Modern Foreign Languages Curriculum Map

The MFL Department at St Mary’s Catholic Academy is ambitious, experienced and specialised in the teaching of modern foreign languages. We aim to create rich and diverse learning experiences for our pupils, guiding them to understand the unique academic advantage our subject offers them in an increasingly competitive and challenging job market. We aspire to instil a life-long love of language learning in our pupils, and to develop skilled, enthusiastic, curious and independent language learners who are also culturally aware global citizens.

Through our own vast array of experiences we know how liberating, joyful and enriching it is to travel, live and work abroad, and how being able to communicate in another language profoundly enhances these experiences. We want our pupils at St Mary’s to know this, too, and we also want them to appreciate that studying a foreign language is an incredibly rewarding opportunity that not only opens their eyes to the fascinating world of language learning, but also deepens their understanding of our increasingly interconnected planet and its people.

From Year 7 through to A Level, our pupils acquire language and cultural knowledge through studying a variety of interesting topics and developing the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Our seven-year curriculum places a heavy emphasis on the gradual and logical accumulation and reinforcement of not only vocabulary but also grammar. This focus on linguistic competence – real understanding of how a language works – aims to make our pupils confident in manipulating and using language independently, in all its forms. We believe this approach serves for individual differences in abilities and interests, and we strive to provide a high level of literacy and numeracy in our lessons, preparing our pupils for success in adult life. Our curriculum at all three key stages is underpinned by a mastery approach, which we believe equips our pupils with the necessary foundations for continuing their studies at A Level, learning different languages, or for studying and working in foreign countries.