Why do we learn modern foreign languages?
Learning another language facilitates increased international awareness and an appreciation of other cultures and practices. It raises aspirations by opening doors to travel and enables pupils to compete in a highly competitive university and job market where having an additional language is a clear benefit.
At Ark Putney Academy, our MFL curriculum intentionally teaches pupils to manipulate vocabulary and grammar independently, with the goal of ultimately expressing their true ideas in another language. To this end, we avoid emphasis on memorising set phrases to impress in an exam. We instead aim for a strong foundational knowledge of tenses, grammar, vocabulary and sentence construction that allows pupils to communicate confidently and articulately with others, both at home and abroad.
All pupils should experience success in every MFL lesson. Lessons include regular practice of all core skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar and translation) to develop well-rounded linguists who can understand and respond to others in different contexts. We aim to reduce the fear and anxiety around language exams by explicitly teaching pupils practical techniques to deal with unfamiliar words. Processes such as deciphering meaning without complete comprehension and conjugating verbs develop pupils’ other skills, such as logic, task-sequencing and mathematical processing.
Our Approach
We are aligned to the Ark network shared curriculum, which allows us to share assessments and moderate data to make our judgement of pupil progress more accurate. Our curriculum covers language introductions in Year 7, which gives pupils the basic conversational skills to communicate about themselves and their surroundings. In Year 8, we introduce three verb tenses to make pupils’ communication more precise, expanding their linguistic abilities so they can express themselves more fully. From Years 10-11, we have carefully sequenced the GCSE course to teach topics that are relevant and interesting to young people. We revisit and revise verb essentials every year to ensure mastery and long-term retention. This will enable pupils to communicate competently in the target language by the end of their learning at Putney, so they have the skills and knowledge to continue to further study if they choose.
Head of Department
Ms G Bayes
Year 7
| Learning about me and my world |
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Autumn 1 - Introductions (greetings, personal introductions, birthday, days, months, numbers) Autumn 2 - Introductions (family, physical descriptions: hair, eyes, height) Spring 1 - My town (places in town, directions, activities in town) Spring 2 - My town (au / à la / aux, on peut + infinitive verbs, near future tense) Summer 1 - My school (subjects, likes and dislikes (opinions), telling the time, school day) Summer 2 - My school (describing places in the school, comparatives, infinitive verbs, opinions + infinitives) |
| Assessment |
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| APA internal assessments |
Year 8
| The Francophone / Hispanic World |
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Autumn 1 - Hobbies (TV, films, books, internet, forming the present tense) Autumn 2 - Hobbies (shopping, cinema, weather, role models) Spring 1 - Travel (places to visit, holiday activities, travel and transport vocabulary) Spring 2 - Travel (holiday accommodation, packing a suitcase, adventure holidays, restaurant and café) Summer 1 – Career and Future plans (jobs and workplace, skills, immediate future tense Summer 2 – Career and Future plans (educations system, future studies) |
| Assessment |
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| APA Internal Assessments |
Year 9
| Our place in global society |
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Autumn 1 – Lifestyles and relationships (time, daily routine, meals, reflexive pronouns, staying healthy, accidents and injuries) Autumn 2 – Lifestyle and relationships (celebrations, identity, relationships, using 3 tenses) Spring 1 – Problems and solutions (environmental problems, protecting the environment, conditional tense) Spring 2 - Problems and solutions (global environment, social issues, charity work) Summer 1 – Technology and trends (Internet, mobile phones, television, imperfect tense) Summer 2 – Technology and trends (social media, celebrities, direct object pronouns, superlatives) |
| Assessment |
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| APA Internal Assessment (GCSE Format) |
Year 10
| Content |
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Autumn 1 - My town (describing town and activities, tenses revision, improvements and changes in town) Autumn 2 - My town (tourism and community action) Spring 1 - Holidays (countries, transport, describing holidays, holiday disasters) Spring 2 - Holidays (booking accommodation, ideal holiday, conditional tense, pluperfect tense) Summer 1 - School (describing school, school rules, uniform, subjects and teachers, opinions) Summer 2 - School (describing a school trip, how you would like to change your school |
| Assessment |
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| Edexcel GCSE-style internal summative assessment in the four skills. |
All Year 10 subjects Next Year 10 Subject - Design Technology
Year 11
| Content |
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Autumn 1 - Work (Jobs and careers, future plans and ambitions (travel and study), Autumn 2 - Environment (climate change, fair trade, big events and their impact on the environment e.g., Olympics) Spring 1 -Revision (modules 1-4) Spring 2 - Mocks and Revision (modules 5-8) Summer 1 -Speaking exam preparation and exams. Summer 2 - Speaking exam preparation and exams. |
| Assessment |
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| Edexcel GCSE-style internal summative assessment in the four skills, and practice on past papers. |
All Year 11 subjects Next Year 11 Subject - Design Technology
Year 12
| Content |
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A-level Spanish/French will allow students to develop fluency and understanding the culture of the countries in which these languages are spoken. The first year of Spanish/French A-level focuses on mastering more sophisticated grammar and learn technical vocabulary. Resources are from real sources such as newspapers, magazines, films, and novels. In addition to the above, in the autumn term, students learn Family relationships in the Hispanic and Francophone world as well as the world of foods, music and festivals. With regards to grammar, students learn more in-depth tenses, verbs followed by infinitives and gerunds. Y12 does a part of their A-level exam every half term. Autumn term covers paper 1 (split in to two across HT1 and HT2) In the Spring term, students learn about Franco Dictatorship to introduce the novel in preparation for paper 2. Students will be introduced to an in-depth analysis of a film and a novel demonstrating their knowledge and linguistic skills in paper 2. Students also learn festivities in the Hispanic and Francophone world. |
| Assessment |
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| Edexcel Internal summative assessment in the four skills |
All Year 12 subjects Next Year 12 Subject - Design Technology
Year 13
| Content |
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Students continue to learn the historical and political intricacies of Francophone and Hispanic countries. Culture plays a significant role in the Y13 curriculum and students prepare debates/speeches about current issues. There is a special focus on revising the film and the novel as well as the IRP. We assess students on grammar and one skill fortnightly. |
| Assessment |
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Edexcel Practice papers 1,2 and 3 and practice of past papers. |
All Year 13 subjects Next Year 13 Subject - Design Technology