Good News! There is a special price for school with less than 100 pupils. Just contact Tess@primarylanguages.network to find out more. Many of the challenges that you will face in a small school with primary foreign language learning are also addressed in the Primary Languages Network Mixed Age podcast and blogpost too. It’s worth looking here too. Podcast Blog Post We have tried and tested approaches to ensure that your learners will make progress in content, phonics and grammar plus language learning skills and the four core skills of listening , speaking , reading ,and writing. The KS2 Vi ..read more

How can we devise impactful and memorable learning opportunities when we are focusing upon nouns and the role of a noun in a simple present tense statement with early primary foreign language learners? In this blog I intend to share with you some tried and tested ways to generate activities where your young learners “get both physical and creative” with nouns in a target language. First a bit of context It’s at this time of year that Primary Languages Network member schools are working closely with the concept of “nouns”. As beginner primary junior language learners, the children are on an e ..read more

Insights from a Primary MFL Consultant I’m Kate Percival, a primary teacher and MFL consultant here at Primary Languages Network. In this blog series, I’ll be sharing top tips and inspirational ideas from the schools and coordinators I’ve been working with. Read on to find out more. Passionate about languages Michael Drayton Junior School have been longstanding members of Primary Languages Network and it was a pleasure to catch up with their MFL coordinator Steve Eardley for a PLN one-to-one consultancy session. Steve is pleased with the way both the Premium Plus and Click2Teach Schemes of Wo ..read more

At our most recent Leadership twilight, we looked at the most effective ways to introduce and embed dictionary skills.  As Attainment Target 9 says, pupils should be using dictionaries to ‘broaden their vocabulary and deepen their ability to understand new words’. So, if the attainment targets say it, we must do it, right? But who uses an actual dictionary anymore? Don’t we all just google?! I’m being facetious of course (hmm facetious/fasecious…just let me google how to spell that).  Kate hosts a Languages leadership twilight every half term to PLN members OK, so it turns out an o ..read more

At PLN, we want schools to feel proud of their Primary Languages, and one of the ways we help them to achieve this is through the Primary Languages Development Award (PLDA). I feel very privileged to be the PLDA mentor, as it allows me to see the language provision of many different schools, some at the start of their language journey and others where languages have been established a long time and are looking to refine their provision. The schools that complete the PLDA always have something positive to say about the process and their achievement. Here are the three BIG reasons why schools l ..read more

Insights from a Primary MFL Consultant I’m Kate Percival, a primary teacher and MFL consultant here at Primary Languages Network. In this blog series, I’ll be sharing top tips and inspirational ideas from the schools and coordinators I’ve been working with. Read on to find out more. Instead of ‘I can’t do it…’ try ‘I can’t do it yet…’ I was recently asked to train teachers with Star Institute on the subject of self-efficacy in MFL and it got me thinking.  At the last PLN Leadership twilight, we discussed and skill-shared this topic and having spoken to colleagues and co-ordinators, I ..read more

I’m Kate Percival, a primary teacher and MFL consultant here at Primary Languages Network. In my blogs, I’ll be sharing top tips and inspirational ideas from the schools and coordinators I’ve been working with. In the second part of this series we look at further ways to encourage a growth mindset and steps to improve self-efficacy amongst our young language learners. Read on to find out more. 1.       Practice, practice, practice! – opportunities for recall We cannot expect children to remember a set of new words which they have only heard a couple of times.&nb ..read more

I’m Kate Percival, a primary teacher and MFL consultant here at Primary Languages Network. In my blogs, I’ll be sharing top tips and inspirational ideas from the schools and coordinators I’ve been working with. In the third part of this series we look at further ways to encourage a growth mindset and steps to improve self-efficacy amongst our young language learners. Read on to find out more. 1.       Language Detective Skills Language detectives colour code parts of a sentence eg pronouns, verbs, nouns and conjunctions. As adults we know them as ‘transferrable ..read more

Insights from a Primary MFL Consultant I’m Kate Percival, a primary teacher and MFL consultant here at Primary Languages Network. In this blog series, I’ll be sharing top tips and inspirational ideas from the schools and coordinators I’ve been working with. Read on to find out more. Busy Bees at Bradshaw I recently met with MFL coordinator Laura Henshaw at Bradshaw Community Primary School in Warrington, and we had a rich discussion about her role and the direction Spanish is taking in her school.  Bradshaw CPS has been a longstanding member of Primary Languages Network. Teaching assista ..read more

The twelve DfE attainment targets for primary languages are the backbone to which teachers can refer as children progress through KS2.  They illustrate the key concepts of the subject which pupils need to be taught and have experience and regular practice in, in order to go on to become confident language learners:   1.       Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding.  2.       Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs, rhymes ..read more