MFL

At Tottington High School, the MFL department’s priority is to promote a love of language learning within the school community. We endeavour to foster resilience in the pursuit of excellence, encouraging our students to embrace new challenges. Our vision is not only to inspire students to achieve high aspirations during their secondary education but to seize the future opportunities and success that come with being multilingual. In addition, we also aspire to develop students’ cultural awareness in line with key British Values such as tolerance and mutual respect.  

Our learners become effective communicators in French or German through developing their understanding of key phonics, vocabulary and grammar throughout their learning journey. We are passionate about promoting inclusivity in ensuring that languages are accessible to learners of all abilities.  

In addition, we aim to enrich students’ experience through the celebration of French and German traditions and annual language events such as European Day of Languages. In order to enthuse our students further, we organise trips abroad, thus giving them the opportunity to put their skills into practice. 

Our Road Maps display our learning journey, which consists of a new topic each half-term with the final half-term dedicated to responsive teaching and revisiting prior learning. Our Road Maps also show Project-Based Learning as well as key grammar points and key skills.  

As a team, we have carefully crafted our curriculum ensuring students are able to make significant progress and consistently revisit and build upon existing knowledge and skills. We teach a variety of high-frequency vocabulary with a strong emphasis on the awareness of phonics in the target language as well as grammatical structures whilst making explicit links to English language. Topics studied at KS3 are revisited at KS4 in greater depth to prepare students for GCSE. 

A typical MFL lesson begins with retrieval practice including a mixture of vocabulary recall, reading comprehension, translation and grammar-based tasks. Teachers model key phonics regularly and students practice key skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Students learn through a variety of teacher-led and student-led tasks working in pairs or in small groups. 

Students complete regular vocabulary tests as well as other formative assessments. At the end of Term 1 and Term 2, students complete a summative assessment focusing on either Listening and Speaking or Reading and Writing. At the end of Term 3, students complete a summative assessment in all four skills. 

Homework is set fortnightly on Class Charts and students have access to online resources such as Linguascope, where they can broaden their vocabulary knowledge. There is also the option of completing further tasks to enrich their linguistic knowledge or cultural awareness in their language of study. Whilst completing their projects, students will take part in a virtual exchange with students in France or Germany, experience guest-speakers who have used languages in their careers and watch a theatre group perform in their language of study. There is also the chance to take part in local excursions to French- or German-speaking establishments as well as visits abroad. We also celebrate European Day of Languages. 

A GCSE in French or German can lead to a career in any sector and the opportunity to study/work abroad as well as being a foundation on which to learn more languages. Students may wish to study a language at A-Level or degree level following their time at Tottington High School.