Primary Languages
Our primary languages curriculum is enquiry based, fully inclusive and meets the needs of all learners, starting from building strong foundations in our EYFS, supporting and challenging them on their journey to being secondary ready, and ultimately ensuring that they are equipped with the cultural capital, skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the future.
Meet our Primary Languages Coordinator
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Mrs S Rumsay
Mrs S Rumsay
Primary Languages Intent
At Horizon Academy Trust our vision for primary languages is to prepare our pupils for a future within the global society. We aim to open their eyes and minds to the wider-world, developing their multi-cultural awareness and linguistic skills, whilst broadening their horizons and understanding of language. We achieve this by taking our pupils through a sequenced journey of linguistic development and enabling them to experience cultures outside of their own.
We believe that a broad and balanced primary languages education is the entitlement of all pupils, regardless of ethnic origin, gender, class, aptitude or disability. It is our vision that all pupils during their journey will display the essential characteristics of linguistics:
- The confidence to speak with good intonation and pronunciation
- The ability to read and comprehend the main points of a short text
- The ability to convey meaning through writing
- Competence in listening
- A strong awareness of the culture of the countries where the language is spoken
- A passion for languages and a commitment for the subject
- The ability to use language creatively and spontaneously
- The ability to manipulate grammar, spelling and punctuation
- An independence in their studies and the ability to draw upon a wide range of resources.
Language knowledge and skills are progressive and are sequenced to provide the framework and approaches that provide a successful journey for all learners at Horizon.
Primary Languages National Curriculum Aims
In line with the Primary Languages Programme of Study KS2 the school aims to ensure that all pupils can:
- Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding.
- Engage in conversations and speak in sentences; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help
- Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases
- Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
- Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly using a dictionary to select appropriate vocabulary
- Understand basic grammar and linguistic structures
- Appreciate a variety of songs, stories and cultural traditions/celebrations.
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For more information regarding the National Curriculum for Primary Languages, please click here.
French Club
A popular lunchtime club runs for children in Ks2. Children come together to play traditional games and activities in French. Children also have access to Language Angels where they can practise their reading and listening skills with the support of a teacher and a teaching assistant.
Primary Languages Implementation
The teaching of languages at Horizon Academy Trust is carefully designed, planned and implemented to ensure that all pupils are challenged to fulfil their potential. Primary languages lessons are rich in resources, vocabulary, questioning and content enabling them to develop mastery of the aims of the National Curriculum.
Teachers have identified the key knowledge and skills of each topic and these are mapped across the school, ensuring that knowledge builds progressively and that children develop skills systematically. Existing knowledge is checked and reviewed at the beginning of each unit. This ensures that teaching is informed by the children’s starting points and that it takes account of pupil voice, incorporating children’s interests. Phonics is given high priority and is taught, recapped and revisited at the start of each unit.
Tasks are selected and designed to provide appropriate challenge to all learners, in line with each school’s commitment to inclusion. At the end of each topic, key knowledge is reviewed by the children and rigorously checked by the teacher and consolidated as necessary.
Cross curricular outcomes in languages are specifically planned for and these are indicated on the knowledge organiser for each unit of work.
Although there are no National Curriculum expectations for languages in KS1 and the Early Years, Horizon have decided that children should be given a gradual introduction to languages during their first years of schooling. In EYFS children may listen to and learn songs, stories and games. Teachers will decide when and what is appropriate based on topics and themes. KS1 will continue this approach and ensure they have covered the non- negotiables identified in the curriculum journey before children enter KS2. This may be covered in a variety of ways including topic links, celebration days, festivals and world events.
Rationale for Sequencing of Knowledge and Skills
The languages curriculum at Horizon is sequenced so that children develop knowledge and skills across the key language learning skills; listening, speaking, grammar, reading and writing. This will enable pupils to use and apply their learning in a variety of contexts, laying down solid foundations for future language learning and also helping the children improve overall attainment in other subject areas. In addition, the children will be taught how to look up and research language they are unsure of and they will have a bank of reference materials to help them with their spoken and written tasks going forward. This bank of reference materials will develop into a reference library to help pupils recall and build on previous knowledge throughout their primary school language learning journey.
The teaching of phonics underpins the teaching of foreign languages. Just as learning to read in English, using phonics to crack the code of a new language empowers children, and increases their enjoyment.
Units taught are progressive and increase in level of challenge, stretch and linguistic and grammatical complexity as pupils move through their language journey. Units in each subsequent level require more knowledge and application of skills than the previous teaching type. Activities contain progressively more text and lessons will have more content as the children become more confident and ambitious with the foreign language they are learning.
Pupils will continuously build on their previous knowledge as they progress in their foreign language learning journey through the primary phase. Previous language will be recycled, revised, recalled and consolidated whenever possible and appropriate.
