At Guillemont Junior School, our young learners will leave with an interest, curiosity and enthusiasm in MFL, both French and Spanish. Children will be immersed in learning MFL in a fun and engaging way, through games and activities. We will ensure pupils have the three pillars of language as a skill and awareness: vocabulary, grammar and phonics. This journey of our golden threads will ensure pupils are exposed to a range of vocabulary that extends onto sentence structure; use the correct articles for the correct feminine or masculine verb/noun and develop their phonological awareness in both regular and irregular words. All pupils will leave Year 6 with exposure to French and Spanish that have the core language building blocks to continue developing on this in a KS3 learning environment.
Regarding our learning units in Modern Foreign Languages, our lesson and curriculum are delivered through a programme called Language Angels. We have Year 3 and 4 learning French and Year 5 and 6 studying Spanish. Learning is coherently planned and devised by the Language Angels programme, which starts from minimal difficulty in the beginning of the year and progresses in difficulty throughout; where pupils’ learning follows a clear skill progression, thus supporting their necessary linguistic skills and knowledge. We sequence our learning based on core skills and develop this to include more complex vocabulary, grammar and phonics. We actively offer children the opportunities to apply their knowledge of the language, whether this is by offering opportunities to hear, read, speak or write, developing vocabulary, grammar and spelling. Units of work are sequential and contain plenty of opportunities to embed and develop existing knowledge whilst learning a new language; which in turn, supports pupils’ ability to recall and staffs’ confidence to deliver a rich lesson.
When delivery our lessons, they include worksheets that are lesson-related and focus on our 3 pillars: vocabulary, grammar and phonics. The worksheets can be adapted to support pupils with lower self-esteem or whom find MFL more difficult. Additionally, we have a main worksheet which caters for the majority of pupils on an appropriate level of MFL development during their learning journey. Also, to challenge our most able pupils or native speakers, we own a range of dictionaries to stretch their learning further, have challenging worksheets where memory recall is promoted. Furthermore, all lessons offer lesson plans, interactive presentations and games. The structure of lessons immerses our children in fun, inspiring stimuli that challenges them in a supportive manner and ensures their consistent progress. Additionally, having MFL displays in classrooms with key vocabulary for the unit studying, will enhance recall, memory and literacy needs.
In our extra-curricular opportunities, whenever possible, MFL is integrated across the curriculum in various situations. For example, when giving classroom instructions, greeting peers daily and in the register, within PE lessons and when using dictionary skills within MFL lessons. In wider MFL opportunities, we are taken to engage in cultural activities for those pupils studying French in Lower Key Stage 2, such as Poisson d’Avril and Gallette des Rois. However, those in Upper KS2 who study Spanish, explore cultural festivals such as Fallas and Los Reyes Magos. Additionally, regarding civilisation in those bespoke countries, pupils will explore how they celebrate key holidays such as, but not limited to, Christmas and Easter. Our impact also furthers to the home-studying life, where pupils have Language Angels logins to study previous and current units further through engaging games.
To ensure our pupils are taught with confident and strong MFL Teachers, the Language Angels programme includes audio and written slides on their presentation, thus making sure pupils are exposed to the correct MFL pronunciations and spellings. Additionally, adults in Guillemont are role models for promoting a love, curiosity and have-a-go attitude of MFL. This is supported by our Language Angels programme, which is so straight-forward and clear to teach that this positively impacts pupils ability with their MFL studies. Furthermore, links are made within the school cluster to help keep teaching and learning fresh and relevant.
At Guillemont Junior School, we use a diverse amount of resources to increase exposure to languages across the school.
By the end of Key Stage 2, children are able to conduct short dialogues in a number of situations with a sympathetic French or Spanish speaker. We measure our MFL learning through assessment which explores speaking, reading, listening and writing exercises. These questions are coherently designed, following the unit of learning we have just completed.
We will be holding morning tours for prospective parents on Monnday 28th September and Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd October 7th October (9am – 12pm).
