Curriculum Intent - Modern Foreign LanguagesThrough the teaching of French at Corbridge Middle School, we aim to engender a love of learning a language and to equip our pupils with the skills, knowledge and understanding to underpin future studies. We seek to challenge and inspire, nuture a linguistic curiosity and increase our pupils’ cultural capital. Our purpose is to enable pupils to communicate in written and spoken form with increasing confidence, fluency, accuracy and spontaneity. We seek to deepen their understanding of the world and their place within it so that they are more open and adaptable to new experiences. As a school in a predominantly monocultural community, it is crucial that our pupils are exposed to another language and culture and encouraged to appreciate that the way in which they see the world is just one of many possible ways.
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Teaching develops the breadth and depth of pupils’ competence in listening, speaking, reading and writing based on a sound foundation of core grammar and vocabulary. We adapt our curriculum to include pupils of all abilities, and activities are tailored to support and extend so that all pupils can realise their potential.Topics are chosen to reflect pupils’ interest, as well as providing them with the requirements needed for the next stage in their learning. The department endeavours to make learning languages fun and meaningful, providing students with opportunities for both collaboration and independent work in each lesson. Games, quizzes and competitions keep motivation high in lessons and a range of strategies, such as group talk, think-pair-share, role plays etc. are employed to create a classroom culture where learning from others is valued.
The KS2 curriculum is designed to build on prior knowledge of vocabulary and key phrases. As well as the practice of core vocabulary, the curriculum focuses on key grammatical structures and introduces pupils to the concept of gender, word order, adjectival agreement and high frequency verbs. Emphasis is on equipping students with the linguistic skills to unpick and decode unfamiliar language. Pupils will also develop transferable skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as a growing appreciation and knowledge of another culture.
At KS3 there is a greater focus on grammar and sentence structure and pupils will write at varying lengths for a variety of purpose and audience. As they develop competency, they will be able to manipulate language for their own purposes, encouraging independent , enquiring linguists. Pupils will learn different tenses and will be introduced to the skills required at GCSE such as translation into French and English. Pupils are taught to express opinions, offer justifications and obtain information with increasing independence and accuracy. We emphasise that mistakes are part of the learning journey, and work on building our pupils’ resilience by encouraging them to take risks. Opportunities for reflection are built in at regular intervals, and the curriculum is designed to build pupils’ independence. Use of the target language ensures that pupils are hearing authentic language each time they are in the MFL classroom with the aim of helping pupils use French more independently with increased confidence and with a wider vocabulary. We are passionate about the joy and value language learning can bring to our pupils.
The KS2 curriculum is designed to build on prior knowledge of vocabulary and key phrases. As well as the practice of core vocabulary, the curriculum focuses on key grammatical structures and introduces pupils to the concept of gender, word order, adjectival agreement and high frequency verbs. Emphasis is on equipping students with the linguistic skills to unpick and decode unfamiliar language. Pupils will also develop transferable skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as a growing appreciation and knowledge of another culture.
At KS3 there is a greater focus on grammar and sentence structure and pupils will write at varying lengths for a variety of purpose and audience. As they develop competency, they will be able to manipulate language for their own purposes, encouraging independent , enquiring linguists. Pupils will learn different tenses and will be introduced to the skills required at GCSE such as translation into French and English. Pupils are taught to express opinions, offer justifications and obtain information with increasing independence and accuracy. We emphasise that mistakes are part of the learning journey, and work on building our pupils’ resilience by encouraging them to take risks. Opportunities for reflection are built in at regular intervals, and the curriculum is designed to build pupils’ independence. Use of the target language ensures that pupils are hearing authentic language each time they are in the MFL classroom with the aim of helping pupils use French more independently with increased confidence and with a wider vocabulary. We are passionate about the joy and value language learning can bring to our pupils.
