Modern Foreign Languages Curriculum Statement

FRENCH

Intent – What are we trying to achieve?

At Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School and Nursery, we work hard to ensure children gain a strong understanding of the world, fostering a celebration of different cultures. Language learning provides a link to other cultures and develops learners’ curiosity and understanding of the world. The teaching of French at Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School enables pupils to express themselves in French and to understand and respond to others in both speech and writing. Pupils progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary using the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. We provide opportunities for children to communicate for practical purposes in French, which provides the foundation for further language learning in Key Stage 3.

Implementation – How is our vision translated into practice?

In Key Stage1, formal language lessons are not delivered but the basics of incidental language learning is woven throughout the curriculum. Children are forming the basics of learning at a word level and intercultural understanding is promoted as a regular part of practice.

We teach French across Key Stage 2 at Sacred Heart School. The school uses the ‘Rigolo’ scheme of work to support the teaching and learning of the language, which includes developing skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing, as well as intercultural understanding, as underpinned by National Curriculum Objectives. Our chosen scheme provides a clear progression for the development of speaking, listening and vocabulary acquisition through fun interactive resources and a variety of ways of teaching French.

We play games in order to develop vocabulary through repetition, reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. We learn to speak in sentences in different every day, practical purposes. We participate in role-play to practise our sentences and have conversations in French, asking and answering questions; express opinions and respond to others. Together, we appreciate songs, rhymes and poems and use this to help our pronunciation. We also read and write in French!

Teachers use daily formative assessment practices to identify misconceptions and to provide further scaffolding to techniques and adaptive teaching when required. Children receive precise and positive verbal feedback regarding their skills. We give live feedback to pupils for encouragement and promote progression and next steps. On-going assessment then informs next steps in teaching and learning to challenge or support all learners regardless of ability.

Impact – What is the impact of our curriculum?

Through the teaching of French, we will see the impact of the subject in the following ways:

• Children will be able to communicate with each other in French.

• Children will know that the grammatical structure of French is different from that in English.

• Through speaking, listening, reading and writing, children will develop their language skills.

• Children will have an understanding of French culture.

• By the time pupils leave our school, we aim for all pupils to speak French in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures. Children will be equipped and prepared to continue their language learning into secondary school and beyond.