MfL - French

At Two Moors Primary School, we are committed to developing internationally-minded children with an understanding of the world around them. We recognise the importance of developing language skills to enable children to communicate with a variety of people and in a variety of situations. In an increasingly globalised community, it is important for children to appreciate different cultures and languages, and develop an open-minded attitude. Through our explicit language lessons and interwoven language tasks and games, we aim for children to be able to achieve the following skills by the time they leave Two Moors:

• Use words and phrases to express themselves in other languages.

• Make connections between different words and phrases in both English and foreign languages.

• Develop an appreciation for different languages and cultures.

• Listen attentively to spoken language.

• Enjoy being able to learn a different language!

At Two Moors Primary School, our language of instruction is English. Our additional language focus is French. We recognise the importance of early language learning, which is why we begin teaching French in Key Stage One. We use the Language Angels scheme of work, which ensures a progressive curriculum across the children's time in the school. We also ensure we teach the grammar and phonics of French, as this is important when learning any new language - it also allows our pupils to draw similarities and differences with the English phonics learning that they do! 

Within each unit of work, we focus on developing children’s reading, writing, speaking and listening skills through independent activities and games. Our languages progression of skills and knowledge document shows the particular skills that we aim to teach children in specific year groups. Although we use the Language Angels scheme of work, we are also working to develop a close liaison between the MFL lead at Tiverton High School and us to ensure a vertically articulated language programme.

As a result of our languages curriculum, children will have a greater understanding of how to communicate in French, and be able to speak, listen, read and write in this language using familiar vocabulary. We also hope that when children move to secondary school, they are able to build on the foundations we have developed at Two Moors. We know that our local secondary school teaches French, so most of our children will be able to build on their current knowledge. For children who go on to learn more languages in their secondary school, we hope that they will be able to make connections and notice similarities between learning French and learning other languages, whether that is in vocabulary or grammar skills.