning skills – speaking, listening, reading and writing. We know the impact of our intent and implementation means that most attain the appropriate age-related National curriculum expectations as a result of:

• On-going assessment for learning in lessons and marking of written work.
• Video/audio recordings of children judged to be working at age-related expectations exemplify spoken Spanish progression.
• Assessment allows the teachers to complete the following:

1. Compare pupils’ progress against the 12 teaching targets stipulated in the DfE Key Stage 2 Languages Programme of Study.
2. View and analyse overall class and individual pupil performance in the four key language learning skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing).
3. All results are given a total score, a percentage score and a performance description.