Languages

An overview of our Lingotot  curriculum at Great Missenden for Reception, KS1 and KS2

Year 5's Impressionist View of the World!

Year 6's fashion designs and descriptions!

Intent

At Great Missenden Primary School, we are linguists! Our aim is to develop an enthusiastic and positive attitude to other languages and language learning. It also particularly important to us to celebrate all languages spoken in our school, learning about similarities and differences and respecting others. We encourage a life-long love of language learning among our pupils to enhance their understanding of the world and their future economic well-being.

Studying a language at Great Missenden School provides children with skills that are essential for the twenty-first century. Primary languages are about fun, communication, confidence building and developing learning strategies. As well as giving our students the opportunity to learn other languages, an increasingly important skill in our globalised society, we help students to develop a broader intercultural understanding of the world.

In every Languages lesson, we use a variety of resources to ensure we offer a relevant, broad, vibrant, and ambitious foreign languages curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety of topics and themes. All pupils are expected to achieve their full potential by encouraging high expectations and excellent standards in their foreign language learning - the ultimate aim being that pupils will feel willing and able to continue studying languages beyond key stage 2.

The intent is that all lesson content is continuously updated and reviewed annually, creating a dynamic programme of study that is clearly outlined in both long-term and short-term planning. This ensures that the foreign language knowledge of our pupils, progresses within each academic year and, is extended year upon year throughout the primary phase. In so doing, it is always relevant and in line with meeting or exceeding national DfE requirements. 

The four key language learning skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing are taught and all necessary grammar is 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 and also helping the children improve overall attainment in other subject areas. In addition, the children are taught how to look up and research language they are unsure of and they will have a bank of reference materials to help them with their spoken and written tasks going forward. This bank of reference materials will develop into a reference library to help pupils recall and build on previous knowledge throughout their primary school language learning journey.

The intent is that all pupils 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.

What does Language Learning look like at Great Missenden School?

Great Missenden works in partnership with national language learning leaders, Lingotot. A Lingotot language specialist is on site three full days per week to deliver a programme of learning which delivers fun, fully-interactive sessions, and progressive results.

Lingotot offers our children languages qualifications at the end of primary school. This is a unique opportunity for our pupils who take onwards with them a fully accredited qualification in languages granted by NCFE, an OfQual regulated awarding body.

Three levels of award are available which have been benchmarked against Entry Level 1, Entry Level 2 and Entry Level 3.

The Lingotot Course consists of 12 units, which are reviewed and adapted each year to match the school’s overall curriculum.

To be eligible for an award, learners should complete a minimum of four different units, however it is recommended that learners complete 6 units. Learners complete internal assessments which are recorded in their portfolio for Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing.

Our provision ensures that:

• Every child receives a 1 hour dedicated Languages lesson each week delivered by a specialist Languages teacher from year 3 upwards.
• KS 1 study some languages through songs, stories and dance.
• Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 study French for one hour per week delivered by a specialist Languages teacher.
• Lessons are themed around the school’s overall curriculum, which enhances the learning experience, by delivering consistency.
• The skills acquired in language lessons during Key Stages 1 and 2 can be transferred and will prepare students for a variety of languages they are likely to encounter at secondary level.

Implementation

Pupils are taught to:

• Listen attentively to spoken French and show understanding by joining in and responding.
• Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words.
• Engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help.
• Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases, and basic language structures.
• Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases.
• Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences.
• Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases, and simple writing.
• Appreciate stories, songs, poems, and rhymes in the language.
• Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary.
• Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly.
• Describe people, places, things, and actions orally and in Year 6, develop their writing skills.
• Understand basic French grammar including feminine, masculine, and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.

All classes have access to a very high-quality foreign languages curriculum. This will progressively develop pupil skills in foreign languages through regularly taught and well-planned weekly lessons in Key stage 2 which, are taught by a language specialist teacher.

Children progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge organised around age-appropriate topics and themes - building blocks of language into more complex, fluent and authentic language.

All class teachers know where every child is at any point in their foreign language learning journey.

The planning of different levels of challenge and, which units to teach at each stage of the academic year, will be addressed dynamically and will be reviewed in detail annually as our curriculum at Great Missenden Church of England Combined School develops. Lessons offering appropriate levels of challenge and stretch are always taught to ensure pupils learn effectively, continuously building their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the language(s) they are learning.

Children are taught how to listen and read longer pieces of text gradually in the foreign language and they have ample opportunities to speak, listen to, read and write the language being taught with and without scaffolds, frames and varying levels of support.

In addition to our curricular MFL, we also offer extra-curricular Spanish learning in an after school  club full of songs, games, movement and even crafts!

Impact 

To truly understand the impact of our Languages curriculum, you have to come and see us!

The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning, and transferrable skills. Our MFL lessons are progressive which guarantees learning and challenge for all. Throughout the year, lessons increase in level of challenge, stretch and linguistic and grammatical complexity as pupils move from learning basic vocabulary to more challenging units of language. Activities contain progressively more text (both in English and in French) and lessons have more content as the children become more confident and ambitious with the foreign language they are learning.

Year 3 begins at basic noun and article level and teaches pupils how to formulate short phrases. By the time pupils reach Year 6, they are exposed to much longer text and are encouraged to formulate their own, more personalised responses based on a much wider bank of vocabulary, linguistic structures, and grammatical knowledge. They are 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 continuously build on their previous knowledge as they progress in their foreign language learning journey through the primary phase. Previous language is recycled, revised, recalled, and consolidated whenever possible and appropriate.

Pupils are aware of their own learning goals and progression as, at the end of each half term, we have a session of games, where their progress is assessed in a casual and friendly environment. Children provide their own feedback on their learning journey and what they would like to achieve next.

Our primary languages qualification via Lingotot ensures that children take away with them a gift that they can develop further at GCSE and A-Level stages.

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Do you speak another language (confidently) ? Do you have family from another country?

If so, I would like to invite you to do a 10-minute presentation to your class during one of the Languages lessons during the next 2 weeks. We want to celebrate and promote the rich linguistic diversity at our school and encourage lifelong language learning . I am really looking forward to being a student and learning from you all.

All those who participate will receive a certificate. If you have any questions, please contact Madame Garcia at: mfl@gmglt.co.uk