Our SOW and updates!

We have been busy updating and revamping the KS2 SOW as we continue to learn more this year from our 165 network primary schools! 

Our intention is to support all our schools and teachers and to provide resources and approaches that suit all their needs. This means that schools can inter-change topics and content with our cross curricular and seasonal specials materials or material of their own.

Membership of our network entitles you to access all materials and even to request bespoke materials and support too! Should you want to find out more about membership please get in touch via our Primary Languages Network contact page .

We love our new language skill development folders....more later in this blog post!

If you are a network member then you can take a deeper and further look via the KS2 French or Spanish SOW Plus icons on our VLE. The VLE allows us to be a dynamic and pro-active network .The further enhancement of the SOW is just one part of the services the VLE allows us to offer our network members. Being part of the Primary Languages Network means that as we adapt and revamp the SOW then schools at their own pace can come along on this journey too! 

In KS2 French or Spanish SOW folders you will find

• Year group folders with contain half termly sub folders for the class teacher.
• In each sub folder there are the lesson plans, the activities and resources folder and the key phrases and native speaker sound files folder to support staff with pronunciation. (Some schools like to use these too to create their own listening challenges for the children)
• The extension podcasts take listening just that little bit further and add challenge too for children in the development of listening skills.
• The activities and resources folder has additional useful resources added on a regular basis so it's worth keep taking a look.

Our new Reading and Writing Skill Development Activities

 We now have within the body of the SoW reading(Let's Read) and writing (Talk and Write)  language skill development sections. These are optional but as we progress in our understanding of what our schools want to achieve in their language learning, they are bound to become popular additions. We have made sure that these are accessible for all staff and that there is opportunity for teachers with high language skills to be able to take these and change and adapt etc.

Let’s Read Activities folder offers you half term by half term Y3 and Y4 developmental reading skill focuses.

Teachers can use the online documents to practise sound - spelling links, reading aloud and accurate pronunciation, simple reading skills etc. Each online document allows the teacher to click directly on to the recommended resources, clips and sound, song and story files.

 We are building a portfolio of reading comprehension and reading skill materials (texts, activities, resources and sound file readings of the texts) for UKS2 too and these texts have a cultural and factual focus. The first one is up and being used and well received - it's about Epiphany, Carnival and Easter will follow shortly……..

Take a look if you are a network member already!

Talk and Write contains three folders per year. We hope this helps schools to develop writing and grammar skills with the children. Each folder is linked to a specific half term, where we have created and used a story in the body of the lessons of the KS2 SOW. The text is simple so that all staff can use this and there are always sound files by native speakers to support with accurate pronunciation of the story. The intention is that the teachers and children can use the simple texts as a scaffold to alter the text and then finally to write their own imaginative texts. Each sub folder contains the story text and pictures, the step by step three stage scaffold sheet of activities and the Talk and Write Overview Guidance to allow all staff to be able to use this. 

Take a look if you are a network member already!

The Extra KS2 SOW folder offers more confident staff new materials to use instead of or alongside the existing KS2 French/Spanish SOW.The beauty of the VLE is that we are adding to this on a regular basis as well and as colleagues develop new ideas and approaches we can add these too! Take a look if you are a network member already!

 Our "Extending Y3 learners interactive Online Dcoument is proving highly popular with our schools where children have been learning a language in KS1.It helps schools to align the learning  in our Year 3 KS2 SOW with the children's prior knowledge from KS1. Take a look if you are a network member already!

 We wanted to create a very simple and effective snap shot picture of how our children are progressing .Alongside the associate teachers who work with me in 47 of our 165 schools we are creating Puzzle It Out sheets this year. What we are finding really important is that we keep it simple, easy to administer and mark and that the children are involved in peer assessment too. Again some of our schools want to assess progress of all children every half term and others want to take a different approach. The word document Puzzle It Out sheets can be adapted- so the activities are the same but content can be changed to suit the needs of the school. We want to see development in language learning skills. There is teacher guidance on the best ways to use these very simple activities and our tracking sheets and our assessment spreadsheets mean schools can monitor and record progress as they are so required in school.

 So what is yet to come in 2016-2017? Well our simple approaches to ease the demands of the Creative Curriculum are well underway and our listening development materials will be up by Easter – but more about these at a later date!

Should you want to find out more please get in touch via our Primary Languages Network contact page .