Modern Foreign Languages
CURRICULUM INTENT
At Sunbury Manor School our vision, in the MFL department, is to foster a sense of curiosity and adventure in learners; curiosity about the makeup of the language they are learning and a sense of adventure to want to go out there and explore it, even further, through travel. The world really is their oyster when they start to study a modern foreign language. Students gain a greater understanding of the world and of other cultures beyond the countries whose language they are studying. All of this links with the wider school ethos of nurturing well-rounded individuals
Speaking another language other than one’s own is useful, both for leisure and business reasons, whilst also enhancing and building on many skills that are transferable across other school subjects. For example, it is well known that learning a second language not only supports literacy, in English, but also improves listening and presentation skills, among others. Furthermore, students who succeed in MFL are more employable and have better chances of gaining entry to university.
Students at Sunbury Manor study Spanish in Yrs7-11. Students will be taught their language lesson twice a week, at KS3 (Yrs7-9). At KS4 (Yrs10+11), students have three (3) lessons per week.
In lessons we use a variety of resources such as games, IT, interactive projects, authentic material from the target language countries and cultural experiences to enhance teaching and learning. These bring our lessons to life and make the learning of the four key skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing) fun, engaging and accessible. Learning a foreign language requires a combination of phonics, vocabulary and grammar. We introduce and progressively build on these throughout the students’ learning journey and through relevant topic areas such as identity and culture, leisure, food, fashion, the environment, school, holidays and future careers. At key stage 4, we develop this further and examine themes in more depth, delving deeper into topical issues such as our planet, social problems and issues that affect young people.
When students learn the basics to be able to communicate in another language, they go from strength to strength and are motivated to learn more. We try to keep this motivation alive by coupling learning with real life and other enrichment opportunities where available and possible. These include setting tasks in the style of blogs and vlogs, creating web pages (be it to describe their school or set up an online shop), and linking learning to real life careers (such as estate agency and teaching) and enrichment opportunities such as food tasting. When we can, we strive to include a residential trip to the target language country where the students are fully immersed in a completely Spanish environment.
Please click on the expandable sections below for more details including the curriculum overview and specification.
MFL Curriculum Overview
Curriculum Overview
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Yr7 Spanish |
The Hispanic world Greetings, phonics and self Classroom lang + Routines Numbers, months and birthday |
Family Pets Colour |
School (subjects studied/ likes/ dislikes, all with reasons; sch facilities |
School – subjects studied, opinions, reasons, school facilities and activities |
Leisure Activities + the 5 Ws (who what where when why) |
Leisure Activities + the 5 Ws (who what where when why) |
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Yr 8 Spanish |
Review of learning from Yr7 My town – what there is/ isn’t What one can(not) do |
Problems in a town Solutions Future changes |
Holidays- present, past and future |
Holidays- present, past and future |
Food- preferences with reasons, courses and shopping |
Food preferences with reasons, courses and shopping Tapas tasting menu |
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Y9 Spanish |
School + part-time jobs |
Future - Jobs and aspirations/ careers (leading up to Yr9 options) |
Leisure Time: music and film preferences; favourite actors/ actresses and musicians |
Leisure Time: music and film preferences; favourite actors/ actresses and musicians |
Young people and society (local area and community, positives and negatives) |
The environment and the future of our world |
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Y10 French (Pearson Edexcel Course book) |
Term 1:1 Identity, family, friends, role models and celebrations. Grammar: emphatic pronouns/ reflexive verbs (present tense) /sequencers + connectives/ adjectival positioning + agreement/ adverbs / DO pronouns Skills: describing a photo/ translation/ working with the present and perfect tenses |
Term 1:2 The Francophone world, life online, active pasttimes and screen time. Grammar: aimer + noun/ + inf/ present tense of regular ‘er’ and irregular verbs/ the near-future tense Skills: discussing pros and cons/listening and transcribing in Fr/preparing a role play/ sounding ‘é;er;ez’, correctly working with the present and perfect tenses |
Term 2:1 School- school life, the positives and negatives Grammar: comparative adjectives/opinions + reasons/ impersonal verb structure + inf/ using irregular verbs in the present, nr fut and imperfect tenses/ recognising a wider range of negatives Skills: describing photos/ expressing opinions, agreeing and disagreeing/ translation/ sounding ‘oi’ and ‘oy’. |
Term 2:2 Lifestyle and wellbeing (diet and exercise) Grammar: use of the ‘vous’ form for advice/ the partitive article/ modal verbs/ simple future/ perfect tense of reflexive verbs/ Skills: spotting small words that can change meaning, booking a Dr’s appt/ working with the imperfect, perfect + simple future tensesusing more complex sentence structures |
Term 3:1 Lifestyle and wellbeing (diet and exercise) Grammar: use of the ‘vous’ form for advice/ the partitive article/ modal verbs/ simple future/ perfect tense of reflexive verbs/ Skills: spotting small words that can change meaning, booking a Dr’s appt/ working with the imperfect, perfect + simple future tensesusing more complex sentence structures |
Term 3:2 Holidays –destinations, accommodation, activities and opinions. Grammar: using ‘je voudrais’ and ‘j’aimerais’ / the conditional tense/ relative pronouns/ the perfect tense of modal verbs/ si + pr tense + simple future tense Skills: extending spoken and written responses/ using the perfect and imperfect tenses together/ using relative pronouns to create complex sentences/ using a range of tenses/ booking hol ac |
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Y10 Spanish (Pearson Edexcel Course book) |
Term 1:1 Types of family; identity, friends and role models; social media influencers; teen problems and advice Grammar: possessive adjs/ para+inf/ ser+estar/ pr cont/ reflexive vbs/ expressing how long you’ve been doing something/ the personal ‘a’/ podrías and deberías + inf Skills: describing a photo/ listening for gist |
Term 1:2 The Spanish-speaking world; digital life; sports and free time activities; planning an outing; Grammar: using adjs/revising the pr tense/expressions of freq/ revising irreg pr tense vbs/ op vbs + exps/the pret tense/ the nr fut tense/ DO pronouns/ sounding the letter ‘c’ Skills: planning a cinema visit/ using 3 tenses |
Term 2:1 Discussing travel plans; talking about festivals/celebrations; giving an account of a holiday Grammar: using comparatives/ se puede + inf/ the superlative/ if clauses + pr tense/ suelo + inf/ acabar de + inf Skills: describing a photo/ using a range of structures to give ops in the past/ using startegies to work out meaning |
Term 2:2 Lifestyle and wellbeing- diet and exercise Grammar: adjs of nationality/ indef adjs/ DO pronouns/ ya no + vb/ tener + noun/ reflexive vbs in the pret tense/ debes, tienes que + necesitas/ if clauses/ the fut tense Skills: practising listening skills |
Term 3:1 Lifestyle and wellbeing- diet and exercise Grammar: adjs of nationality/ indef adjs/ DO pronouns/ ya no + vb/ tener + noun/ reflexive vbs in the pret tense/ debes, tienes que + necesitas/ if clauses/ the fut tense Skills: practising listening skills |
Term 3:2 A clase- school life; positives and negatives Grammar: absolute superlatives/ relative pro que, donde, cuando/ using lo que/ conditional tense/ adjs + advs/ negatives/ Skills: translation/ identifying false friends/ exam skills (techniques + strategies) Oral preparation End-of-year assessments |
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Y11 French (Pearson Edexcel Course book)
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Term 1:1 Discussing travel plans; talking about festivals/celebrations; giving an account of a holiday Grammar: using ‘je voudrais’ and ‘j’aimerais’ / the conditional tense/ relative pronouns/ the perfect tense of modal verbs/ si + pr tense + simple future tense Skills: extending spoken and written responses/ using the perfect and imperfect tenses together/ using relative pronouns to create complex sentences/ using a range of tenses/ booking hol acc |
Term 1:2 Talking about the planet + your town/ area, shopping experiences and giving opinions about places and where you’d like to live. Grammar: comparative and superlative/ expressing ops in diff ways/ numbers + percentages/ être en train de + venir de/ y / ce, cet, cette, ces Skills: spotting tenses from verb endings/ working out meaning from unfamiliar vbs |
Term 2:1 Talking about your hopes and dreams; getting a job and future career intentions. Grammar: après avoir + inf/ infs + ‘a’ and ‘de’ Skills: buying tickets at a station/ translation/ using a range of tenses |
