Rift House Primary School
Languages
EYFS/KS1
There are no NC expectations for Languages in Early Years and KS1. However, we recognise that children absorb language from an early age, whilst they are still developing language skills in their mother tongue. As a result, in EYFS and KS1, we aim to expose children to different languages through songs, stories and games – learning to love the language. They may also learn some greetings or simple phrases and develop some intercultural awareness as part of focused teaching, continuous provision or collapsed curriculum days.
KS2
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. Therefore, at Rift House, we share the government’s commitment to increasing the nation’s language capability, and a vision of languages as “a life-long skill – to be used in business and for pleasure, to open up avenues of communication and exploration, and to promote, encourage and instill a broader cultural understanding.
Aims
The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:
- understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
- speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation
- can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
- discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.
Curriculum Summary
In the Early Years starting from our 2 year old provision through to reception, staff make use of the non-statutory guidance Birth to Five matters whilst ensuring the statutory framework for the EYFS is met. Reception children are assessed against the appropriate early learning goals for understanding the world and communication and language to contribute to them reaching a good level of development. We acknowledge that before children can master skills in a different language, they need to secure these skills in their mother tongue. Therefore we expose children to similar content in their own language. Children can then rely on previous knowledge and apply learnt skills to learning a new language. We start exposing children to different languages from early on and broaden their understanding of the wider world and other cultures.
At Rift House, French is generally delivered with manageable and streamlined focused content in one block afternoon, followed by weekly timetabled practice in KS2, using our own bespoke French curriculum in addition to other resources. Furthermore, teachers should seek opportunities during the week to enable children to use their newly acquired language skills. The curriculum offers opportunities throughout the day, planned or incidental, to reinforce language work, for example carrying out class routines.
The school makes use of streamlined progression and curriculum content mapping to secure strong foundations in French and is carefully planned around logical pupil progression in the ‘3 pillars’ of language: phonics, vocabulary, grammar – and the interplay between them. For each lesson unit teachers use specifically designed curriculum documents that are clear, concise and only contain all relevant information needed in an easy to access format. The documents are closely matched to the Key Stage 2 NC, both in its selection of teaching and learning activities, and in its promotion of language learning strategies and development of knowledge about how the language works, with phonics, vocabulary and grammar having an integral part in this. Its clear and concise structure serves the dual purpose of making French accessible and exciting to pupils, and of providing the classroom teacher with a versatile route to teach French in a flexible, but focused and memorable way.
Teachers create memorable moments for children and document the sessions in ‘learning journeys’ that children can access regularly to recap learning and support them in knowing how their prior learning helped them to access new learning. This will support the children in remembering more.
Long Term Overview
Progression in French
International School Award
We are thrilled to have received the British Council's prestigious International School Award for the fourht time since 2012, recognising our efforts to bring a global perspective into the classroom.
Children have thoroughly engaged and enjoyed working towards this award. As a school, we will continue to embrace global learning.
This year marks the award's 25th anniversary, celebrating schools that excel in global education. By integrating an international dimension into the curriculum, the British Council helps young people develop the cultural awareness and skills essential for life and work in a connected world. We visited Westminster for the award ceremony, where our local MP and representatives from schools around the UK celebrated our achievement alongside us.
The following email received by the British Council describes our amazing path on our global learning journey:
Dear International Coordinator,
Congratulations on your school's accreditation or reaccreditation with the International School Award 2024 – 2027.
This accomplishment reflects your entire school's dedication to integrating a diverse and imaginative array of international initiatives. Your remarkable achievement in the International School Award deserves widespread recognition and celebration. (…)
Here are the assessor’s comments on your Impact Evaluation, to highlight where your application was particularly impressive and points to take note of as you continue to develop the international dimension in your school:
It is clear that internationalism has become part of the ethos of your school, that many activities take place during the year, and that your work is having a lasting impact. (…)
Your pupils’ knowledge of the world has increased over the course of your international work and you have nurtured well-rounded individuals who appreciate diversity, communicate effectively, and actively contribute to a better world. (…)
We have no doubt that the Reaccreditation has been earned; we wish you well with your international journey.
Best regards,
The International School Award Team
British Council
Miss Baxter (Deputy Head), Mrs Yalman (Teacher/ International Coordinator) and Jonathan Brash MP at the awards ceremony in Westminster.
Walk around school
Please enjoy looking at all the exciting things that happened at Rift House in the recent months below.
Learning journeys
As mentioned earlier, teachers create memorable moments for children and document the sessions in ‘learning journeys’ that children can access regularly to recap learning and support them in knowing how their prior learning helped them to access new learning. Here are some amazing examples from this year's learning so far.
Speaking French in classrooms
Our children are so confident in using a foreign language.
They develop their language speaking skills through a variety of games, songs and stories.
Year 3 have been learning "numbers 1-10". They learnt number songs and how to ask each other how old they are. They made birthday cards and wrote "Bon anniversaire".
After talking about birthday celebrations, this of course led to a big birthday party.
Year 4 have been learning about "Family and Friends". They played matching games and learnt how to introduce their family members.
European Day of Languages
This year we celebrated the European Day of Languages and explored the following countries: Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Poland, Sweden ,The Netherlands and Greece.
We focused on learning food vocabulary and tried different types of food.
Year 2 have been learning French food vocabulary and had a little food taster session for European Day of Languages. They really like "le chocolat" as you will hear in the video.
What do children say about French?
A Year 3 child said 'I like learning a different language.' Another added 'Learning French songs is fun'.
'I like to learn a different language but the pronunciation is so tricky sometimes, but our teacher helps us with it' noted a Year 4 child.
A Year 5 child explained 'It is fun to learn a new language. If you go on holiday to France, you can speak to French people.' To this statement a Year 6 child commented 'Or if you want to become a French teacher, you need to be able to speak French.'
