Languages Spotlight!

I'm Jess, the Head of MFL within Junior Jam. This means I look after all our French and Spanish instructors and also ensure our curriculum is up to date with fun and fresh content which comes in line with the national curriculum.

Currently our MFL department has 30 staff which I manage on a day-to-day basis. I like to ensure I am available for my staff if they have any queries during their time at Junior Jam. This may be things to do with their specific school or something to do with the content which they teach. As part of my role as Head of MFL, I also carry out observations and do drop ins to see how our French and Spanish teachers are getting on whilst teaching. Junior Jam offer lots of positive feedback to our staff to ensure all lessons are at a high-quality level and we offer support where needed. 

In 2022, we started revamping our MFL curriculum, and eventually this has brought us to completely change our French and Spanish content. The best thing about this, is that it has been written and created by our own instructors who have first on hand experience of teaching the Junior Jam content, so they are able to create the lessons to ensure the children are getting the most out of our lessons and most importantly, meeting the learning objectives. 

This curriculum revamp has meant changes to our Lite Levels for KS1 and Levels 1-4 for KS2. We are currently working on changing the EYFS curriculum and this should be completed by March 2024. For KS2 some of these changes include learning new topics such as hobbies and free time where the pupils will learn a wide range of hobbies to talk about. Pupils will now also learn about Jobs and how to name various professions and speak about their family member's job. Our keynotes which are presented during the lessons are a lot more visually exciting for the pupils, ensuring that our lessons stay engaging. All of our newly written documents which include, planning for schools, staff manuals, resources, keynotes, knowledge organisers and curriculum links have been checked and proofread before being uploaded to our Junior Jam website and app. 

We are really excited about our new content within the languages department, the revamp has been a long process but certainly worth it. If you are a school who are currently thinking of adding French or Spanish to your PPA timetable, please contact us as we would be thrilled to deliver these fun and engaging sessions within your school.