MFL | Crowland Primary School

Intent

What are our aims?

In Crowland Primary School we aim to meet or exceed the expectations of the National Curriculum delivering a balanced and progressive curriculum that excites and engages pupils. We believe that every child should be exposed to another language at Primary School. A Modern Foreign Language equips pupils with the skills needed to participate in a rapidly changing world in which work and other activities are often carried out in languages other than English. Increased capability in the use of MFL promotes initiative, curiosity, confidence, independent learning, deepens the understanding of the world and encourages diversity within society. Through speaking, listening, reading and writing, children will be able to express their ideas and thoughts, understand and respond to speakers, communicate for practical purposes and explore new ways of thinking in another language. Language teaching and learning should provide the foundation for the enjoyment and enrichment of learning further Spanish or other languages and improve the competence in an existing tongue.

Implementation

How will we achieve our aims?

Children are introduced to Spanish from KS1 receiving a weekly 30 minute lesson. This enables the children to develop early language acquisition skills that facilitate their understanding of the patterns of language and how these differ from, or are similar to, English. In KS2, each class has a timetabled Spanish lesson of 45 minutes. Children regularly begin their work displaying the learning objective and the steps to achieve it. Achievement of these is then verified by the teacher, with reference to the outcomes of work and responses during lesson.

We mainly follow the primary MFL scheme of work from Rachel Hawkes in KS2, adapting and incorporating contents to KS1. During Spanish lessons a varied set of activities will be used from self-created materials to on-line resources. Provision for implementing teaching and learning is mainly available at Rachel Hawkes‘ website, Rockalingua, Twinkl, Duolingo Schools, Wordreference, BCC Languages, Youtube, TES, Spanish4teachers and LightBulbLanguages.

Active Learning:

Language teaching and learning often offer the chance of interacting with other areas of the curriculum: with English in grammar, patterns and cognates, with Maths in using numbers and operations, with Geography exploring Spanish speaking countries and maps, with Art through artwork creations and Spanish artists, with PE using kinaesthetic and dances, with Music by singing and with Computing using Duolingo Schools and Wordreference.

During Spanish, children have the opportunity to experience casual and practical uses of language. Children’s activities involve regular role-plays: greeting and introducing yourself, ordering in a cafe and a fruit shop, asking the time, asking for objects in pencil cases, describing artwork, talking about food, sport or music preferences and frequencies. This activities take place working individually, in partners, small or large groups as well as whole class interactions. Children are taught to listen attentively to spoken language and respond, joining in with songs, rhymes and games.

Excellent Communication:

Children develop an appreciation of a variety of stories, songs, poems and rhymes in Spanish that are delivered through the curriculum content as well as by native Spanish speakers within the wider school community. Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.

Pupils will speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and that they are continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation. Students will write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.

Taking Care of Self and Others:

Teaching Spanish let children explore the world through experiences in other languages and learn about foreign countries supporting tolerance and empathy. Besides, through casual interactions with other languages and cultures during MFL lessons we will foster better understanding and pride in each other’s’ backgrounds. Celebrating achievement develops confidence and respect for each other’s’ effort, during Spanish lessons children are praised and rewarded with ruffle tickets, moving levels up, awarded with marbles and remarkable pieces of work are displayed in the Spanish wall.

Global Awareness and Responsibility:

We want to prepare children to take responsibilities as local community members as well as equip them with the skills for the wider world. Thanks to the multicultural community in which Crowland Primary School is located, multiple chances of Spanish interacting with other tongues happen spontaneously during lessons, giving children the opportunity of exploring patterns between languages, consolidating other languages and acknowledging and fostering pride in each other’s’ backgrounds. Spanish Day enables the whole school, including EYFS, to be immersed in the inclusion of the culture and use the language meaningfully in context. Spanish Day is organised at Crowland Primary School giving children the chance of attending a live Flamenco show taking part in workshops throughout the day. Children have the opportunity of researching geography of Spanish speaking countries, watch films in Spanish and create artwork inspired in Spanish artist.

Impact

We should see evidence of impact in learners taking different shapes: asking and answering questions; using correct pronunciation and intonation; memorising words; interpreting meaning; understanding basic grammar; working in pairs and groups to role play asking and answering questions; looking at life in another culture; reading Spanish Literature; singing in Spanish; sharing different ways of learning and memorising new vocabulary.

The impact of teaching and learning is assessed continually throughout the year, with the teacher giving feedback orally, through marking and verbally. Most assessment is formative and is used to support teaching and learning and inform future planning. The MFL teacher assesses the children's progress based on their achievement of the learning objectives in lessons. Peer and self-assessment will also take place on a regular basis with assessments for learning often recorded in books. Recording of work will either take place in the child’s individual exercise book or in the Spanish floorbook with reflections about learning from children incorporated as post its. Marking is in line with the wider curriculum policy at Crowland, using the OA, PA, NA marking scheme.

Monitoring is carried out by the Spanish Subject Leader (David Rodriguez) and members of the SLT. This will be carried out in the following ways: child conferencing, book looks, planning scrutinises and classroom observation.