Modern Foreign Languages

The Parkside Modern Foreign Languages Curriculum

The Parkside French curriculum is designed around a range of four units taught across each KS2 year group.  Each unit contains learning that involves a range of strands: 

• Speaking and pronunciation

• Listening, Reading and writing

• Grammar, Intercultural understanding 

In addition, an overarching strand, 'Language detective skills', is crucial to developing engaged and independent language learners who are able to grow their skills in the other five strands and transfer these skills to learn further languages. It involves: 

• Recognising learnt vocabulary when listening or reading 

• Spotting cognates (words which have the same origin or are in some way similar) and near-cognates 

• Using context and their own knowledge of the world to predict the meaning of unknown words 

• Considering word order to anticipate the meaning of words 

Our curriculum develops these skills in a progressive way so that by Year 6 pupils are able to use these strategies to confidently grapple with unknown spoken and written language and search for meaning. The development of these skills also helps pupils develop their understanding of the English language and its grammar conventions.

Our curriculum is designed as a spiral curriculum: Pupils revisit key vocabulary and grammar concepts again and again; Each time vocabulary or grammar learning is revisited, it is covered with greater depth; Upon returning to each area, prior knowledge is utilised so pupils can build on previous foundations, rather than starting again. 

Details of the units covered within the Parkside MFL curriculum can be found on each class's yearly overview document.