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.
International School Award
We are pleased to have received our re-accreditation of the International School Award for the third time since 2012.
The following email received by the British Council describes our amazing path on our global learning journey:
Dear International coordinator,
Thank you for submitting your International School Award Impact Evaluation form. We are delighted to inform you that it has been approved by our assessors. Congratulations!
Your school is hereby accredited from 1 September 2021 to 31 August 2024. [...]
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 to see that Rift House continues to build and embed a real global learning ethos which is reflected in and informing long-term planning and policy - supported by a range of on-going international activities. An international focus is embedded across the curriculum and in the teaching and learning experience for all. Despite COVID, the partnership with Pakistan is being used as an effective vehicle with which to enable increased awareness of ways of life, cultures and experiences in the world, develop critical thinking skills and to explore wider active global citizenship issues. [...] Good to see that the link with Pakistan has been really successful and enabled virtual meetings and collaboration that has clearly impacted on pupils and that Seesaw virtual learning platform has been used so that both pupils and their families have been involved in researching and learning together about other countries. [...] It is clear to see the impact of this year's international activities have had on both staff, pupils and the wider community and outlines the school's commitment to creating a global learning ethos. I would therefore recommend that this Impact Evaluation be approved." [...]
Congratulations on working so hard to co-ordinate such an impressive range of work as an International coordinator! You are a credit to the school and the wider community.
We hope that the scope of your excellent international activities will continue to develop and benefit the school community; your support, commitment, creativity and innovative international work is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for taking part in the International School Award. Please convey our very best wishes and many congratulations to all staff and pupils both in the UK and overseas who have taken part in the scheme. [...]
We wish you the best as you continue with your international journey.
Kind regards,
The International School Award team
British Council
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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.
German After School Club ~ Year 5 and 6 
This half term Year 5 and 6 children were able to immerse themselves into German language and culture. We have been leanring about greetings, numbers, food, school and Christmas through games, songs and arts and crafts. Children enjoyed having 'Abendbrot' the most, as they could try a traditional German evening meal.
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.'
