Intent

At Preston Muslim Girls’ High School, we aim to provide a curriculum that encourages every pupil to ‘achieve their best’ through development of personal and life skills to help them to manage their lives in a positive way. 

To facilitate a smooth management of self-development in line with our school ethos, being able to communicate in a foreign language is advantageous. The intention and focus of the Arabic department is the development of pupil’s communication skills, independence and robust retention of the target language. We aim for the pupils to gain a strength in phonology, grammar and vocabulary in Arabic. They will learn to retain key grammatical concepts, phrases and terminologies that can aid towards the development of their confidence and become resilient, independent linguists and learners.

By the end of Key Stage 3, pupils will have a sound understanding of what it is to be a linguist. They will develop an understanding of how learning an additional language adds to an all-rounded successful pupil. In this climate as global influences are at their optimum, pupils will develop an understanding of how different languages are interconnected and how learning additional languages play a part in our daily lives.

Pupils will leave the school with the knowledge and understanding that enables them to apply what they know to both familiar and unfamiliar contexts from family life to environmental issues and the world of work. This will help them to go on to achieve their potential, not just in Higher Education but as a global citizen living and working in an interdependent world.

The Arabic curriculum is designed to be delivered in themes, which is richly embedded with reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. At KS4 the pupils spend equal quality time on each theme focusing on grammar and vocabulary development.

There is an opportunity for all pupils to study Arabic in year 7 alongside other MFL languages and an opportunity to select Arabic as a single language from year 8 to GCSE.

All pupils take up a language at GCSE level as part of a strong EBacc offer.

The Arabic department is developing through our school’s enrichment program. One of the new developmental strategies is to offer an extracurricular club on Arabic calligraphy which is open to all KS3 pupils after school.

Implementation

The Arabic department employs a range of strategies to ensure pupils learn in an enjoyable, positive and inclusive environment. We have an inclusive approach where all 4 skills, reading, writing, speaking listening skills are targeted consistently. Our approach includes sentence builders, extensive drilling of vocabularies through various activities as well as focus on speaking and listening skills. Other approaches also include explicit teaching of the language, systematic retrieval of knowledge/vocabulary to produce durable learning.

We constantly highlight grammatical rules and patterns of the Arabic language. Scaffolded learning and processing is a common practise where a thematic repetition is observed to support retention and stickability. Additionally, interleaving is powerful because we learn best through associative learning by hooking the new to the old. The core structures are practised with old and new vocabulary and structures over time through systematic recycling.

To support our pupils in making an informed decision when selecting a language option, Arabic is offered to all our year 7 pupils throughout the entire year. We encourage our pupils to make their selections end of year 7 to allow them to settle into their language of choice for a considerable part of KS3 and all of KS4.

Impact

The consistent approach in Arabic has helped to foster the engagement of pupils in language learning and achievement. Our linguists develop their vocabulary and ability to manipulate and incorporate grammatical structures to ensure the highest of standards and the attainment of personalised aspirational targets.

Throughout the years, the uptake of Arabic has been the second most popular amongst our pupils at Preston Muslim Girls High School. We aim to further populate Arabic by enrichment activities and programs.

Behaviour is generally excellent in Arabic rewarding systems applied consistently to maintain pupil motivation and where issues arise, we work collaboratively with colleagues to manage behaviour.

As a result of a strong intent and implementation, there is evidence of progression from KS3 pupils to KS4. With a consistent repetition of themes, pupils make evident progress from KS3 to KS4. Tracking data shows that there is progression in pupils’ knowledge and skills from term to term, year to year. Intervention processes are in place with KS4 pupils to help those who are not on track.

The Arabic department works with a wider MFL team, where common successful practises are discussed and shared and work scrutiny, observations are all part of our common practise.