VISION

Our aim for Languages is to ignite and inspire a passion for learning languages and exploring other cultures, and that all children develop the skills and confidence to consider themselves as ‘World Citizens’ who belong in a multicultural, mutually respectful world.

INTENTION

The intention of the Languages curriculum (French KS2) (Spanish KS1) at St Joseph’s Catholic Academy is that children are taught to develop an interest in learning other languages in a way that is enjoyable and stimulating. We encourage children’s confidence and creative skills. We strive to stimulate and encourage children’s curiosity about language. We help children develop their awareness of cultural differences in other countries. We strive to embed the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing necessary to enable children to use and apply their language learning in a variety of contexts and lay the foundations for future language learning.

IMPLEMENTATION

Our Languages curriculum is designed to progressively develop children’s skills in languages through weekly taught lessons lasting one hour by our in-house specialist language teacher using the Primary Languages Network VLE. Children progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary organised around topics as well as grammatical structures to ensure that they achieve the required progression by the end of Year 6. Children are encouraged and supported to develop their listening and speaking skills through conversational work, singing activities and games. As confidence and skills grows, children record their work through pictures, captions, sentences and paragraphs.  There is also a Languages display board in school so that the children can illustrate their language learning. We also recently celebrated the European Day of Languages in KS1 and KS2 with two assemblies, lots of different activities including how to say ’hello’ in several European languages and class studies on different European countries. 

IMPACT

The learning challenges used to plan and teach Languages, ensure that children are accessing work at age-related expectations with regular opportunities to be challenged through higher-level objectives. Children are assessed according to age-related expectations in line with curriculum requirements. The Primary Languages Network scheme ensures that children cover the requirements of the KS2 Languages curriculum and includes assessments and a tracking tool which are recorded by the in-house Languages specialist/lead.  

Useful Languages websites

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zdmtsbk

www.duolingo.com