Intent:

At Grand Avenue Primary and Nursery School, our vision is that children will develop their language learning skills and will become all-round global citizens.  We celebrate all languages and openly promote the importance of maintaining and further developing other languages that may be spoken at home. French, Spanish and an introduction to Latin are taught at Key Stage 2 in order to prepare our children for a rapidly changing world.  Learning a foreign language prepares our children for life in modern Britain, in which work and activities increasingly involve using languages other than English. In addition, we aim that through learning French and Spanish, our pupils will develop an awareness of cultural differences and a tolerance of diversity within society and be open-minded and adventurous in all aspects of their learning. More than this, it is about young people exploring the relationship between language and identity, about developing an international outlook and growing into an enhanced understanding of the world and their place within it.

Implementation:

At Grand Avenue, we follow a scheme of work called ‘Language Angels’. All classes have access to a very high-quality foreign languages curriculum using the Language Angels scheme of work and resources. This progressively develops pupil skills in foreign languages through regularly taught weekly lessons in KS2. Children also progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge organised around age-appropriate topics and themes.

In Language learning, pupils develop and demonstrate substantial progress in the five key language skills necessary for learning French and Spanish: Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing and Grammar. 

We aim to ensure that pupils of all abilities develop solid foundations in these key language learning skills, properly preparing them for the next stage of their language learning journey. These skills will develop children’s ability to understand what they hear and read and enable them to express themselves in speech and writing. We will extend their knowledge of how language works and explore the similarities and differences between the foreign language they are learning and English. We will also help strengthen their sense of identity through learning about culture in other countries and comparing it with their own.

Impact:

By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils should be able to:

• Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding.
• Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words.
• Engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help.
• Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures.
• Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases.
• Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences.
• Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing.
• Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language.
• Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary.
• Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly.
• Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing.