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. Currently, we have a cohort of students in Yrs 9 and 10 who study French, but they will be our last cohort of students studying this language. Students will be taught the respective language 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

GCSE Specification