Curriculum overview for Key Stage 3 French and Spanish
National Curriculum programme of study: Languages
National Curriculum - Languages key stage 3 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Curriculum intent – the knowledge, understanding and skills that students will learn
At Blackfen School, all students study French or Spanish up to Year 9, and can take the same language as a GCSE qualification in Key Stage 4. The Key Stage 3 modern foreign languages curriculum aspires to create linguists, rather than students who study languages. The focus of our MFL curriculum is heavily directed to the development of students’ communication skills, self-motivation, strong and durable retention of language, independence and autonomy. Through the three pillars of progression – phonics, vocabulary and Grammar - students will gain a strong phonetic knowledge that enables them to converse (and pronounce new vocabulary) confidently and provides a reinforcement of many literacy skills from their first language. They will learn how to manipulate grammar to allow them to personalise information and retain core phrases that can be recycled in many real-life situations. Through this knowledge and confidence, students will become resilient and competent linguists who are open-minded and versatile communicators. They will understand what it is to be a linguist. Students will have a curiosity and fascination in discovering the world and its people, as well as having an interest and intention to travel to deepen their understanding of different cultures and societies. They will understand the ways in which languages are interconnected and in which languages play a part in our daily lives.

Curriculum implementation – teaching, learning and assessment strategies
Our languages department employs a range of strategies to ensure students learn in an enjoyable, positive and inclusive environment. All members of staff use a variety of resources but have studied and are applying Dr Gianfranco Conti’s approach (a respected MFL teacher, specialist and linguist) of his Extensive Processing Instruction (EPI) method. To enable our students to become successful language learners, we have reviewed our curriculum and created our own bespoke teaching resources to implement the EPI principles into our lessons as well as drawing on what works well from experience. This is still a work in progress. We are constantly reviewing and adapting our curriculums in French and Spanish to ensure that we deliver the most effective lessons to set students up for success in future years. Our Blackfen approach includes sentence builders central to all lessons, enabling students to build accurate sentences;  extensive drilling of chunks of language using engaging games and speaking activities; a focus on listening and speaking skills at the start of every unit of work/sequence of lessons; phonics included on sentence builders to regularly aid and to practise pronunciation and the use of texts that are at least 95% comprehensible (comprehensible input) to build fluency and to avoid cognitive overload. There is an explicit teaching of language learning, decoding and parsing skills to support metacognition with regular ‘pop up’ Grammar sessions and a constant retrieval of knowledge to produce deep and durable learning. Homework is set weekly with one week dedicated to speaking and reading aloud.

Curriculum impact – intended outcomes for students 
Whilst learning a language, students will develop the interest in and enthusiasm for Languages and gain an understanding of their values and significance. They will also develop their cultural knowledge of Francophone and Hispanic culture and, through authentic materials, trips and working alongside our Foreign Language assistants,  will experience first-hand how languages play an essential part in international communication today. Conversations about travel and holidays throughout the school year will show students how they can easily apply their language skills to real life experiences. Linguists in Year 9, Year 10 and Year 11 will be proud of their communication skills and their links with abroad via pen pal projects. The inspiring, evidence-informed and knowledge rich curriculum in Key Stage 3 should develop confident and articulate linguists who want to discover more about the world around them.

Assessment overview for Key Stage 3 French and Spanish
In Key Stage 3, we assess students’ progress in French and Spanish within lessons, and over terms, years, and key stages. In lessons, progress is measured through retrieval practice and regular formative assessments such as vocabulary and Grammar quizzing, interactive and effective multiple-choice quizzes, effective questioning as well as through marking. We implement a wide range of AFL techniques and make use of online resources such as Active-learn, Quizlet, Microsoft forms and Memrise where students can gain immediate feedback, and teachers can see the amount of time and effort that students have spent on their homework. We assess the students every five or six lessons through short low-stake assessments in addition to a summative assessment at the end of every term.

Year 7, Year 8 and Year 9: 
Listening: Listening assessments can be in the form of dictation tasks, gap-fill questions, listening comprehension tasks and information gap tasks based on the content of the topical sentence builders. Students will be assessed on accuracy of their language in such tasks.
Reading: A variety of tasks will be used to assess reading in languages such as translation tasks, cued translations, faulty translations, spot the error, one pen, one die translation tasks, gap-fill tasks and reading comprehensions.
Writing: Students will be assessed throughout the unit in writing tasks with and eventually without scaffolding such as translation into the target language, writing tasks of varied lengths such as writing letters, articles for a newspaper and replies to e-mails. They will also be assessed on writing presentations based on cultural elements of the language studied.
Speaking: A variety of assessments will be used to assess the students’ confidence, pronunciation and intonation throughout the course, both with and without scaffolding. Assessments may include speaking games such as the chain game, sentence stealer and reading relay alongside more summative assessment such as speaking presentations, role plays, describing photos and reading aloud tasks.

In addition to on-going formative assessment based on classroom and home learning, summative assessment of students’ progress in Key Stage 3 French and Spanish takes place in line with whole-school arrangements for assessment. Please see the Curriculum and Assessment policy on the Curriculum website page for further details about Key Stage 3 formal assessment.