Higham Lane North Academy
Languages
The MFL Curriculum at Higham Lane North Academy
At HLNA, our ambitious curriculum in Languages is designed to ensure that students know more, remember more and can do more in Languages over time. We understand learning as a change in long-term memory, and therefore our Languages curriculum is carefully sequenced and deliberately structured to secure knowledge so that it is retained and applied with confidence.
A central principle of our approach is the management of cognitive load. By presenting new material in languages explicitly, modelling thinking clearly, and breaking learning into manageable components, we ensure that students can focus on what matters most. This enables learning to be both accessible and memorable.
Our classroom practice in languages is underpinned by consistent and explicit routines that support long-term retention. Knowledge booklets promote equity and entitlement: every student has access to the most powerful knowledge within languages. These booklets enable students to pre-learn, revisit and over-learn key content, strengthening retrieval and embedding learning securely in long-term memory.
Every languages lesson begins with a cultural point to help students understand real-life language use, stay motivated and develop intercultural awareness. This is followed by structured retrieval practice to activate prior knowledge and strengthen memory pathways. Language resources are organised consistently to reduce extraneous cognitive load, allowing students to focus on learning rather than process. Oracy routines are embedded to ensure that students can articulate ideas clearly, use subject-specific vocabulary in languages precisely, and engage in purposeful academic discussion.
We use dual coding and carefully designed, dyslexia-friendly visual materials in languages to enhance clarity and accessibility. Whole-class reading routines ensure that all students engage with ambitious texts, while explicit vocabulary instruction builds disciplinary fluency. Our ‘green pens for growth’ routine ensures that students actively respond to feedback in every lesson, promoting reflection and improvement.
Formative assessment in languages is continuous and responsive. Daily questioning, low-stakes quizzing and structured checks for understanding enable teachers to identify misconceptions and adapt teaching accordingly. Whole-class feedback strategies support self and peer assessment, fostering independence while maintaining high expectations.
Alongside regular summative assessments in languages, synoptic assessments are built into every year group to evaluate cumulative knowledge. This ensures that learning is not episodic but enduring. Through systematic retrieval over time, we minimise cognitive overload and maximise the likelihood that students remember and can apply what they have learned.
As a result, our languages curriculum is coherent, knowledge-rich and carefully sequenced — ensuring that all students make strong progress and are fully prepared for the next stage of their education.
At HLNA, everyone is included and everyone belongs. This commitment is reflected in our inclusive classroom practice in languages, where all students are supported, challenged and valued as learners. We create an environment in languages where diversity is respected, barriers to learning are reduced, and every student has the opportunity to succeed.
Our values are lived out daily through our students, who strive to be conscientious, compassionate and confident in all aspects of their learning in languages. These qualities underpin our culture of high expectations and mutual respect within our language classrooms. We are proud of our environment in languages because we always do what is right — demonstrating integrity, responsibility and care for one another in both our learning and with each other.
Over time in languages, students will learn how to talk about ourselves and the world around us. All units are supported by knowledge organisers including key and stretch vocabulary lists and grammatical knowledge.
Year 7 begins with a focus on themselves and their families. Moving on to units about their school and free time activities.
Year 8 has a focus on the students’ environment and the wider world around them. With modules on the local area, holidays and leisure activities. All modules in year 8 are designed to recap the previously learnt content and introduce further content.
Year 9 the focus is on real world applications of the language. Recycling vocabulary from the year 7 and 8 courses and introducing new vocabulary through modules on media and technology, students’ personal world and lifestyle and wellbeing.
In languages, students will be able to recognise patterns in language moving on to manipulating the language and applying grammatical rules to be able to express themselves and will understand how language structures convey meaning across different contexts and time frames.
Throughout KS3, the curriculum is designed to repeatedly develop key disciplinary strands such as: phonics and pronunciation, vocabulary acquisition, grammar and sentence structure, communication skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing), translation and interpretation of the language as well as intercultural understanding. These strands are revisited and built upon each year, allowing students to develop both substantive knowledge (vocabulary and grammar) and disciplinary knowledge (how language works and how to use it effectively.
Our ambitious curriculum provides so much ambitious enrichment. For instance, presentations about themselves and their families, recorded weather reports, real-life French media content such as chart music and a French film project each year, trips such as a visit to the opal coast as well as Normandy, competitions (both in school and beyond), and opportunities to write for a real audience in a pen-pal exchange with a school in France.
There are so many careers that are linked to our subject that we discuss throughout Key Stage Three and these include careers in translation and interpreting, international business, tourism and hospitality, diplomacy, aviation, journalism, teaching and roles within multinational companies and global organisations where communications across languages and cultures is essential. Many of these links are made explicit in lessons but also by visitors presenting their own career journeys.
Amanda Hampton
Curriculum Leader for Languages
Please find below the curriculum map for the following subject. Each map provides an overview of the key topics, skills, and learning objectives covered throughout the academic year, helping students and parents understand the progression of learning within each subject area.
The following resources may help to support learning at home in French.
