Languages
An overview of our Lingotot curriculum at Great Missenden for Pre-School, Reception, KS1 and KS2
Learning French through crafting!
Learning t French hrough acting!
Intent
At Great Missenden Primary School, we are linguists! We take pride in our love for language learning and our rich diversity.
We embrace the many possibilities that language learning opens for us, and we celebrate all languages spoken in our school.
From the moment children step into our school in pre-school, to the moment they leave in Year 6 holding a Primary Languages Qualification, we proudly encourage a life-long love of language learning among our pupils. This broadens their view and understanding of the world, and enhances their future prospects in our increasingly-globalised society.
In every MFL lesson, we use a variety of resources to ensure we offer a relevant, broad, vibrant, and ambitious 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 well beyond key stage 2.
We implement our curriculum by fostering all four key language learning skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Grammar concepts are 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. Our carefully-designed workbooks and online games help them to consolidate their knowledge in a fun and engaging way.
Our ambition is that all pupils develop a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages, finding them enjoyable and stimulating. Learning other languages 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 teach the entire school. Their curriculum and method deliver fun, fully-interactive sessions, and progressive results.
In partnership with Lingotot, we offer our children a Primary Languages Qualification 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 will experience their MFL journey in Great Missenden School as follows:
- From Pre-school to Year 2 children learn Spanish, completing a total of 12 units in our EYFS and KS1 curriculum. All children have access to one 30-minute session per week with our native-speaking specialist teacher.
- Children in Reception (Spring Term onwards) to Year 2 also benefit from our Introduction to European Languages After School Club.
- From Year 3 through to Year 6, children learn French. All children have access to one 60 to 90-minute session with our specialist teacher. From the beginning of the course, children are encouraged 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 or technology.
- 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 high-quality, progressive foreign languages' curriculum.
- 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.
- 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 the 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.
- In addition to our curricular French for KS2, we also offer extra-curricular Spanish and German learning in after school clubs full of dancing, 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: enthusiasm for learning, love for languages and multiculturalism, progress, sustained learning, and transferrable skills. Our MFL lessons are one of the highlights of the week for many children in our school. 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. In addition, we engage in correspondence with our partner school in France for children to have full immersion with their pen-pals!
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.

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