“Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom.” Roger Bacon
Rationale: Purpose of Study (taken from the National Curriculum)
Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.
Intent
At Nanpean School, we believe that the learning of a language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our children, giving them a broader perspective on the world while encouraging the children to develop a curiosity to deepen their understanding of their own and others’ cultures. We also believe that such coverage can also positively impact a child’s knowledge in relation to how language works, ensure children develop curiosity in relation to language, while laying the foundations for further language learning in the future. Through making links between our own language and another language, our intention is for this to instil a love of language learning within our children.
We intend our teaching to enable the children to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and for them to be able to communicate for practical purposes in this language, knowing key words and phrases, while also immersing the children in literature (books and stories) from different languages and cultures, when appropriate. Our aim is to ensure that children can understand and respond to Spanish speaking, and speak themselves in Spanish with increasing confidence and fluency, by the end of Key Stage 2, and so that this prepares them for further language learning in Key Stage 3.
Implementation
All classes have access to a high-quality (Modern Foreign) Languages Curriculum using the Language Angels scheme of work. This progressively develops skills in foreign languages through well-planned and resourced weekly lessons in Key Stage 2.
Children will 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 and fluent language. They build on previous knowledge gradually as their foreign language lessons continue to recycle, revise and consolidate previously learnt language whilst building on all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Grammar concepts are taught throughout units.
Impact
As children work through our scheme of learning, they will be exposed to much longer text and will be encouraged to formulate their own, more personalised responses based on a much wider bank of vocabulary, linguistic structures and grammatical knowledge. They will be able to create longer pieces of spoken and written language and are encouraged to use a variety of conjunctions, adverbs, adjectives, opinions and justifications.
Children 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.
British Values
At Nanpean School, British Values are promoted through the Languages Curriculum in the following ways, while we also learn about British Values at other specific times, such as during Collective Worship opportunities (Assemblies).
Mutual Respect and Tolerance – Children develop a mutual respect through considering the different opinions, beliefs and abilities of others. As a result, children learn to become more tolerant, appreciating similarities and differences between themselves and others in the wider world. This also teaches the children that all people, and their views, are of equal importance.
Democracy – During lessons, children have appropriate opportunities to learn about socially acceptable behaviour in French, including, for example, the more formal (and informal) conventions of speech.
Individual Liberty – Children learn to respect individual differences and are confident to express their opinions and respect the views of others.
Rule of Law - Children understand the need for rules, and, at appropriate times, learn about rules in place in other countries.
SMSC
At Nanpean School we have the following themes in our Languages Curriculum shown below. Although we do not use this scheme of work as a basis for learning, we use it for other curriculum subjects and the themes are relevant to our Languages Curriculum:
During Languages lessons, children are constantly encouraged, when appropriate and in relation to the theme on the right hand side of the image above, to gain an understanding of Spanishculture and compare and contrast this with our own and other cultures throughout the world. Children are also encouraged to speak in Spanish which supports development of their social skills.
How you can help your child at home
Why not learn phrases from our chosen focus language (French) or another language as a family? This could also lead to discussions about places we would like to visit on holiday!
Facilitate discussions with your child in relation to their French learning (see the Overview document which is one of the attachment links above). You could also discuss with your child the French vocabulary they are learning.
The following websites could also be used to support your child: