French

'There are doubtless many different languages in the world, and none is without meaning.'

1 Corinthians 14:10

Learning a foreign language opens up the world for our pupils and allows them to explore other cultures. The high-quality language education we provide fosters our pupils’ curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world around them. The teaching enables our pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in French and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It provides opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in French. Language teaching provides the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.

Aims

Our aim is to ensure that all pupils:

• understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
• speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation
• can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
• discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied

Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision which aims to enable all pupils, regardless of background, ability or additional needs, to truly flourish and achieve their full potential.

We teach the National Curriculum for French through the Lingotots scheme of work. The Lingotot scheme of work has been developed to ensure that:

all attainment targets of the National curriculum are met;

it is ambitious; it builds on prior knowledge and shows progression;

it allows all children to access it and make progress.

Our Lingotot teacher is a fluent French speaker and holds the Certificate in Teaching Primary Languages as a minimum. 

Lingotot has cross curricular links built into medium and short-term planning. There is a strong ethos of cultural awareness and children valuing other languages which is embedded into the Lingotot programme. Children show an understanding and appreciation of other cultures. Events or activities to celebrate French or other languages and cultures are planned as standard within the Lingotot scheme of work.

French is taught in one-hour sessions, every other week across KS2 by our dedicated Lingotot teacher, Madame Townley. Children complete work in their workbook as well as sing songs and play games. They complete a range of activities to develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills.

French is assessed half termly by our dedicated French teacher and this information is shared with school. At the end of the year, children are assessed against the French National Curriculum objectives to identify if they are working below, expected or above age-related expectation. 

Impact

Through the high quality first teaching of French taking place we will see the impact of the subject in the following ways:

• Children will become aware that a language has a structure, and that the structure differs from one language to another.
• Children will develop their language and communication through development of the four key skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.
• Children will enrich their language learning by developing an understanding of the French culture.
• Children will transfer to KS3 effectively and successfully and will be well prepared to continue and develop their language skills.