MFL- German

Curriculum Statement

German 2024- 2025

Intent

At Mount Carmel we strive to stimulate and encourage children’s curiosity about language as we believe that the learning of a language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our pupils.  It helps them to develop communication skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing, with an aim of making substantial progress in one language.  In addition, the children’s knowledge of how language works will be developed to enable them to use and apply their German learning in a variety of contexts and to lay the foundations for further language learning in the future.  Pupils are provided with opportunities to be independent, open minded and curious enquirers, who can reflect on their previous learning and make significant links, where applicable, to the present topic. SEND pupils access the full MFL curriculum, with modifications made in certain cirumstances . More able pupils are encouraged to respond to enquiry questions in greater depth using previous knowledge and skills.

We believe that learning another language gives children a new and broader perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures and those of others, which in turn feeds into the Catholic ethos of our school that each one of us is special and made in the image of God and are part of God’s family, not only here in school and our parish but globally.

Implementation

Through out their time in school children develop both their love of learning languages and their language learning skills.

In KS2 children are taught in sessions of no less than 30 mins every week by a specialist teacher.

We want to enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and writing.

We follow the Primary Languages Network German scheme of work. The focus of study is on practical communication while developing the children’s knowledge of phonology, grammatical structures and vocabulary, while the skills develop as children move through the year groups.

The children learn through active participation in action rhymes, stories, songs, role plays,  grammar focus, video clips, sentence structure, book making and many more creative ways to extend, embed and combine language skills.  We use both authentic target language resources and tailor-made resources.  The children are also exposed to the language taught outside of the classroom with annual visits to the local German Christmas Markets, and cultural activities throughout the year.

Formative assessment occurs in each lesson and informs planning and teaching of subsequent lessons and we use the Primary Languages Network assessment grids to track progress.  Children’s work is also recorded in MFL books which follow them up the school.

Impact

Our German curriculum will ensure all pupils develop key language learning skills, as set out by the National Curriculum, as well as a love of languages and learning about other cultures.  These are as follows:

• To introduce young children to another language in a way that is enjoyable and stimulating.

• To understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.

• To develop listening, speaking, reading and writing skills so that children speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, asking and answering questions and that they can write at varying length for different purposes.

• To encourage children to be aware that language has a structure and that structure differs from one language to another.

• To deep children develop their awareness of cultural difference in other countries.

• To stimulate and encourage children’s curiosity about language.

• To lay the foundations for future language learning.

German subject lead - Miss E Gee