Intent

MFL serves a cultural and linguistic purpose in that it exposes students to foreign language and culture, therefore promoting global citizenship. Students joining SBS have had varied experiences of languages at primary school. Our curriculum seeks to build on prior learning at KS2 by reinforcing vocabulary, basic grammar and transactional language. The KS3 curriculum allows students to explore diverse topics and more complex grammar, allowing them to express themselves in a foreign language. The curriculum sequences knowledge and skills, builds on prior learning and enables students to widen their understanding, knowledge and use of a variety of language competencies. It also serves to enrich students’ use of their mother tongue through comparison of the language and culture of another country. The curriculum promotes skills transferable to a wide range of careers.

 

Curriculum sequence

Year 7:

	Term 1	Term 2	Term 3	Term 4	Term 5	Term 6
Year 7 French	Introduction to the language; introducing yourself	Family and pets	School	Hobbies and Free time	Town and Local Area	Holiday Plans
Year 7 Mandarin	My family	Pets	Descriptive Language	Hobbies	Writing and speaking skills	Food
Year 7 Spanish	Introduction to the language; introducing yourself	Family, Animals, Superheroes	Sports and Free time activities	School	Home and and Local Area	Holidays (Present tense)

Year 8:

	Term 1	Term 2	Term 3	Term 4	Term 5	Term 6
Year 8 French	Illness and Healthy Living	The Internet, Books, Films and Television	Food and Mealtimes	“Mon Identité” – clothes and talking about the weekend	Holidays	Les Choristes
Year 8 Mandarin	School	Holidays	All about me	Where you live	Writing and Speaking Skills	Shopping
Year 8 Spanish	Food	Healthy living and Hobbies/Activities	Technology	Films/TV	Shopping and clothes	Holidays (Past, Present and Future)

Developing Skills

Over the course of the KS3 curriculum students are afforded the opportunity to develop their linguistic competence.  Students are provided with listening and reading strategies, and the length and complexity of tasks increase as does the range of materials used. Students develop their verbal and written skills by expressing their opinions and ideas with increasing complexity and accuracy. The modules in the MFL curriculum are carefully chosen to introduce and build upon core grammatical concepts. Knowledge of these core concepts is interleaved throughout the curriculum to improve recall and long term memory so that students can apply them to new contexts.

 

National curriculum links

Our curriculum matches the breadth and ambition of the KS3 National Curriculum. It offers students the opportunity to experience learning through different contexts, enabling them to develop better cultural capital, literacy and understanding. Prior linguistic and grammatical knowledge is revisited and applied to new contexts and topics.

 

Meeting the needs of SEND and Pupil Premium students 

In line with whole-school priorities, MFL teachers place SEND and Pupil Premium students at the centre of our lesson planning.  Key to ensuring this is high quality teaching: we direct questions to Pupil Premium students, check their understanding regularly and frequently provide verbal feedback. Alongside this, students receive written feedback using the CAR feedback system. Students are given opportunities, in lesson time, to act on their feedback.

Ensuring SEND and Pupil Premium students can access our MFL curriculum is extremely important to us and these inclusive strategies, which benefit all students, are particularly supportive for vulnerable learners:

• Vocabulary lists are provided for each module, providing students with support from lesson to lesson.
• Sentence builders / grids are used to provide support beyond single word level.
• Regular opportunities for retrieval.Students regularly retrieve knowledge from previous lessons, the beginning of the module and previous modules
• Students are given strategies for decoding language when listening and reading. They are taught how to revise vocabulary.

Retention 

Our curriculum is taught to be remembered.  Retrieval practice is embedded into lessons, students complete starters incorporating retrieval tasks and quizzing of vocabulary.  Throughout Key stage 3 students are supported with revision skills. 

Homework

In MFL homework is set at least once a week and should take 30 min to complete. Typical homework tasks will include: rote learning of vocabulary and grammar, vocabulary revision and practice using online websites, written pieces, creative tasks, grammar exercises and reading a text and answering questions.

