At Aston Rowant, we ensure that our MFL curriculum is coherent, progressive and accountable. Our systems for assessment, monitoring, and pupil voice demonstrate clearly that children learn well, build knowledge securely, and develop confidence and accuracy in French.

Information from your MFL Action Plan highlights the importance of consistent monitoring, book looks, staff understanding of progression and pupil voice as key mechanisms for ensuring quality. These principles underpin this page.

How We Measure Progress in MFL

We use a combination of formative, summative and qualitative measures to evaluate progress across the school:

1. Lesson-based formative assessment

Teachers continually assess pupils through:

• Speaking and listening responses
• Fluency and accuracy in pronunciation
• Confidence during pair work or class conversations
• Retrieval practice tasks (vocab recall, phonics games, verb warm-ups)
• Mini whiteboard spelling tasks
• Understanding during modelling and repetition

This allows teachers to adapt teaching immediately and address misconceptions.

2. End-of-unit outcomes

Cave Languages provides clear, purposeful outcomes such as:

• Poems
• Shape books
• Descriptions
• Mini-stories
• Fact files
• Lift-the-flap books
• Short written pieces with manipulated grammar

Teachers use these outcomes to judge pupils’ mastery of vocabulary, grammar, spelling, sentence structure and dictionary skills.

3. Termly tracking

KS2 staff complete foundation subject trackers each term and share them with the subject lead — a required action in your Action Plan.

This ensures:

• Data is accurate
• Pupils on track are identified
• Support or challenge can be planned

4. Book looks (Work scrutiny)

The MFL Lead conducts book looks to evaluate:

• Progression over time
• Sentence complexity
• Accuracy of grammar and spelling
• Breadth of vocabulary
• Evidence of Cave Languages structures
• Organisation and presentation

5. Pupil Voice as evidence of mastery

Pupil voice is a formal part of your assessment cycle. Pupils are asked:

• “What have you learned this year?”
• “How do you know you are improving?”
• “What do you enjoy about French?”
• “What helps you remember new vocabulary?”
• “What else would you like to learn?”

This provides direct insight into retention and enjoyment.

6. Teacher knowledge of progression

Staff review the MFL progression map and rolling programme to understand what knowledge children should have securely mastered at each point.

How We Ensure Consistency Across School

The Cave Languages scheme combined with our Action Plan creates a uniform whole-school approach.

Here is how consistency is secured:

1. Use of a single, high-quality scheme (Cave Languages)

Cave Languages provides:

• A clear progression of phonics → vocabulary → grammar
• Consistent teaching structures
• High-quality resources
• Differentiated mixed-age planning
• Grammar and phoneme expectations for each unit

2. All staff access the same progression documents

Your Action Plan requires:

• All staff have a copy of the progression document
• Staff meeting time to discuss progression
• Understanding of how units build on one another

This ensures a unified understanding of what pupils should know and be able to do at each stage.

3. Monitoring by the MFL Lead

Monitoring includes:

• Book looks
• Learning walks
• Planning checks
• Pupil voice interviews
• Resource audits
• Review of termly trackers

4. Mixed-age cycles ensure progression rather than repetition

The two-year cycles for Fox and Owl Classes prevent children from repeating content and instead deepen complexity year by year.

5. Staff support & CPD

Your Action Plan identifies staff who are confident in MFL to support others and directs non-specialists to accessible training materials. This increases confidence and consistency in delivery.

6. Consistent use of bilingual dictionaries and resources

Priority 3 in the Action Plan emphasises developing and distributing resources to support learning (dictionaries, topic resource boxes, etc.). This ensures children have common tools across classes.

Samples of Pupil Voice (What Our Children Say)

Year 3 (Fox Class)

• “I like learning French sounds — ‘ou’ and ‘on’ are my favourite!”
• “I can say a sentence now, not just one word.”
• “Using the dictionary makes me feel like a real linguist.”

Year 4 (Fox Class)

• “I can describe animals using colours and say if something is or isn’t something.”
• “French lessons help me be brave and try new words.
• “I didn’t think I could speak another language but now I can!”

Year 5 (Owl Class)

• “I can write a whole poem in French - I never thought I’d be able to do that.”
• “The Cave Languages videos help me get my pronunciation right.”
• “I like learning about France and how it’s the same or different to us.”

Year 6 (Owl Class)

• “French is helping me be ready for secondary school.”
• “I can use verbs now and write proper sentences - even with adjectives!”
• “Learning another language helps me understand people in other countries and respect different cultures.”