Intent:
As the National Curriculum states: “A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.”
At Heaton Park Primary School, we believe that learning a foreign language not only provides our pupils with a quality educational experience, but also a vital cultural experience. The importance of learning another language can be invaluable and supports children in making sense of life experiences and the world around them. We understand that the teaching of a foreign language can open doors for our pupils and can provide them with many future opportunities.
Implementation:
Children are exposed to a variety of different cultures and languages at Heaton Park Primary School from the very first moment that they start. We are extremely lucky to have such a diverse school community, which is very much celebrated and valued.
Explicit teaching of a foreign language begins in Year 3 at the start of Key Stage 2. French lessons are taught for around 30 minutes each week, throughout their Primary School life. Introducing French at this age allows children to develop their language skills early, and to embed basic knowledge needed to support their ongoing and future learning.
At Heaton Park, we use the KS2 French Scheme of Work from CGP’s programme Sault!
This provides an enriching French Curriculum that supports pupils in all aspects of speaking, listening, reading and writing. Salut! delivers engaging lessons with all long term and medium term plans already curated to a high standard. It offers modelled language of all vocabulary to support non-French speaking staff and ensures that children are hearing accurate French pronunciation. This scheme also incorporates a range of fun interactive games to support the learning of French in each lesson, which are highly regarded by our pupils. There are always ample opportunities for speaking and listening; a necessity at this age to develop fluency and understanding. This learning is then supported by short bursts of reading and writing activities after the input. Furthermore, Salut! provides extra resources which can be referred to in lesson plans, or taught individually. These include classroom language, phonics and grammar.
Impact:
Our French curriculum supports and deepens children’s understanding of the world around them and allows them to explore other cultures outside of their own. It can foster children’s natural curiosity, excitement and develop positive attitudes to learning a language throughout life.
At Heaton Park, we work closely with our biggest feeder high school to ensure that our Key Stage 2 curriculum ensures clear progress to Key Stage 3. As a result, our pupils enter high school equipped with basic knowledge and a good foundation to build on. Feedback from our children highlighted how our engaging and entertaining scheme of work fosters a love of language learning and the passion to learn others.