 

Assessment 

Students are assessed at the end of every module and undertake an end of year exam. The end of module assessments cover one or two of the skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translation. Over the course of a year students will therefore have been assessed in all skills. 

Assessments will cover the topic content of the module to give students the opportunity to retrieve and apply key knowledge from the module they have been learning. However, they grow in complexity with regards grammatical and linguistic structures. The structure of the assessments allows every student to access them and to experience success.

End of module assessments will be given a numerical mark and a percentage. Feedback is given using CAR marking stickers or via CAR feedback sheets which are currently being trialled. Students will be given time to reflect on their progress and set themselves 1 - 2 targets. Teachers will then give some guidance as to how these targets can be achieved.

Students also undertake low stakes testing of vocabulary and grammar throughout each module.

According to the British Chamber of Commerce applied foreign language skills are on a par with literacy, numeracy and ICT skills in terms of desirability. Studying a modern foreign language will give you the opportunity to:

• Learn more about how that language works
• Gain a greater understanding of the culture and country
• Develop your key skills of communication, analysis, problem solving and empathy
• Add an international dimension to your choice of GCSEs, something which higher education institutes and employers look on favourably

Course outline

The course is divided into the 4 key skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, each of which is worth 25% of the final grade and is examined in at the end of Year 11.

 

You will build on themes and language, grammar and skills that you have started in Key Stage 3 as well as learning new topics and grammar. Topics will include:

• Family, friends and relationships
• Free time and sport
• Social media and technology
• Customs and festivals
• Social Issues
• The environment
• Travel and tourism
• Education, careers and future plans
• Healthy lifestyles

  

   

 

 

 

 

Assessment and Progression

Examination Board:  

AQA

 

Grading system:

1-9 (9 is highest)

 

Tiers of entry:

Foundation (grades 1 – 5)

Higher (grades 4 – 9)

 

Assessment:

4 final examinations

 

Paper 1 – Listening

Foundation – 35 minutes

Higher – 45 minutes

 

Paper 2 – Speaking

Foundation –7 – 9 minutes

Higher – 10 - 12 minutes

 

Paper 3 – Reading

Foundation – 45 minutes

Higher – 60 minutes

 

Paper 4 - Writing

Foundation – 60 minutes

Higher – 75 minutes

 

No reference material is allowed.

 

Progression to Post-16:

A-Level French.

 

 

Contact:

Ms Ghani Head of MFL

sghani@st-birinus.oxon.sch.uk

 

 

 

According to the British Chamber of Commerce applied foreign language skills are on a par with literacy, numeracy and ICT skills in terms of desirability. Studying a modern foreign language will give you the opportunity to:

• Learn more about how that language works
• Gain a greater understanding of the culture and country
• Develop your key skills of communication, analysis, problem solving and empathy
• Add an international dimension to your choice of GCSEs, something which higher education institutes and employers look on favourably

Course outline

The course is divided into the 4 key skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, each of which is worth 25% of the final grade and is examined in at the end of Year 11.

 

You will build on themes and language, grammar and skills that you have started in Key Stage 3 as well as learning new topics and grammar. Topics will include:

• Family, friends and relationships
• Free time and sport
• Social media and technology
• Customs and festivals
• Social Issues
• The environment
• Travel and tourism
• Education, careers and future plans
• Healthy lifestyles

   

  

 

 

 

 

Assessment and Progression

Examination Board:  

AQA

 

Grading system:

1-9 (9 is highest)

 

Tiers of entry:

Foundation (grades 1 – 5)

Higher (grades 4 – 9)

 

Assessment:

4 final examinations

 

Paper 1 – Listening

Foundation - 35 minutes

Higher – 45 minutes

 

Paper 2 – Speaking

Foundation – 7 – 9 minutes

Higher – 10 – 12 minutes

 

Paper 3 – Reading

Foundation – 45 minutes

Higher – 60 minutes

 

Paper 4 - Writing

Foundation – 60 minutes

Higher -75  minutes

 

No reference material is allowed.

