Modern Foreign Languages Curriculum
Curriculum Intent – Content and Structure
The intended outcomes of what we teach:
| Language learning at Wren Academy aims to give students a global outlook on life and celebrate linguistic diversity. Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education fosters pupils’ curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world. The teaching enables 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 also provides opportunities for our students to communicate for practical purposes, to learn new ways of thinking and to read great literature in the original language. Language teaching forms the foundation for learning further languages later on, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries. |
Curriculum Implementation
Curriculum Content and Sequence
Year 7
Autumn | Spring | Summer |
| French Mixed Set: Foundation stage: Introduction to vocabulary (transactional vocabulary / spelling / numbers and age, etc.)
Top Set: School vocab (subjects and timetable) Opiniond and justification Saying what you eat in the canteen | French Mixed Set: Describing myself and others My school (subjects and timetable) Regular ER verbs + avoir Top Set: Hobbies and free time activities Using regular verb Saying what you like to do: J’aime +verb Describing town Talking about holidays Near future and je voudrais Recognising past and present | French Mixed Set: Hobbies and free-time activities Talking about your town plus directions On peut + infinitive Top Set: Past tense : passé composé Paris tourism – Saying what you did in Paris in past tense Cultural Project: Exposé about a Francophone country (revision of key points from the year using future tense, famous sports, activities. |
Year 8
Autumn | Spring | Summer |
| French Television, Internet, Reading / Past tense and Paris tourism | French Relationships, personality, clothes and music. Where I live | French Meals and foods and using three tenses Talents and ambitions. Film study - Les Choristes |
Year 9
Autumn | Spring | Summer |
| French Social networking and going out / healthy lifestyle (using three tenses; direct object pronouns)
Spanish Introductions / Birthdays / School subjects / family / pets / appearance Present tense regular verbs Adjective agreement | French Jobs and employment / holidays (imperfect and future tense)
Spanish Free time activities Talking about your town Near future tense Irregular present tense verbs Op and justifications | French Film study - Bienvenue á Marly Gaumont Mixed set - Cultural project - Research on Francophone countries Top set - Sillks on speaking
Countries Transport Foods and meals Clothing |
Year 10
Autumn | Spring | Summer |
| French New Edexcel GCSE course: Thematic contexts: Media and technology My personal world Studying My future
Spanish NEW GCSE course Edexcel Thematic contexts: Media and technology My personal world Travel and tourism | French Thematic contexts: Lifestyle and well-being Travel and Tourism.
Spanish Thematic contexts: Lifestyle and wellbeing Studying My future | French Travel and Tourism continued Speaking skills and Study case of the show Lupin
Spanish Thematic contexts: to be continued with Studying and My future Speaking skills |
Year 11
Autumn | Spring | Summer |
| French Completing the last year of AQA Specification Theme 3: Current and Future Study, and Employment Finish with – The Environment (Theme 2)
Festivals continued from old Year 10 curriculum Current and future study and employment | French January Full Mock exam Revision of all three Themes March practice of Listening and Reading
Spanish Environment and social issues Exam prep | French GCSE exams
Spanish GCSE exam |
Year 12 (Consortium with Compton School)
Autumn | Spring | Summer |
| French. La famille en voie de changement La cybersociété La musique francophone Le bénévolat
Spanish (for Years 12 and 13) Wren: La igualdad de los sexos (equality of the sexes) La influencia de los idolos (the influence of idols) Compton: Los valores tradicionales y modernos (modern and traditional values) El ciberespacio (cyberspace) | French Le septième art – le cinema Le patrimoine La Haine (Film)
Spanish (for Years 12 and 13) Wren: La identidad regional de España (regional identity of Spain) La convivencia (integration) Compton: El patrimonio cultural (cultural heritage) La inmigración (immigration) | French Skills development and content from Year 13 (after end-of year exam)
Wren: Jóvenes de hoy, ciudadanos de mañana (youth of today, citizens of tomorrow) Los movimientos populares (social movements) Compton: El racismo (racismo) Monarquías y dictaduras (monarchies and dictatorships) |
Year 13 (Consortium with Compton School)
Autumn | Spring | Summer |
| French Un Sac De Billes (Book) La société diverse Les marginalisés IRP
Wren: La igualdad de los sexos (equality of the sexes) La influencia de los idolos (the influence of idols)
Los valores tradicionales y modernos (modern and traditional values) El ciberespacio (cyberspace) A Level Set Texts: Wren: Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) | French Le droit de vote et les ados La politique et l’immigration Les criminels Manifestations IRP
Wren: La identidad regional de España (regional identity of Spain) La convivencia (integration) Compton: El patrimonio cultural (cultural heritage) La inmigración (immigration) A Level Set Texts: Compton: Ochos Appellidos Vascos | French Exam skills and revision
Wren: Jóvenes de hoy, ciudadanos de mañana (youth of today, citizens of tomorrow) Los movimientos populares (social movements) Compton: El racismo (racismo) Monarquías y dictaduras (monarchies and dictatorships)
