Modern Foreign Languages
At Pool Hayes Primary we value Latin as it provides an opportunity to enrich the vocabulary and understanding of children’s English language while simultaneously providing a strong foundation for the study of language at a secondary school level. The study of Latin provides our children with an appreciation of classical civilisation. Our intention is for our children to develop a love and appreciate of languages and the patterns within them. At Pool Hayes Primary School, the children learn vocabulary, grammar and key phrases. They are able to read, write and speak words and simple phrases in Latin.
INTENT
At Pool Hayes Primary School learning a language is fun! We know that a significant demotivating factor for children learning a second language is fear of mis-pronunciation and the importance of accent. Engaging in conversations, presenting ideas orally to a range of audiences are not part of National Curriculum requirements when teaching an ancient language.
Approximately 60% of English words have a Latinate roots, giving children a significant ‘head start’ in the learning of Latin. The teaching of the Latin curriculum has carefully planned stories and cultural sessions interwoven and embedded throughout the programme in order to ignite an interest in an appreciation of classical civilisation.
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.
Underpinned by:
High Expectations: All children are expected to succeed and make progress from their starting points. Staff are trained by Maximum Classics experts to enable children to make the best possible progress from their starting points.
Modelling: Staff model skills to children who then practise them together to identify areas of success.
Fluency: Children soon become confident at applying their skills into other areas of the curriculum, e.g. Identifying adverbs in Latin can be applied to English lessons.
Vocabulary: Subject specific vocabulary is taught explicitly and is regularly reinforced and revisited.
IMPLEMENTATION
At Pool Hayes Primary Key Stage 2 children receive weekly Latin lessons that include both language learning and classics (study of Ancient Rome and Greece), enabling them to make progress in the language. Lessons provide a balance of spoken and written language, enabling children to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing. The focus is to provide a foundation for reading comprehension and an appreciation of classical civilisation.
Through our Latin curriculum we aim to ensure the pupils have the opportunity to meet the National Curriculum requirements as follows:
· Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
· Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
· Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
· Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
· Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
· Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary
· Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly
· Describe people, places, things and actions in writing
· Understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.
Teachers plan Latin using progression maps and the Maximum Classics scheme of work to ensure teaching is designed to help learners to remember, in the long-term, the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts.
Retrieval practice is a fundamental part of our Latin curriculum as it is proven to strengthen memory and make it easier to retrieve the information later (Rosenshine, 2012). Opportunities for retrieval practice occur in two places in the curriculum:
· Weekly review to activate prior learning forms the start of most lessons.
· Retrieval practice of core knowledge will happen at separate spaced occasions away from the point of teaching the topic. This approach is to support children in securing long-term knowledge acquisition.
Pupils with Additional Needs (SEND)
The approach taken by Maximum Classics aims to be inclusive of all children. However, just as in all other areas of the curriculum, for the delivery of Latin, teachers need to anticipate barriers to participation for pupils with particular SEN. Planning will minimise those barriers so that all pupils can fully take part and learn. When assessing pupils with SEN, planning is crucial and an altered or alternative method of assessment may be appropriate.
Latin in Early Years Foundation Stage and KS1
Children are not taught Latin in EYFS and KS1. Any introduction to classical words and concepts are through Understanding of the World and Communication and Language in Early Years and across the curriculum in KS1. This is not taught explicitly as classical vocabulary so children can use and understand subject-specific vocabulary within its lesson and embed a foundation of knowledge for KS2.
Pupils with Additional Needs (SEND)
The approach taken by Maximum Classics aims to be inclusive of all children. However, just as in all other areas of the curriculum, for the delivery of Latin, teachers need to anticipate barriers to participation for pupils with particular SEN. Planning will minimise those barriers so that all pupils can fully take part and learn. When assessing pupils with SEN, planning is crucial and an altered or alternative method of assessment may be appropriate.
IMPACT
Assessing Progress
Formative Assessment:
Pupils’ progress will be assessed using regular formative assessment in lessons through strategies such as questioning, regular retrieval practice, quizzing, independent learning tasks and assessment of work in books and feedback.
Summative Assessment:
Assessing long-term learning:
The core knowledge and skills taught in each unit will be assessed through a short assessment task. Teachers will use this assessment to provide further feedback or re-teach concepts where necessary to close gaps and ensure pupils have mastered the curriculum content at that point.
Assessing long-term learning:
The core knowledge and skills taught in each unit will be assessed through a short assessment task. Teachers will use this assessment to provide further feedback or re-teach concepts where necessary to close gaps and ensure pupils have mastered the curriculum content at that point.
Tracking Pupil Progress:
Scores from each of the end of unit assessments are used to track pupil progress alongside ongoing teacher assessment. Individual progress is reported to parents through two termly Parents’ Evenings and an annual report.
Scores from each of the end of unit assessments are used to track pupil progress alongside ongoing teacher assessment. Individual progress is reported to parents through two termly Parents’ Evenings and an annual report.
Pupil Voice
Through discussion and feedback, children talk enthusiastically about their experiences in class. They can draw on specific memories of lessons and skills.
Evidence in Knowledge
Pupils can explain definitions of words and phrases and when to use and apply them.
Evidence in Skills
Children are taught how to use their skills independently and apply them to new learning.
