French
We teach French from Years 3 to 6, allowing children the opportunity to understand and communicate in a different language, develop linguistic skills and to use their deepening knowledge to understand what they hear and read.
Our teaching methods ensure that every child has the opportunity to learn and achieve in the language. They make progress in the four main areas of oracy, intercultural understanding, knowledge about the language and language learning skills.
Intent - What do we want children to learn?
Our school follows a carefully planned sequence of lessons, ensuring progressive coverage of the skills required by the national curriculum. Our chosen themes - Time Travelling, Let's Visit a French Town and This Is France - provide an introduction to the culture of French-speaking countries and communities. It aims to foster children’s curiosity and help deepen their understanding of the world. A linear curriculum has been chosen to allow opportunity for children to gradually build on their skills. We enable children to express their ideas and thoughts in French and provides opportunities to interact and communicate with others both in speech and in writing. At the heart of our French learning is the desire to expose children to authentic French, so our scheme offers regular opportunities to listen to native speakers.
In Lower KS2, children acquire basic skills and understanding of French with a strong emphasis placed on developing their Speaking and Listening skills. These will be embedded and further developed in Upper KS2, alongside Reading and Writing, gradually progressing onto more complex language concepts and greater learner autonomy.
Through our French scheme, we intend to inspire pupils to develop a love of languages and to expand their horizons to other countries, cultures and people. We aim to help children grow into curious, confident and reflective language learners and to provide them with a foundation that will equip them for further language studies.
Implementation - How are we going to achieve our intent?
Lessons are sequenced so that prior learning is considered and opportunities for the revision of language and grammar are built in.
Our lessons and resources help children to build on prior knowledge alongside the introduction of new skills. A series of lessons are suggested, providing structure and context as well as offering an insight into the culture of French-speaking countries and communities. The introduction and revision of key vocabulary and grammatical structures is built into each lesson. This vocabulary is then included in display materials and additional resources so that children have opportunities to repeat and revise their learning. Our scheme French has been designed by our language specialist teaching team, including French native speakers, so that teachers feel confident and supported. All of our lesson packs contain adult guidance, accurate language subject knowledge and accompanying audio materials.
Impact - What will it look like when we have achieved our intent?
Using the full range of resources, including display materials, will increase the profile of languages across school. The learning environment will be consistent with key French vocabulary displayed, spoken and used by all learners. Whole-school and parental engagement will improve through the use of language-specific home learning tasks and opportunities suggested in lessons and overviews for wider learning. We want to ensure that French is enjoyed by teachers and pupils across Sir Robert Hitcham’s Primary, therefore encouraging them to embark on further language studies. Impact can also be measured through key questioning skills built into lessons, child-led assessment such as success criteria grids, jigsaw targets and KWL grids and summative assessments aimed at targeting next steps in learning.
See our French Posts on the Blog.
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