Laura Heath, Primary Languages Lead Teacher, St Bedes Catholic School, Lanchester, Co. Durham

As a visiting French teacher to 9 different primary schools, I endeavour to plan for progression within each lesson and across sequences of lessons. I am in a position to appreciate that children progress in different ways and at different rates even when taught the same lesson by the same teacher, and that constant teacher monitoring is necessary in order to ensure that each child has the opportunity to progress in accordance with their ability.

What is meant by progression is also a key consideration. Rather than simply the acquisition of more and more lists of words in the foreign language, I see progression as an increase in children’s confidence, an increase in the language learning tools they have at their disposal and an increased ability to be able to extend and apply language they already know in different contexts.

The class teachers and I have been using the QCA Key Stage 2 Scheme of Work for the last year, and have found that the close alignment of the units to the Key Stage 2 Framework for languages very much facilitates planning for progression. Each section is cross-referenced to Framework objectives, and the scheme of work progresses in accordance with the year-group sections of the Framework, ensuring that all strands of the Framework are addressed.

The current Year 6s in our cluster have now been studying French for four years, and many of them are therefore able to access Year 6 objectives from the Framework. In any series of lessons, however, I tend to use the Framework as a means of building in oracy and literacy progression, beginning with Year 3 word-level objectives, and then moving on to the phrase and then sentence level, before eventually reaching the Year 6 text-level objectives.

As a languages teacher, building from the word level through these stages is what I would consider to be good practice in terms of progression anyway, but using the Framework objectives alongside the Scheme of Work just makes the planning process so much easier. I find that working through these different levels also builds in progression in terms of confidence, and that using the KAL and LLS objectives of the Framework (and sharing them with the children) enables them to progress more quickly in subsequent lessons.

For example, in a series of lessons with Year 6 using Unit 20 of the QCA Scheme of Work (Notre Monde) pupils progressed from word to phrase, to sentence, and eventually to short text level in literacy.

Initially they simply had to respond with an action to familiar written words (L3.1), for example, “Asie, Afrique.”

The next stage was to read a short phrase and determine if it was vrai or faux, (L4.1) for example, Il y a des lions en Afrique. In order to progress to creating these sentences for themselves, pupils used sets of word cards and experimented with the order of words within the sentence, beginning some sentences with Il y a and some with En. (L5.2)

Finally, towards the end of the unit, pupils were able to read and understand the main points and some details from short passages on different countries. (L6.1) They had to compare written information with symbols given to them on cards, and make corresponding corrections to the written French. As an extension to this, pupils were then able to write similar sentences of their own using this model (L6.4)

Many of the classes in our feeder schools are mixed-age, and planning for the progression of all learners must take this into consideration. In my experience, the nature of languages lessons means that both the younger and older members of the class can take part at their own level. Indeed, I have found that it is often difficult to tell which year-group certain members of the class belong to.

I follow Durham LA methodology for mixed-age classes, and plan a two-year rolling programme of lessons based on the QCA Scheme of Work and focusing on core structures in different contexts. In this way, all pupils will have the opportunity to cover two years’ worth of content, and they will do so in a way which allows them to revisit key language in the second year.

The more able pupils in their second year, or returning pupils, would be expected to take more of a lead role in any group-work activities. I have found that they enjoy helping the younger pupils, and that in explaining language to others they are able to reinforce their own knowledge.

For some less able returning pupils, this approach also enables them to revisit and reinforce language they may have struggled with the previous year in a non-threatening way. This approach could also be employed for non-mixed-age classes as a means of ensuring progression, since the more able are encouraged to take a lead and explain their own learning, while the less able are supported to revisit language they may not have mastered initially.