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The Rationale for the Content and Sequence of what we Teach
Year | Why we Teach this Content and how the Content and Sequence of Topics Benefits our Students |
Year 7 | Introduction to vocabulary about the self, family and free time activities. Syntax and structures to make phrases. Near future is introduced at the end of the year. Familiarising students |
Year 8 | Three tenses by the end of the year. More complexity to opinion making. |
Year 9 | Wider topics, which take into consideration cultural knowledge and brings the curriculum to a natural end of Key Stage 3 (KS3). Year 7-Year 9 forms the basis of linguistic skills for GCSE. |
Year 10 | Start of Key Stage 4 (KS4): Here we start the three broad themes of the GCSE course, via the first five modules (of eight) of the GCSE Pearson course. Thorough preparation for speaking too. |
Year 11 | Modules 6-8 taught in Autumn Term, followed by January full mock exams (all four skills). Spring term used for final themes teaching which is more challenging (marriage, substance abuse, environment themes) and revision. |
Years 12 and 13 | Our A Level course follows the concept of progression in skills and complexity in language development, equipping students with the requisite tools to achieve in their end-of-course examinations (essay writing, summaries, speaking practice, accuracy in written and spoken expression). We also take into consideration smooth running of the consortium, which means distributing topics between our partner school The Compton School and Wren. |
Key Stage 4 (KS4) and Key Stage 5 (KS5) only:
What exam board/syllabus do you teach?
Why have you chosen this syllabus?
In what ways is it suited to your students?
We use the AQA syllabus because it is the most challenging and best preparation for A Level study. This year, there will be new specification for the MFL GCSE and the department have decided to change the exam board to Edexcel, who have a better approach to prepare the students. The listening audio will be played three times instead of twice.
Curriculum Implementation
The subject specific habits and behaviours we develop (or intend to develop) in our students
Subject Specific Habits and Behaviours | How we embed these in our students |
| Reading for gist Listening for key words Using language and phrases in context, rather than translating word for word Develop strategies to translate in context Using vocabulary in new contexts - re-use Memorisation and retrieval of new words - building vocabulary skills | Meta-language and grammatical understanding of syntax Regular low-stakes testing of vocab to support word acquisition Explicit teaching of strategies |
Academy Ethos
Academy Curriculum Intent | How our department’s curriculum content and teaching approaches reflect the whole Academy ethos |
| A Curricular and Pastoral commitment to Micah 6v8: Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God. High Expectations of students’ behaviour for learning, learning progress and respect for our community. A commitment to make learning enjoyable, engaging, relevant and challenging. A commitment to develop knowledge, skills and character. Consistency and fairness in approach and routines. Excellent and developing subject knowledge which inspires confidence in students. Effective collaboration across all parts of the Academy. Highly skilled teaching which deepens understanding and stimulates curiosity. A willingness to embrace research and innovation in order to enhance the learning potential of our students. Recognising and rewarding effective use of learning habits as well as academic achievement. | Learning a language is both high cognitive demand and also means students develop soft skills such as:
Teachers in MFL are highly skilled at getting students to recognise their own place in the world, by noticing both similarities and differences between cultures Our lessons are by nature highly structured (students cannot be expected to be highly independent, as they often lack the linguistic skills to warrant more informal lessons), hence we expect students to follow clear and predictable routines Constant reminders that ‘being stuck’ is normal in languages learning, leading to increased tolerance of difficulty level and higher resilience. This has cross-curricular benefits for our students. |
Implementation
Academy Ethos
Micah 6v8: Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God | ||||
Curriculum Content Opportunities | Curriculum Delivery Opportunities | |||
| Justice | Teaching students to be culturally sensitive. Broaden their horizons. | Learning about Festivals in Francophone and hispanophone contexts, music, film, food, art, history in target language. | ||
| Kindness | Acceptance of cultural differences. Culture of ‘trying your best’ and ‘having a go’. Mistakes are ok - communication is about listening and ‘figuring it out’. | Creating an accepting atmosphere. Talking students through the difficulties of pronunciation. Teachers sharing their own language learning journeys and difficulties they overcame (especially non-native speakers of English). Encouraging risk taking in learning and reminding students that there is learning in ‘getting it wrong’. | ||
| Humility | Understanding of students’ place in the world. | Intrinsic and extrinsic ‘translation’ skills, both linguistic and cultural. | ||
Please click here to access the full MFL curriculum document.