‘If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.  If you talk to him in his own language that goes to his heart.’

Nelson Mandela

A modern foreign language is taught through Key Stage 2 to enable children to become passionate, curious and confident about their ability to learn another language by the time they finish their primary education.  We want our children to be able to communicate with others, including people from outside the UK and to discover more about other cultures and peoples, including the context in which a modern foreign language is rooted.

From September 2022, our Year 3 and 4 children will continue to learn Spanish as a language.  This was chosen as it is a widely spoken global language, Spain is a popular holiday destination for many of our pupils and Spanish is mostly a phonetic language which supports pronunciation and spelling for new language learners.  Year 5 and 6 children will begin to learn French.  By studying two languages we will help to lay the foundations for further foreign language teaching in Key Stage 3.

Key concepts: Languages are taught progressively through the 3 pillars of:

• Phonics (the system of the sounds of a language and how these are represented in written words)
• Vocabulary (building a body of useful words for different contexts and situations to enable communication and understanding)
• Grammar (including syntax and inflectional and/or derivational features i.e. the systems for changing the form of a word and for creating new words respectively)

For most pupils, they will be beginners when learning a new language.  Their main tasks will therefore be to:

• Learn the sounds, vocabulary and grammar of the language
• Understand and produce these then they are combined

To develop these key areas, the curriculum has been structured progressively for each of the following aspects:

• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading
• Writing
• Grammar

Each unit of work covers all of these aspects, including the development of phonics and vocabulary.