Term 2:2 GCSE revision and preparation GCSE orals |
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Y11 Spanish
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Term 1:1 Talking about your town/ area shopping experiences and giving opinions about places and where you’d like to live. Grammar: demonstrative adjs/ preps of place/ now and then tenses/ cuando + subjunctive/ tenses/ comparisons Skills: translation |
Term 1:2 Talking about your community, climate change and which actions to take to help the environment, now and for the future. Grammar: pronouns after preps/ negatives/ imperfect cont/ (no) se debería + inf Skills: translating more complex tenses |
Term 2:1 Talking about your hopes and dreams; getting a job and future career intentions. Grammar: seguir, continuar + pr participle/ possessive pronouns/ para que + pr subj Skills: using stress patterns correctly practising listening skills/ transcribing unfamiliar words/ |
Term 2:2 GCSE revision and preparation GCSE orals |
GCSE French
Subject Leader: Mrs Lorde
Contact: marias.lorde@sunburymanor.thpt.org.uk
Exam Specification: Edexcel GCSE – 1FR1
QN Code: 610/2718/2
Summary of course content
You will cover a variety of topic areas taught under the following broad themes: My Personal World; Lifestyle and Well-being; My Neighbourhood; Media and Technology; Studying and my Future; Travel and Tourism.
You will also be guided and helped to improve your written and spoken communication skills, as well as deepening your understanding of French culture and language. Lessons will include the opportunity to listen to contemporary French language via different media, develop research skills and use ICT to create multimedia presentations.
Assessment
There are four exams taken at the end of the course – Speaking, Listening and Understanding, Reading and Understanding, and Writing – for which students can be entered at either Higher or Foundation level depending on the results of their practice assessments prior to the summer exams.
The length of the exams is:
-
Speaking: 7–9 minutes (Foundation); 10–12 minutes (Higher), plus 15 minutes' preparation time for both tiers.
-
Listening and Understanding: 45 minutes (Foundation); 60 minutes (Higher).
-
Reading and Understanding: 45 minutes (Foundation); 60 minutes (Higher).
-
Writing: 1 hour 15 minutes (Foundation); 1 hour 20 minutes (Higher).
What type of activities take place in lessons?
Lessons will involve activities designed to allow students to practise all four skills: Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing, whether working as a class, in groups or independently.
Use will also be made of the interactive whiteboard, videos, various computer programmes and the internet to introduce and consolidate vocabulary and grammar points.
Additionally, students will have allocated time to work with the French assistant, where available, to improve speaking skills, as well as taking part in role plays.
Time will also be devoted to exam paper practice to hone students’ exam technique and assess whether students are still on track for their predicted grade.
In addition, there will be time to learn and practise the new technique of translation, and there will be an emphasis on spontaneous speech, rather than scripted speech, in all speaking tasks.
Students will require the use of a dictionary for reading and listening exercises at home. WordReference.com is a good recommendation. Textbooks will be provided in class.
What type of homework tasks will be set?
Students will be expected to complete both ‘learning’ and ‘production-type’ homework.
Often, they will be expected to learn words and consolidate their work from class. On other occasions, they will be asked to put together the ideas, phrases and grammar from recent lessons in an extended text.
How will it help me in the future?
Learning a foreign language is becoming an increasingly sought-after skill. You do not need to be fluent in a language for it to help you in your career, so even if you do not continue after GCSE, you will be recognised (and paid!) accordingly. You can always pick it up later in life.
Learning a foreign language encompasses a whole range of skills which are essential for your future. Linguists learn how to communicate effectively, both in their writing and speaking. You are also trained to listen for key details and to read using different techniques such as skim reading, reading for detail and reading for inference.
All these skills make you more employable and show a potential employer you have broad horizons.
In the shorter term, languages are seen as a strong academic subject to study and are well thought of by colleges and universities. Showing that you have studied languages can give you access to a wider choice of courses.
