LHPS Languages Curriculum Design

Guiding Principles

We want our children to Appreciate, Aspire and Achieve. We are committed to providing a Languages Curriculum designed to enrich children’s cultural appreciation, foster curiosity in deepening their understanding of the world, broaden their reading, and express themselves in another language by speaking and writing. It aims to develop the foundations for further language learning thus equipping children with the skills to both study and work in other countries.   

Core Beliefs

Appreciate

Aspire

Achieve

A Languages Curriculum that develops every child’s ability to appreciate, care, respect and understand themselves, others and the world in which they live. A curriculum that also ensures that every child feels valued and cared for.

A  Languages Curriculum that provides a range of opportunities, designed to empower every child to ‘dream big’ and develop a sense of what is possible for them to achieve now and in their future lives.

A  Languages Curriculum that ensures all children have the skills, knowledge, attitude and social understanding to achieve in all aspects of their lives  and equip them to become active and engaged citizens.

Curriculum

Approach

Our mastery approach to lesson design is based upon our strong knowledge of pedagogy and our understanding of our children’s needs. This ensures that each lesson maximises both learning and our core beliefs of Appreciate, Aspire and Achieve.

The learning of modern foreign language, in particular French, is given a priority at Lunt’s Heath in order to provide children with the capital and self-efficacy needed in life and in the work place. We aim as a school for all children to develop a love of languages as well as the motivation to study it to a higher level in the future. A carefully considered teaching cycle is followed throughout the school; Key Stage 1 receive sample taster sessions with the main teaching thrust residing in Key Stage 2. The cycle consists of an introduction to the language through songs and rhyme linking meaning, spelling and sound.

Currently our language of choice is French, as the secondary education pathway lends itself to the learning of this subject. All sessions are delivered by a native French speaker to provide a culturally rich offer.

Teachers reinforce an expectation that all pupils are capable of achieving high standards in languages.  All staff use a reflective approach to each lesson to evaluate learning and to plan next steps for all children.

The emphasis is firmly on being able to communicate. Initial tuition begins with speaking and listening whereby children collaboratively ask and answer questions in the language, whilst seeking clarification; this is structured and carefully managed by the teacher. Children engage in conversation speaking in sentences using the learned vocabulary and basic structures. Teachers use precise questioning in class to develop the children’s thinking and explanations.

The quality of teaching is underpinned by using expert teachers and high quality materials. Children are encouraged to develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that they can be understood.

There are opportunities for children to perform and present in front of a range of different audiences.

As children become more proficient, speaking and listening expands into reading and simple writing, affording them the opportunity to express their ideas clearly.

Differentiation is achieved through adult support, peer-tutoring, personal challenge, and encouraging children’s individual flair and fluency. 

Grammar and punctuation skills relevant to the language are practised and consolidated giving all children a firm understanding of how to apply them to their own work. Children are taught verb gender and how this differs to the English language.

Teachers use shared and modelled writing to help to nurture the children’s fluency and creativity. The children then apply their skills in independent pieces of writing, which are edited and improved by the individual child as well as receiving some input from their peers.

Basic facts and information of the country of origin that will add to children’s cultural capital will be learned. Enrichment activities are sought in bringing language learning to life, stimulating children’s desire to learn the language more deeply in the future.

We provide high quality professional development to ensure that we are always improving the quality of our teaching so that this impacts positively upon children’s learning. For example, recent involvement in the Erasmus+ programme and French language learning courses in Antibes.

Impact

Children’s knowledge, understanding and progress across all subject areas as well as their desire and ability to learn will be measured using a range of qualitative and quantitative strategies including: information from book scrutiny, performance data measured from their individual starting point, lesson observations, drop ins, all stakeholder voice, collaborative research, use of external critical friends and self / peer evaluation.

By the time a pupil leaves Lunt’s Heath Primary School in Year 6, they will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to confidently express their ideas and thoughts in French, both in speech and writing. They will have a deepened understanding of different cultures, in particular France, and a curiosity fuelled to explore other languages of the world.