2 minute read
Modern Foreign Languages
We welcome Miss Robinson who is a French KS3-5 specialist. She discusses her passion for languages, and how teaching across the Foundation has enriched her experiences and allowed her to develop the curriculum, giving all children access to languages.
Teaching at Kingswood School for 12 years has allowed me to enrich my teaching experience and learn from my colleagues and leading language specialists such as Gianfranco Conti and Martine Pillette.
I truly believe in language for all and languages for life. Learning should be a journey of discovery, fun and achievement. The way in which languages should be delivered includes modelling, recycling, reviewing and re-using language, helping to build understanding and confidence. I have developed a curriculum that allows all children to access languages, whether its recalling topic vocabulary, giving opinion, using short sentences or extending with conjunctions, frequency words and intensifiers. There is also a cultural element, added, which explores everyday life, geography, food, art and other aspects to ensure that learners are more aware of the world around them.
A positive experience of languages is at the core of our learning. Latin ‘tasters’ will also be offered to Years 5 & 6 towards the end of the Summer Term. The main focus of course content is building towards what students will be expected to do in Year 7 and 8. Early exposure to language terms and learning concepts, giving varied opinion, producing more complex sentences and exploring two tenses (present and simple future) will ensure that all children at least can recognise key vocabulary and grammar, most will understand and some will be able to demonstrate that they can use it.
From Nursery through to Year 6, language learners will be offered French, Spanish and German on a rotational basis. I will teach the French, Spanish and Latin content, whilst German will be delivered by the assistant who will visit from the Senior School to Year 5 and 6 from January to May. and share a Year 8 class. This will enable me to keep developing the curriculum by working closely with each Head of Department at the Senior School.
I feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity to develop, teach and grow languages at KPS and am really passionate about lifting its profile so that we not only become a leader in primary languages provision, but also instil a curiosity and love for learning languages throughout the School and into the future.
