St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary School
Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)
Policy
Rationale
At St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary School we provide equality of opportunity for all children to receive the education as described in our Mission Statement.
This is ‘to educate and inspire every child to fulfil their unique giftedness within a loving Catholic community’.
The National Languages Strategy for England sets out the government’s commitment to increasing the nation’s language capability and a vision of languages as ‘a life-long skill to be used in business and for pleasure, to open up avenues of communication and exploration, and to promote, encourage and instil a broader cultural understanding’ of the world (NLS,p5).
Aims
At St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary School our intention is to provide equality of opportunity for all children.
All children must be able to access the Modern Foreign Languages curriculum, whatever their gender, ethnicity or ability.
The expectation is that every child will have the opportunity throughout Key Stage 2 to study a foreign language, which currently is French.
Guidelines
In order to receive this opportunity, the provision of a foreign language must be made available to each child by all class teachers.
This provision commences in Key Stage 1 in the form of songs, rhymes and simple games.
These basics are then built upon and progression in Key Stage 2 takes place utilising the Framework for Languages.
Modern Foreign Language teaching and learning forms a vital part of the Knowledge of the World Curriculum team and one of the primary aims of this team is ‘to develop the concept of stewardship and global citizenship’.
Objectives
· To promote positive attitudes towards language learning through a range of exciting and innovative learning activities
· To utilise the learning objectives as set out in the Framework for Languages. The objectives are made up of three progressive core strands of teaching and learning: Oracy, Literacy and Intercultural Understanding. In addition, two cross-cutting strands are included: Knowledge About Language (KAL) and Language Learning Strategies (LLS)
· To utilise the support of Ben Shaw, Advanced Skills Teacher and Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Oaklands Catholic School, who has time allocated to support the planning and teaching of languages at St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary
· To support the work and innovations of the French Cluster Group, which is made up of French Subject Managers from St Thomas More’s Catholic Primary School, St Peter’s Catholic Primary School and St Jude’s Catholic Primary School, under the auspices of Oaklands Catholic School
· To explore and use all possible cross-curricular links in order to improve Oracy and Literacy skills. Examples of such cross-curricular links include:
English – Etymology, grammatical concepts, listening skills, speaking skills, phonetics.
Numeracy – Learning numbers, performing calculations in another language and handling currency in real life settings.
PSHE - Appreciating other cultures and respecting differences.
Music – Learning through songs and rhythm.
Geography – Having an awareness of other places and climates and how the physical environment affects human activity.
History –Having an appreciation of Britain’s place alongside other cultures and civilizations.
ICT – Using interactive software to develop vocabulary, sentence-building, listening, reading and writing skills. In addition they can access, with appropriate supervision, the benefits of the Internet to do research.
RE – learning about how other cultures celebrate Christian festivals, for example La Galette des Roix in France at the Epiphany.
Monitoring
This is achieved in a variety of ways in accordance with the Subject Managers’ Schedule:
· Monitoring of medium term plans
· Work sampling
· Pupil interviews
· Staff questionnaires
· Analysis of Foundation Subject data
Approved Curriculum Committee:
Approved Governing Body:
Review Date:
School/Policy file/Modern Foreign Languages Oct 2010