How will this course build on what I have studied in Year 9?
You will come across some familiar topic areas, but the depth in which you cover them and the way in which you are taught will be very different.
There will be an emphasis on using authentic materials such as TV programmes, songs and films to help you understand that learning French is not just about learning a language but also about exploring a culture.
What skills will I develop?
Confidence in speaking, presentation skills, better knowledge of grammar (in English too!), communication skills, memorising skills, identifying important parts of texts quickly (scanning), skim reading, listening skills, cultural awareness and many others.
GCSE Spanish
Subject Leader: Mrs Lorde
Contact: marias.lorde@sunburymanor.surrey.sch.uk
Exam Specification: Pearson Edexcel GCSE – 1SP1
QN Code: 610/3469/1
Summary of course content
You will cover a variety of topic areas taught under the following broad themes: My Personal World; Lifestyle and Well-being; My Neighbourhood; Media and Technology; Studying and my Future; Travel and Tourism.
You will also be guided and helped to improve your written and spoken communication skills, as well as deepening your understanding of Spanish culture and language. Lessons will include the opportunity to listen to contemporary Spanish language via different media, develop research skills and use ICT to create multimedia presentations.
Assessment
There are four exams taken at the end of the course – Speaking, Listening and Understanding, Reading and Understanding, and Writing – for which students can be entered at either Higher or Foundation level depending on the results of their practice assessments prior to the summer exams.
The length of the exams is:
-
Speaking: 7–9 minutes (Foundation); 10–12 minutes (Higher), plus 15 minutes' preparation time for both tiers.
-
Listening and Understanding: 45 minutes (Foundation); 60 minutes (Higher).
-
Reading and Understanding: 45 minutes (Foundation); 60 minutes (Higher).
-
Writing: 1 hour 15 minutes (Foundation); 1 hour 20 minutes (Higher).
What type of activities take place in lessons?
Lessons will involve activities designed to allow students to practise all four skills: Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing, whether working as a class, in groups or independently.
Use will also be made of the interactive whiteboard, videos, various computer programmes and the internet in order to introduce and consolidate vocabulary and grammar points.
Additionally, students will have allocated time to work with a Spanish assistant, where available, to improve speaking skills, as well as taking part in role plays.
Time will also be devoted to exam paper practice in order to hone students’ exam technique and ensure they are on track to achieve and/or exceed their expected grade.
In addition, there will be time given to learn and practise the new technique of translation, and there will be an emphasis on spontaneous speech, rather than scripted speech, in all speaking tasks.
Students will require the use of a dictionary for reading and listening exercises at home. WordReference.com is a good recommendation. Textbooks and similar workbooks will be provided in class.
What type of homework tasks will be set?
Students will be expected to complete both ‘learning’ and ‘production-type’ homework.
Often, they will be expected to learn words and consolidate their work from class. On other occasions, they will be asked to put together the ideas, phrases and grammar from recent lessons in an extended text.
How will it help me in the future?
Learning a foreign language is becoming an increasingly sought-after skill. You do not need to be fluent in a language in order for it to help you in your career, so even if you do not continue after GCSE, you will be recognised (and paid!) accordingly. You can always pick it up later in life.
Learning a foreign language encompasses a whole range of skills which are essential for your future. Linguists learn how to communicate effectively, both in their writing and speaking. You are also trained to listen out for key details and to read using different techniques such as skimming for gist, scanning for key points, reading for detail and reading for inference.
All these skills make you more employable and are very attractive to any potential employer.
In the short term, languages are seen as a strong academic subject to study and are well thought of by colleges and universities. Showing that you have studied languages can give you access to a wider choice of courses.
How will this course build on what I have studied in Year 9?
You will come across some familiar topic areas, but the depth in which you cover them and the way in which you are taught will be very different.
There will be an emphasis on using authentic materials such as TV programmes, songs and films to help you understand that learning Spanish is not just about learning a language but also about exploring a culture.
What skills will I develop?
Confidence in speaking, presentation skills, better knowledge of grammar (in English too!), communication skills, memorising skills, identifying important parts of texts quickly (scanning), skim reading, listening skills, cultural awareness and many more.