Asquith Primary School- Languages Overview

At Asquith Primary School we believe that learning a second language offers children the chance to really appreciate another country, culture and people and develops their sense of being part of a global community. We believe that the ability to communicate in another language fosters aspiration and confidence and is a life-long skill for education, future employment and leisure in this country and throughout the world. Our curriculum gives children the skills they need to be successful in future language learning, encouraging them to use the skills and knowledge that they have developed in English lessons to be a ‘language detective’.

Our curriculum reflects our whole-school ethos of all children being happy, having a voice and being an active citizen. Our curriculum is underpinned by 5 golden threads:

High aspirations for all, Fostering resilience, Embedding key skills, Respecting diversity and Creating global citizens- with the intent that all our children have the opportunity to grow and succeed as linguistics.

Intent

At Asquith Primary School our vision for primary languages is to prepare our pupils for a future within the global society. We use the Oak Academy scheme to support our teaching and learning. We aim to open their eyes and minds to the wider-world, developing their multi-cultural awareness and linguistic skills, whilst broadening their horizons and understanding of language. We achieve this by taking our pupils through a sequenced journey of linguistic development and enabling them to experience cultures outside of their own.

We believe that a broad and balanced primary languages education is the entitlement of all pupils, regardless of ethnic origin, gender, class, aptitude or disability. It is our vision that all pupils during their journey will display the essential characteristics of linguistics: 

• The confidence to speak with good intonation and pronunciation 

• The ability to read and comprehend the main points of a short text 
• The ability to convey meaning through writing 

• Competence in listening 

• A strong awareness of the culture of the countries where the language is spoken 

• A passion for languages and a commitment for the subject 

• The ability to use language creatively and spontaneously 

• The ability to manipulate grammar, spelling and punctuation 

• An independence in their studies and the ability to draw upon a wide range of resources.

Language knowledge and skills are progressive and are sequenced to provide the framework and approaches that provide the opportunity for success.

Implementation

The teaching of languages at Asquith Primary is carefully designed, planned and implemented to ensure that pupils are challenged to fulfil their potential. Primary languages lessons are rich in resources, vocabulary, questioning and content enabling them to develop mastery of the aims of the National Curriculum. 

We aim to:

• Check existing knowledge is checked and reviewed at the beginning of each unit. This ensures that teaching is informed by the children’s starting points and that it takes account of pupil voice, incorporating children’s interests. Phonics is given high priority and is taught, recapped and revisited at the start of each unit.
•  Ensure Tasks are selected and designed to provide appropriate challenge to all learners, in line with each school’s commitment to inclusion. At the end of each topic, key knowledge is reviewed by the children and rigorously checked by the teacher and consolidated as necessary.
•  Although there are no National Curriculum expectations for languages in KS1 and the Early Years, we have decided that children should be given a gradual introduction to languages during their first years of schooling. In EYFS children may listen to and learn songs, stories and games. Teachers will decide when and what is appropriate based on topics and themes. KS1 will continue this approach and ensure they have covered the non- negotiables identified in the curriculum journey before children enter KS2. This may be covered in a variety of ways including topic links, celebration days, festivals and world events.

Impact

Our MFL curriculum will ensure all children develop key language learning skills set out by the national curriculum, as well as a love of languages and learning about other cultures. By the end of year six, our children understand and respond to spoken and written language. They 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. They can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learned.