Intent

Our intent for the teaching of Latin at St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary School is to teach children a rich, balanced curriculum, using Latin to support vocabulary development and a deeper understanding of grammatical structures in English. Learning Latin improves children’s literacy as it scaffolds language development and helps pupils make connections between Latin and English grammar and vocabulary. Enhancing children’s vocabulary and promoting a love of reading and language is an essential component to our curriculum at Christ Church and Latin provides more opportunities for our children to development and progress in their listening, speaking and writing skills.

Implementation

Throughout Key Stage 2 children use the Minimus course to learn Latin with a series of discreet sessions, with one unit being covered each term.  The course aims to give pupils a taste of the Latin language and above all is fun and engaging. Through the various sections of the course pupils’ English vocabulary is built upon with a focus on Latin root words and derivatives. Children and teachers read aloud in Latin and focus on new vocabulary in each section using both the Latin textbook and corresponding workbook.. Each new chapter includes picture stories which introduce the subject matter and language, word lists for new vocabulary, sections which teach relevant grammatical concepts, an introduction to the relevant English derivatives from Latin words and a summary of the grammar and vocabulary learnt. Also included in each section are points for discussion about Roman life and a myth or story told in English. Lessons are active and involve pupil participation throughout. Explicit links are made in each lesson to help children understand and make connections with their learning of English grammar and to extend their English vocabulary as well as links to their learning in history and the wider curriculum.   

Impact

Throughout our children’s time at St Wilfrid’s they will develop a love of Latin, responding to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.  Children will gain more confidence from being able to read and speak the Latin to writing at varying lengths for different audience and purposes. Pupils will begin to make not only connections from English to their Latin roots.  Children will have a grasp of a range of Latin topics and be able to apply cross curricular learning both into Latin and into subject areas, enhancing their knowledge of different civilisations.