Modern Foreign Languages

“With languages, you are at home anywhere.”

Edmund de Waal

INTENT:

The intent of the MFL Curriculum at Cotham Gardens is that our students will gain:

Communication skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing to express their ideas and thoughts in another language with an emphasis on speaking and listening skills.
Knowledge in how languages work to lay the foundations for successful language learning in future.
A new and broader perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand and respect their own cultures and those of others and become confident individuals.
Understanding of cultures and ethnicities different to their own from the rich heritage of our area, city and the wider world.

Class teachers teach French in KS2 in weekly lessons.
At our school we use Rising Stars for our French curriculum and Mantralingua to expose children to other languages and adapt these to suit the needs of our children. The school started implementing this scheme of work in September 2019 and by 2021 -2022 the pupils will be following the full programme which build upon the teaching from the previous year. As we acknowledge children’s different learning styles, our children learn through creative ways including repetition, games and songs to extend, embed and combine language skills.
In KS1, children are introduced to the language through simple greetings during registration and vocabulary of some items around their classroom. The children in reception get to experience French through some of their role play equipment which incorporates items from France.
Being an inner city school in an ethnically diverse and multi-cultural city, we have a rich variety of languages and cultures to draw from. We celebrate a different language every month. We celebrate an international Week and a Day of Languages where we encourage as many different staff, parents and visitors to come in and help children learn some of their language. Languages children have experienced include Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Spanish, Polish, Somali amongst many others.
We also have a yearly language event such as a play or workshop for UK2 to celebrate language learning.

Our MFL curriculum enhances our ability to celebrate other languages around the school so all children feel comfortable and competent in approaching learning an unfamiliar language.
Our MFL curriculum will ensure all pupils develop key language learning skills, as set out by the national curriculum, as well as a love of languages and learning about other cultures.
The impact of teaching is regularly monitored through scrutiny of pupil’s work and conferencing.
At the end of their time at Cotham Gardens, our hope is that all children have a passion and foundation of language learning so they are ready to engage with MFL at Secondary level.