Modern Foreign Languages - French

 

Modern Foreign Languages are about nurturing children’s curiosity, cultural sensitivity, empathy and tolerance. Our children learn French through a combination of speaking, listening, reading and writing.

 

It gives children the opportunity to enhance their decision-making skills, improve their memory and increase their attention span. It also increases their ability to multitask and allows them to improve their first language whilst developing an awareness of the French culture.

 

Without it children will miss out on developing transferable skills that are of life-long benefit. When we expose children to an additional language, they reap the benefits of experimenting with that language as a natural part of their development. Their progress is not stifled by a fear of getting it wrong.

 

It feeds into our school’s curriculum intent by providing children with a vocabulary rich curriculum that offers valuable opportunities for them to creatively discuss, question and fully explore the French language and culture. It has a clear progression of learning that is inclusive for all children within the school.

 

French is taught across the school from Year 3 to Year 6. Our curriculum ensures that children learn new knowledge and skills and progress in these so that they become skilled in speaking, listening, reading and writing French. This will enable them to contribute to our language rich world. French is spoken in 29 countries.

 

Our curriculum ensures that our children:

• Are taught to understand and respond to spoken and written language.
• Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity.
• Are able to find ways of communicating what they want to say.
• Continually improve the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
• Can write for different purposes and audiences whilst applying the variety of grammatical structures they have learnt.
• Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in French.
• Skills are taught progressively to ensure that all children are able to learn and practice in order to develop as they move through the school.

 

In addition, children are able to apply their French language knowledge through daily routines and they participate in our annual French week, which is full of innovative, creative and cultural rich activities. The children are also able to utilise technology to access a variety of French videos, websites and applications.

 

Please click the link below for our curriculum progression grid for Modern Foreign Language - French, detailing how our children progress through knowledge and skills from Year 3 to Year 6.

 

French Progression Grid

 

Useful websites

https://www.duolingo.com/learn – This website is full of quick, bite-sized lessons to help develop French skills.

https://www.thefablecottage.com/french - This website has children’s stories that are translated into French with optional English translations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/ - This website is super simple to get around, so children can explore the site on their own or the activities can be enjoyed with others.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK6TzBHhEUCKa6dgjlsVHEw - This link takes you to a series of YouTube videos created by Alexa (YouTube’s most awesome French teacher).