Intent

At Holy Family Catholic Primary School, we believe that learning a foreign language provides an opening to other cultures whilst fostering pupils’ curiosity and deepening their understanding of the world. It provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our pupils, helping them to develop communication skills including key skills of speaking and listening and extends their knowledge of how language works. We aim to instil in our children a love for Modern Foreign Language that continues into adult life, especially as it stimulates language development, social development and cultural awareness.

Implementation

At Holy Family, we are very excited about the recent addition to our curriculum – the teaching and learning of German for KS2 pupils. We are currently working in partnership with Ada Lovelace and the Goethe-Institut to launch and embed our German curriculum.

The children learn through following the adventures of ‘Wuschel’, created by Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler and the Goethe-Institut and they have had the benefit of being taught by the Head of Modern Foreign Languages at Ada Lovelace and a teacher from the Goethe-Institut. Teachers are present in classes during this time; providing them with a greater understanding of the German curriculum and how it is being delivered, whilst also giving them the opportunity to embed the skills of the specialist language teacher throughout the school day.

We look forward to developing a programme enrichment opportunities and extending our links to other German speaking schools. Recently, year 6 pupils from the Deutsche Schule London came in to support the weekly German lessons and the children enjoyed getting to know each other while enhancing their vocabulary.

Pupil Voice

“I think German is a great lesson because we are getting to learn a new language and if I ever go to German I will be able to speak to the people there and have a good time.
Isabel - Year 4EM

"When I first knew we were going to learn German but when I met my teachers she was brilliant. I have learn phrases and now we even starting to write German in our books - we have learnt numbers, words for different objects and some important phrases".
Leen - Year 4EM

"I like our German lessons because the teacher does not rush our learning. Our books are great. We get to write in them and the characters make it easy to learn." 
Sofia - Year 4EM

Music Workshop - March 2025

What a way to start the week! On Monday morning we were thrilled to welcome Ben Vonberg - Clark to our school. He led a German music workshop with Years 3, 4 and 5. The children learnt two songs in German, including ‘Sie Liebt Dich’. I was so delighted that our children got to work with Ben - an inspirational teacher who enthralled the children and staff for over two hours. It was an education for all of us in how to teach and engage pupils. Remarkable.

 A huge thank you to our dear friends at the Goethe - Institut who made this possible. Our links with the Institut and Ada Lovelace continue to provide the most wonderful opportunities for our pupils. Danke Sehr!

Mr Doherty 

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