Languages at St. Mary’s 2022/2023
Intent Statement
Through the study of languages, St Mary’s children will develop tolerance and respect of other people and cultures and be able to communicate in another language. They will make links with their own mother tongue and additional languages.
Rationale and our learning sequence
The National Curriculum for England states the following:
“Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.”
At St. Mary’s we have developed our Language Curriculum and our core language is French. Our school community is richly diverse and our pupils speak many different languages at home. In school their learning of languages formally starts in year 3 but some taster sessions are delivered in the summer term of year 2 to support transition to Key Stage 2. Through our curriculum we aim to ensure that our pupils are equipped with the following skills:
- Developing increasing confidence and fluency in their communication in French including both spoken and written communication
- Can ask and respond to some basic questions in French and be able to translate some of these.
This learning is delivered by a specialist teacher and supports cultural diversity. Our languages curriculum overview tracks the sequence of learning for our children and seeks to build on prior learning at all stages of the learning journey so that children are able to refer to prior learning experiences when accessing new learning and deepening skills over time.