Latin
As children move into Key stage 2, they are introduced to Latin, following the Minimus scheme of work. Our intent for the teaching of Latin is to teach children a broad and balanced curriculum, using Latin to support vocabulary development, a deeper understanding of grammatical structures in English and foreign languages and for children to investigate the derivatives of language alongside historical stories. The teaching of Latin follows a clear progression in line with age-related expectations.
Rationale
Enhancing children’s vocabulary and promoting a love of reading and language is at the heart of everything we do at Whiteknights. Latin is a natural fit for our vision of building better knowledge for long term learning in a range of subjects. When pupils are making connections between the root or roots of a word they are creating a larger picture of meaning. In doing this, they are making links to the long-term memory. In this way they will know more and remember more.
Since Latin lies at the root of 60% of English words, studying it has a beneficial impact on development of English vocabulary across a range of subjects – such as science, Maths, Geography and History.
How will we know that our children are making progress?
The scheme is divided into chapters that cover different aspects of language with related work to assess the children’s understanding. Children fully immerse in each chapter before moving on and the learning is revisited and revised in each chapter.
Implementation
As Whiteknights begins its journey to the teaching of Latin as a foreign language, we will roll out the following curriculum until the end of the 2023-24 academic year. Future years will then follow the last plan. Ongoing reviews, through staff meetings, will take place to ensure the teaching of each chapter is sufficient for each year group.
