Modern foreign languages

Main focus: French

French

We Amaze by recalling prior skills and knowledge that demonstrate our love for language.

We Achieve by offering an exciting curriculum that provides enjoyment and challenge for all children, helping to create enthusiastic learners and to develop positive attitudes of language learning throughout life.

We Aspire to provide the children with a liberation from insularity and to provide an opening to other cultures by fostering pupils’ curiosity in order to deepen their understanding of the world.

Curriculum Intent

At Harworth Church of England Academy, our MFL curriculum provides children with a thirst for learning other languages, as well as developing the children’s ‘culture capital’ so that they learn about and are aware of other cultures. We embed the critical skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing (including grammar). As well as developing their intercultural understanding. With an end result of laying the foundations for future MFL learning.

Christian Values

We gain a heart of wisdom in every lesson, in every day. Jesus taught kindness, compassion, fairness and patience. This is what we base our teaching and learning on. We teach the children to understand other cultures and encourage the children to show kindness and compassion towards everyone, regardless of their culture, race, gender or sexuality.

What do we want for our children in this subject?

At Harworth Church of England Academy, our aim is for every child to have the ability to listen, read, write and respond in French, thus laying the foundations for them to further develop their language skills as they progress into KS3.

How do we cater for SEND and Disadvantaged?

We plan our activities to teach French to all children, whatever their ability. We use a range of strategies to support pupils, such as differentiated tasks, mixed ability pairings, support groups, record and repeat devices, TA support and additional visual aids depending upon the needs of the child. Each class also plans carefully to embed all children in the French culture to immerse the children in their learning.

Key Stage 1

Children in Foundation scheme, Year 1 and Year 2 are taught French basic vocabulary through songs, speaking and listening activities and whole class sessions which is planned to give them a fantastic start to their formal French learning as the progress into KS2.

Key Stage 2

Children are taught French in small sessions up to twice a week. We are following the Kapow scheme of work which has been created in line with the National Curriculum (see long term plan below). The National Curriculum which states the children need to know how to do the following by the end of Key Stage 2:

• 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.

French long term plan

French  curriculum coverage and progression of skills

Here are some useful websites to keep brushing up on your French:

BBC French

Primary Games

Babbel