 

Progression to Post-16:

A-Level Spanish.

 

 

Contact:

Ms Ghani Head of MFL

sghani@st-birinus.oxon.sch.uk

 

We are delighted to offer students at St Birinus School the opportunity to study Mandarin Chinese through the Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP). Students enrol on the Programme in Year 7, selecting Mandarin as their foreign language of choice for Years 7 and 8. Many students then opt to continue their studies of Mandarin into KS4 and sit a GCSE in Mandarin Chinese in Year 11. 

 

Why Mandarin?

 

Underpinned by the school’s motto – Inspiring Excellence through care, courtesy, and commitment, the Mandarin department seeks to develop the following skills in all learners:

• CREATIVITY - you will learn new ways to overcome challenges creatively. You will be able to join the dots between seemingly unrelated topics - something others cannot do – which will help develop your skills in other subjects, from STEM to the humanities.
• COLLABORATION - you will develop an understanding of China. As one of the world’s major political and economic powers, studying Mandarin will open up an enviable array of opportunities, whilst also improving your inter-cultural awareness, collaboration and communication skills.
• COURAGE - studying Mandarin will develop your capacity to adapt to new, challenging situations. This will enable you to approach experiences with a positive, resilient and proactive mindset.
• CONFIDENCE - you will develop the confidence to put across your point of view, whilst considering and understanding a range of differing personal and cultural perspectives.

 

Opportunity

• Gain internationally recognised qualifications, including HSK3 in Year 10 and GCSE Chinese in Year 11. Studying on the MEP also gives students an excellent foundation for further study of Mandarin in the Sixth Form
• Regular cultural trips, events, and excursions
• 1:1 and small group sessions and interventions with our subject specialists

 

Curriculum Offer

• Four hours of class curriculum time per week
• Out-of-class activities including some independent study, enrichment events, cultural trips and excursions
• A part-funded trip to China in Year 9
• Regular cultural events in school
• Rapid progress - students benefit from an enhanced cultural understanding and highly developed communication and language skills.

 

What our students say...

‘I love my Mandarin lessons – we not only learn how to write and speak Chinese, but we also learn about Chinese culture which is fascinating.’  - Theo, Year 8

‘Mandarin has enabled me to challenge myself, confidently convey my thoughts in a different language, broaden my cultural understanding, and open many doors to future opportunities’ - Charlie, Year 11

 

Supporting Success

We are committed to the school’s ethos of inclusive teaching. When planning our lessons, we consider the needs and aspirations of all our students, including those with SEND, those entitled to Pupil Premium, as well as ensuring that higher attainers are constantly stretched and challenged. Through strategic and targeted questioning, we regularly check students’ understanding and frequently provide verbal feedback. 

 

To support all learners:

• Knowledge organisers, vocabulary lists (using Quizlet), and sentence builders are provided for each module. These resources are also posted on the class’s virtual learning environment. 
• Retrieval activities at the start of each lesson ensure students are taught to remember what they learn. 
• Students are taught strategies for decoding language when listening and reading. They are taught how to revise characters using a range of engaging and innovative techniques.
• Higher attainers are stretched with ‘Challenge’ activities that encourage them to think about activities from different perspectives and in creative ways to further deepen their understanding.

Mandarin - Support and Stretch

 

Assessment

• Students are assessed at the end of each module 
• In Years 7, 8, and 9 students sit the standardised MEP hurdle test in the summer term.
• Feedforward lessons follow assessments so that all students understand how they must improve. 
• Regular, in-class vocabulary tests and dictations help students memorise new vocabulary and structures throughout each module. These are peer assessed to draw students’ attention to common mistakes and misconceptions. 

 

How to Apply

• Students must opt for Mandarin as their foreign language of choice before they join Year 7
• After the application window closes, we will communicate next steps during the summer term before students join the school in September.

Rising Year 7 Prospectus

GCSE Mandarin Prospectus 

 

If you have any questions, please contact Mr Mahoney: pmahoney@st-birinus.oxon.sch.uk