Why we teach Modern Foreign Languages at St. Chad’s
Modern Foreign Languages fosters our pupils’ curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world.
It enables 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 also provides opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language.
It also provides our pupils with the foundation for learning further languages, equipping them to study and work in other countries.
How we teach Modern Foreign Languages at St. Chad’s
Modern Foreign Languages is taught in designated lessons once a week in Year 3 to Year 6. In Year 1 and Year 2, our pupils are introduced to other languages and cultures through songs and greetings. At St. Chad’s, we chose to teach our pupils Spanish as our local area (Bishop Auckland) has many links with Spain and Spanish speaking countries are currently the most popular destinations for family holidays. Links are also made to languages and other cultures in other subject lessons where appropriate, particularly in English and Geography.
What we aim to achieve through the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages at St. Chad’s
To ensure that all of our 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