Knowle Primary School follows the National Curriculum for languages and aims to ensure that all pupils:

• understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
• speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
• can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.
• discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

Intent | What and why do we teach what we teach?

At the Knowle, we recognise the importance of all children having the opportunity to learn another language. We adhere to the DFES’s belief that, ‘ language and competence and intercultural understanding are essential parts of being a citizen’. Language skills are a vital tool that enable children to better understand each other and the world around them. Our high quality languages curriculum fosters children’s curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world. At Knowle, we are committed to ensuring that competence in another language enables children to interpret, create and exchange meaning within and across cultures. Our curriculum helps children develop skills that will open up opportunities later in life. The teaching of KS2 French provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further teaching of foreign languages at KS3.

Implementation | How and when do we teach what we teach?

Children are introduced to a Modern Foreign Language in KS2 and receive a fortnightly. This enables the children to develop early language acquisition skills that facilitate their understanding of patterns of language and how these differ from, or are similar to, English or their own language. Children learn a language throughout KS2, which is timetabled for forty-five minutes; this is then followed up by regular practice in the form of games, or stories. The class teacher delivers lessons and incorporates language into daily routines where possible.

Lessons support the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing:

• Children are taught to listen to the language of native speakers and respond, joining in with songs, rhymes and games.
• Children who speak an additional language at home have the opportunity to share their language with teachers and peers.
• Our own planned curriculum is supported with high-quality resources from the ilanguages scheme. 

Language and International Days enable schools to be immersed in the inclusion of the culture and to use languages meaningfully and in context. These are celebrated across Key Stage 1 and 2.

Assessment
Teachers provide an open-ended task which involves the learner presenting their learning in oral, video or written form. Teachers use their assessments to identify gaps and misconceptions to inform future learning needs. Teachers also use written assessments that cover a range of topics that have been studied across the term. 

Developing Understanding
Teachers plan activities, based on the rolling curriculum using languages and their own made resources, that provoke thought and require application of prior learning to deepen understanding. Links are made where appropriate with English grammar. Key vocabulary and new phrases are further embedded through short repetitive bursts following each lesson. Teachers primarily use oracy strategies, such as talk groups, group roles, etc. to develop pupils' understanding and conversation skills.

Curriculum Design
Children complete a two-year rolling curriculum, which allows them to revisit topics and deepen knowledge and language as they progress. They follow carefully planned, well-sequenced lessons that progressively build conversational language skills and intercultural understanding over time. They provide regular opportunities for pupils to revisit prior knowledge so that they can practise and retain learning over time.

Impact | How do we assess the impact of what we teach via pupil outcomes?

Our languages curriculum ensures that children develop their knowledge of where different languages, including the range of home languages spoken by the families of our school, are spoken in the world. Varied learning experiences ensure that languages are celebrated throughout the school community whilst providing a context for language learning and developing the children’s understanding of and curiosity about different cultures. 

At Knowle, we teach language that builds on vocabulary and grammar taught in the past year. This ensures that children revisit and reuse language, continually building on and securing skills. iLanguages resources are sometimes used to support this, ensuring children hear native language speakers and build up their stamina for language acquisition.

The four core skills:

READING
Children are able to:

• 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.

WRITING
Children are able to:

• write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly.

• describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
• understand basic grammar and understand how this differs from or is similar to English (or their own language).

SPOKEN LANGUAGE
Children are able to:

• 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.

LISTENING
Children are able to:

• Listen attentively to spoken language 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

French in EYFS
French is interwoven across many strands of the EYFS curriculum, including communication and language, understanding of the world and personal, social and emotional development. We encourage children to develop their enquiry skills when thinking about other languages, lifestyles and cultures. At Knowle, this is done in many ways, such as sharing multicultural stories and using maps and atlases.