De Aston Languages

Our intent

The intent of our Languages curriculum at De Aston School is to be inclusive and to develop our students’ communication skills, self-efficacy and a passion for language learning and different cultures. Through the 3 pillars of progression – phonics, vocabulary and grammar, our students will gain a strong phonetic knowledge that enables them to speak, understand and write with increasing confidence and accuracy. Through our carefully sequenced curriculum, our students will learn how to manipulate grammar to allow them to personalise information and retain core phrases that can be recycled within a wide range of different topic areas, becoming resilient and competent linguists who arrive at each step in their learning journeys more prepared, knowledgeable and confident than before. 

All students study French from Year 7, with ‘taster’ sessions of German and Spanish for the last half term of the year. Some students are given the opportunity to study German/Spanish from Year 8 onwards and all students are encouraged to continue to study a language at GCSE level and beyond.  

Our department employs a range of strategies to ensure students learn in an enjoyable, positive and memory friendly environment and apply Dr Gianfranco Conti’s (a respected MFL teacher, specialist and linguist) ‘Extensive Processing Instruction’ (EPI) principles to our curriculum.  

This approach includes: 

• Vocabulary presented as ‘Sentence builders’ which are central to all lessons, enabling students to build accurate sentences and promote independence 
• ‘Keys’ (core grammar) for each year group that, along with vocabulary and phonics, are systematically revisited and interleaved from topic to topic, year to year, ensuring durable learning and clear progression from Year 7 to 11 
• Extensive drilling of chunks of language using engaging listening and reading games and speaking activities, ensuring that our students receive substantial receptive and productive practice of language on which they can build upon to attain long term retention and fluency 
• Use of texts that are at least 95% comprehensible to build fluency and to avoid cognitive overload 

We hope that our diverse and knowledge rich curriculum will develop confident linguists who enjoy language learning and are inspired to take part in the wide range of extra-curricular language competitions and events that we offer.