KS3 MFL
The vision of languages (French and Spanish) at KS3
The core purpose of learning a language is to be able to communicate with others. Our intention is to build core language skills which will allow our students to reach out to others by learning to introduce themselves, to ask and answer key questions and to describe the world they see around them.
In French and Spanish students will use their newly acquired language with confidence, creativity and spontaneity. They will improve through four key skills:
- Listening
- Reading
- Speaking
- Writing
As well as learning to express themselves in a foreign language, we aim for our curriculum to be a gateway to other cultures and points of view, allowing pupils to explore different ways of life and to build them into citizens of the world.
The implementation of the languages (French and Spanish) curriculum at KS3
Our curriculum is taught using the research-based pedagogy from Dr Gianfranco Conti. This approach is separated into 4 key areas.
Modelling / Awareness Raising - Students are introduced to target language chunks which are drilled extensively through games and speaking activities.
Receptive Processing - Students learn via a varied range of listening and reading tasks, develop decoding skills and fluency .
Structured Production - Students focus on the chunks in more detail and are given the opportunity to produce the target language in more structured tasks.
Expansion and Spontaneity - Students complete planned communicative tasks to allow them to work on their fluency and spontaneity in the target language (speaking/ writing/ grammar) while being more independent.
The languages curriculum at KS3
Both French and Spanish follow the exact same curriculum at KS3.
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Year 7 |
Year 8 |
Year 9 |
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Unit 1 - All about me and others 1 Names, ages and birthdays.
Unit 2 - All about me and others 2 Physical description, personality and animals. Unit 3 - Home and town Home and town description. Unit 4 - My free time Sports, free time, TV and films.
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Unit 1- Being healthy Explain what you eat and drink and whether you are healthy or not Unit 2 - School Discussing opinions on school subjects and teachers and School description
Unit 3 - Holidays Describing a past holiday and expressing opinions. Unit 4 - Customs and Festivals Discussing different festivals and describing going to a festival using the past tense
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Unit 1 - Last Weekend & Social Media Discuss what you did at the weekend and talk about technology use and social media Unit 2 - Where I live Describing the area you live in and where you would like to live
Unit 3 - Past weekend and hobbies in the past Talking about what you did at the weekend and when you were younger Unit 4 - Relationships Opinions about family and friends and future plans.
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Why is the curriculum sequenced this way?
The French/Spanish course starts in Year 7 by establishing a strong foundation in phonics and basic sentence structure. Pupils begin by learning how to greet others and introduce themselves, before developing an understanding of key grammatical concepts such as noun gender through topics like family. They also build their confidence in expressing opinions, including giving reasons when discussing their free time.
In Year 8, students progress to offering more detailed and nuanced opinions about everyday topics. They broaden their grammatical knowledge by working with different tenses and discussing subjects such as past and future meals and holidays.
Year 9 begins with a focus on weekend activities, reinforcing and consolidating core vocabulary from Year 7. Students also explore social media and technology, providing an important foundation for GCSE study. They revisit the topic of their town and local area, extending their grammar to describe an ideal town. Free time activities are reviewed in the past tense, and the year concludes with work on relationships and future plans.
Across all three years, topics are carefully structured to revisit essential vocabulary while exploring themes across different time frames. This approach enables students to use a wider range of time expressions in their work and ensures they are well prepared for the demands of Key Stage 4
