Foreign Languages
Intent
At St. Barnabas CE Primary School, the intent of our Primary Languages curriculum is to foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the wider world they live in. This is linked closely to some of our school Christian values of friendship, compassion, peace, creativity and perseverance. We hope that all pupils will develop a genuine interest in languages, finding them enjoyable and exciting and show a desire to continue their language learning past KS2. We want our children to be able express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. The skills, knowledge and understanding gained through learning a language contribute to the development of children’s oracy and literacy and to their understanding of other cultures, including how they are similar to and different from their own. High expectations are set for all learners regardless of their background or attainment level, as we hope to develop the core skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, and enable children to make significant progress in one language (French) throughout their time in KS2. We also strive to provide children with opportunities to experience a range of other languages and celebrate the diversity of our pupils and the languages they speak. In short, we hope to lay the foundations for future language learning, ultimately equipping children to let their light shine through studying and working in other countries, should they wish.
Implementation
The aims of the Languages curriculum at St. Barnabas CE Primary School follow that of the National Curriculum, and we follow the Primary Languages Network scheme of work to achieve those aims. This scheme provides clear progression for the development of speaking and listening, reading, writing, vocabulary acquisition and grammatical awareness throughout KS2. There are resources to support teaching and learning within the scheme, and these are supplemented with other high quality resources sourced elsewhere, when appropriate, to enhance learning further, such as authentic reading and listening materials.
We use a variety of techniques to encourage children to have an active engagement with their leaning, including:
- Games – to aid children’s retention of vocabulary and key sentence structuresthrough repetition, reading, writing, speaking and listening skills;
- Role-play – relating to situations the children may find themselves in the future;
- Action songs and rhymes – to develop phonetic skills, memory skills and to further develop vocabulary.
The Languages Curriculum is designed so that taught vocabulary and grammar are built upon each week, term and year. We also use low stakes retrieval quizzes as well as ongoing formative assessment and feedback to ensure children know more, remember more and do more.
Cultural awareness is woven into many topic areas. In addition, children participate in enrichment activities to specifically enhance their cultural awareness further such as during our annual Languages Day. They also learn about important national days in France such as Bastille Day, and find out how Christian festivals such as Christmas and Easter are celebrated in ways that are similar to, or different from, us.
Impact
Children are an active part of assessing their own learning, through regular feedback in lessons and through retrieval games and quizzes. Children are given the opportunity to self-assess at the end of each unit, using a simple smiley-face system where they can indicate how confident they feel about the objectives covered. At the end of each unit, teachers assess children’s progress using the Puzzle It Out Assessments from Primary Languages Network. These give the children the opportunity to demonstrate that they are developing in each of the four core skills of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing and making some progress towards the 12 Attainment Targets of the DfE KS2 Primary Languages Programme of Study over the course of each academic year. These summative assessments also help to ascertain the next steps in learning.
If you would like any further information about our curriculum, please contact the school office.