Bienvenue! Wilkommen! Failte! Bienvenido! Croeso! Benvenuto! Welcome, to the exciting subject of languages!
Mrs Alison McDonough
Headteacher
Leadership and intent of languages at West Rainton
The aims and objectives of learning a language in West Rainton Primary School are:
- To foster an interest in learning other languages;
- To introduce young children to another language in a way that is enjoyable and fun;
- To make young children aware that language has a structure, and that the structure differs from one language to another;
- To help children develop their awareness of cultural differences in other countries;
- To develop their speaking and listening skills;
- To lay the foundations for future study.
You can read the full pen profile of our languages lead here:
Aiming high
In languages, this is achieved by the thrilling experience of learning a language other than your own. This engaging subject naturally enriches our lives by broadening our knowledge, skills and cultural capital. In lessons, we look at how valuable to our skillset, acquiring one or more additional languages can be, talking about the careers where languages could be a significant asset.
Skills for learning and life
Through speaking, listening, singing, reading and writing in other languages, children make connections within and between languages, including English, which greater increases their fluency and transferable knowledge. Languages allows children to present their work in a range of exciting ways such as in verbal responses, songs, games, role-play and traditional written methods. By developing their communication skills in a new language, they are also consolidating skills, etymology and vocabulary in their first language.
Growing healthily
Languages is a fun subject! It is taught in an engaging and exciting way, with a vibrant range of activities that invariably make children happy. The fact they can communicate in a range of other languages gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment, not to mention the confidence they head off to secondary languages lessons with. Many of the activities children experience during languages lessons allow them to form positive relationships with a range of different people as they model appropriate conversation techniques.
Knowledge of the world
The cultural capital gained in primary languages lessons is hugely significant. For many pupils, this is their first experience of the world outside of their own, and their view is extended by gaining the skills to communicate in other languages, as well as widening their cultural knowledge of other places and people in the world.
The content of our languages curriculum mapping is reviewed each year and carefully considered based on prior learning and experiences. The subject lead has had extensive local authority-led training in the leadership and delivery of languages. This ongoing networking continues to refresh ideas and build into the subject’s development.
You can see the full subject policy and curriculum mapping for languages here:
WRPS Languages policy 2023-2025
Subject action plan languages 23-24
How languages are taught at West Rainton Primary School
Children in years 3-6 receive an hour per week of languages teaching and learning activities. In our school, languages lessons are taught by the subject lead who has a more specialist background knowledge of the subject. Regular staff training is built into our CPD programme, however, to enhance the languages skills of other teachers to ensure a successful continuity of the subject should circumstances change. The majority of our languages teaching focuses on French for the reasons outlined in the subject policy. In each term, however, all classes receive one unit in another language. This occurs at the same time for all classes to allow for whole-school discussion or collaborative learning such as in assemblies for example. This also allows for clear monitoring, by the subject lead, of progress and attainment across the school.
For some pupils with special educational needs, languages provide a whole new way of learning how to express ourselves. The learning of a new language, actually strengthens and consolidates our communication in other ways, even our first language. Our curriculum has a large emphasis on acquiring new vocabulary; this is usually done through games, songs, stories and pictures. The recording of our knowledge and skills can also be done in a variety of ways; pictorial, spoken or written. There are many strategies for differentiating and accessing tasks including the use of peer mentoring to practise speaking with a partner.
The impact of languages at West Rainton
It is very important to us that our children know why we teach what we do. As part of this, we try to foster a growing awareness of where the subject can progress to in terms of secondary and further education and potential career paths.
The subject of languages, and the skills learned within it, can prove to be very valuable in lots of areas of future life and in many careers. With an ever-expanding global workforce in many industries, language knowledge and cultural understanding of other places in the world can be very attractive to employers; in some cases essential. Global business relies on ease of communication and networking on a multi-national level. Similarly, the travel and tourism industry seeks out candidates with a natural interest in the world beyond their own communities.
Learning a foreign language also greatly increases our understanding of aspects of our own first language. Areas such as word origin, grammatical structure and sentence construction are all enhanced by examining rules in other languages.
We are exceptionally proud that many of our ex-pupils come back to report how successful they’ve been in languages at secondary school. Equally, regular compliments from secondary languages teachers on the foundation we’ve given our pupils in languages, are always very pleasing to hear.
