Welcome to Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)

Subject Lead: Sarah Smith (Madame Smith)

Bienvenue!

Curriculum Intent

At Marlborough St. Mary’s, our vision is to create an inclusive, happy, and successful school that serves as the heart of our local community. Together, our dedicated families and staff work hand-in-hand to help our children become confident, independent learners who care for themselves, each other, and the world around them. We believe in being brilliant, bold, and kind, and together, we foster a culture of belief, learning, and achievement.

Subject Intent

In Modern Foreign Languages (MFL), we have a set of four core principles:

TALK: We encourage our students to engage in conversations in French, sharing sentence structures and vocabulary both with their peers and the entire class.

READ: Our children are exposed to texts in French that are intentionally more complex and challenging than their spoken and written language. This helps them become familiar with extended language and improve pronunciation through reading aloud.

PRIDE: We want our students to take pride in their French language skills. Their efforts and successes are celebrated both inside and outside the classroom.

MARLBOROUGH: Where relevant, our children are encouraged to discuss their families, school, and local area in French. This not only strengthens their language skills but also enhances their sense of belonging to the community.

Our French curriculum aims to ignite a passion for language learning and provide our students with the confidence to continue building their language skills as they progress to secondary education. We strive to inspire their curiosity about languages and promote an understanding of cultural differences in other countries. Our curriculum focuses on listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, laying a strong foundation for future language learning.

Our MFL curriculum is designed to progressively develop children's language skills. Children build a growing bank of language knowledge organized around different topics. Mrs. Sarah Smith, our MFL specialist, has devised a tailored five-year Scheme of Work to meet the unique needs of primary children. From Year 2 to Year 6, all our students enjoy weekly French lessons. The children's work is regularly shared and celebrated with parents through ClassDojo.

Curriculum Implementation

Our MFL curriculum ensures that students:

1. Listen attentively to spoken language and actively participate in conversations.
2. Engage in meaningful conversations, ask and answer questions, express opinions, and respond to others in French.
3. Speak in sentences using familiar vocabulary, phrases, and basic language structures, with a focus on pronunciation and intonation.
4. Read carefully and understand words, phrases, and simple writing in French.
5. Demonstrate resilience in deciphering unknown words and phrases using prior knowledge and understanding of cognates and semi-cognates.
6. Write phrases from memory and adapt them to create new sentences to express ideas clearly.
7. Describe people, places, things, and actions orally and in writing.
8. Understand basic French grammar, including feminine and masculine forms, conjugation of high-frequency verbs, language features, and patterns.
9. Appreciate French stories, songs, poems, and video clips.
10. Gain insight into the wider French-speaking world.

Impact

Our French curriculum ensures that all pupils develop essential language learning skills as outlined in the national curriculum. Additionally, it fosters a love for languages and an appreciation for different cultures. Each child receives an exercise book from Year 2 through Year 6, allowing them to document their French learning and reflect on their progress. The children's work is celebrated and shared with the entire school community through the French Display Board, creating a vibrant and engaging learning environment for all.