French
Intent
At Skelton Primary School, we believe that learning a foreign language is an inclusive experience. One which inspires and enthuses children, whilst also broadening their curiosity and understanding of a target country, its culture and history. Using high quality resources, our aim is to make the learning of French engaging, fun and memorable. As linguists, children receive the opportunity to build their confidence and resilience in acquiring a language. We aim to embed the four linguistic skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in order to prepare our children for future opportunities to live and work in the wider world.
Implementation
Ready, Reflective, Respectful, Responsible, Resilient
Vision for teaching and learning
At Skelton primary school the children who are in Key Stage 2 learn basic French language skills. To ensure progressions and that curriculum content is engaging we subscribe to Primary Language Network.
In line with the National Curriculum pupils should be taught to:
- listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
- explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
- engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help
- speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
- develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases
- present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences
- read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
- appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
- broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary
- write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly
- describe people, places, things and actions orally* and in writing
- understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English
The approach to learning is largely based around frequent repetition of key words and phrases (I say, you say, games etc). Each week children should receive a minimum of 15 minutes, fast paced learning through the Primary Language Network online learning platform that is delivered by the teacher. Every child will have an exercise book where a minimum of one piece of recorded is produced per teaching unit.
| Half Term/Stage | Stage 1 – Year 3 | Stage 2 – Year 4 | Stage 3 -Year 5 | Stage 4 – Year 6 |
| Autumn 1 | A new start (Greetings, feelings, numbers, colours) | Welcome to school (Recap core language, rooms in a school, classroom objects) | Me and my friends at school (Extended feelings, recap personal information, introduce a friend, subjects and opinions) | This is me! (Personal info recap, adjectives to describe personality and appearance, aspirations and professions) |
| Autumn 2 | Calendar and celebrations (Bonfire colours, days and months, the date, Christmas) | My town, your town (Commands, shops, asking and giving directions) | In the city (French city, buying a ticket, directions, descriptions, shopping surveys) | Homes and houses (Rooms in a house, furniture, descriptions, story, castles and ghost story and game) |
| Spring 1 | Animals (Animal nouns, singular and plural, opinions, story) | Alien family (Epiphany, family members, personal info recap, face and numbers) | At the market (Fruit and veg nouns, class survey, prices, market dialogue, recipe) | Sports (Sport nouns, verbs to play, sports descriptions) |
| Spring 2 | Carnival (Carnival, numbers to 20, core language recap, age, commands, Easter) | Moving our bodies (Face and body nouns, sports, commands, yoga with body parts) | Clothes (Clothes nouns, verb to wear, describe using adjectives, recap descriptions and ‘with’) | My best day ever (Time, activities during the day, favourite things) |
| Summer 1 | The Hungry Giant (Fruit and veg nouns, counting, asking politely, story, board game) | At the doctors and jungle animals (Aches and pains, jungle animals, personal info recap, creating sentences, story) | Out of this world (ID cards, personal questions, adjectives and planet descriptions, prior learning recall, planet creations poster) | Café culture (Typical French food, food opinions, ordering politely, menus, café conversation) |
| Summer 2 | Going on a picnic in France (Picnic story, food items, polite request, explore France, ask and answer ‘Where do you live?’, simple conversation) | Summertime (Weather phrases, seasons, forecast, ice cream flavours, opinions, ordering politely, roleplay) | Going to the seaside (Weather phrases, items for the beach, persuasive sentences, write, speak and record, research and understand facts about the beach) | Let’s Celebrate! (Read/Hear all about it! Language recall, personal info, family, favourite things) |
Impact
In order to effectively design tasks it is imperative that the classroom teacher understands fully the success that pupils have had with their learning. We use our purpose built App to track skills progress across French.
It is worth noting that we define success in our curriculum beyond the assessment of the foundation subjects. We also look to build self –belief and respect so that all children develop a sense of self-worth. We hope to see the children realise new skills and find new interests and talents along their learning journey.