MFL

What does our MFL curriculum look like?

At Lakenham, we want to increase our children’s knowledge of other languages and their confidence in communicating with others who speak a different language. We are a multicultural school, home to around 47 languages spoken by approximately 35% of children who have English as a second language. As such, it is important that our children are given opportunities to explore these.

Our MFL lessons focus mainly on French, however children are also exposed to other languages, not just within discrete lessons but also through their peers, other curriculum subjects and enquiry work. 

Children will learn how to communicate with each other in French, building from words and phrases to sentences and conversations, which include facts and opinions. They will practise and experiment with language through songs, rhymes and games. As their confidence grows, they will show what they have learned through simple conversations, role-plays and short performances with improved pronunciation and intonation. They will then learn how to read and write words and phrases in the language, before progressing to a series of sentences and then longer passages, using a bi-lingual dictionary to find new vocabulary and applying their knowledge of grammatical structures.

Our topics in MFL are mapped out to ensure progression of vocabulary and give them plenty of opportunities to build upon their grammatical knowledge. They will also be encouraged to make links with English and other known languages. Within these topics, they will be able to talk about themselves and the world they live in. 

By the end of their time at Lakenham, we want our children to be able to communicate with other people in French and be confident in exploring the languages and diversities of our community.

Whole school celebrations and events

In March, the school took part in Languages Day. All year groups paired up so that the children could learn two different languages during the day. 

Across the school, we looked at the following languages: French, Spanish, Malagasy, Turkish, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese.

During the day, we played games to learn key phrases and then took part in other activities to practise the language further. These included mask designing, art and writing their name in Japanese lettering. Some children particularly enjoyed being experts for their class, teaching their friends words and phrases they know from home. They even helped the teachers with their pronunciation!

What do we teach in MFL?

Click on the image below to see the journey of MFL at Lakenham. 

Languages Day