Intent
At Northgate Primary School, French is taught every week in KS2. We want all of our children to have the rich experience of learning a new language and appreciating differences in culture between life in the UK and in France. Children in Year 2 spend some time learning about France and begin to learn some everyday words and phrases as an introduction to learning French in Year 3.
Our children will develop:
- a sense of belonging through providing an opening to the wider world; introducing the children to another culture to broaden their horizons; celebrating different languages and cultures by comparing their own to France; sharing their opinions and learning from others to become an active citizen.
- confidence in communicating by using their knowledge of phonology and grammatical structures; increasing their vocabulary; understanding and responding to others; providing opportunities for communicating ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing.
- a resilient attitude through being encouraged to take turns and listen to others; developing flexible strategies for encountering unknown language; discovering new ways of thinking and learning; fostering their curiosity as they deepen their understanding of the world.
Implementation
French is taught for one hour a week in every KS2 class. We make use of the French skills of some of our teaching staff in KS2 who deliver lessons across their Year group.
The development of the language is set out in a school progression document that breaks down learning into the key areas of Oracy, Literacy, Knowledge about Language, Intercultural Understanding and Language Learning Strategies. Our French curriculum draws on the KS2 Framework for Languages mapped against the National Curriculum. We use some resources from a commercial scheme (La Jolie Ronde) and have introduced a regular element of French phonics teaching this year. This is largely through the learning of phonics themed songs.
Some elements of French are practised at other times in KS2 classes – children rehearse the date and weather in French at the start of the day and order their school lunch in French on some days. We have a ‘French Market’ at the end of the year for Years 4,5 and 6. A variety of food and drink is available and children attend the ‘market’ to buy objects and converse in French.
The phonics song is sung at the beginning of each lesson. There are opportunities for oral rehearsal and reading in every lesson and for writing in most lessons. Children work in pairs to practise new language with a partner.
Impact
At Northgate Primary School, our children are:
- enthusiastic about French and engage positively in lessons.
- happy to practise new language skills and acquire key vocabulary which they use in different contexts.
- developing their writing skills in French and their books show they are producing more extended writing as they progress through the Key Stage.
- making good use of French dictionaries and other language prompts to experiment with the language and extend basic phrases and sentences.
- decoding new words in French due to the newly implemented phonics scheme.
- making links with earlier learning to build on the elements of French they have already learned so they can use the same language in different contexts.
Children with English as an additional language who may have difficulty accessing other curriculum areas tend to flourish in French and make connections between French and their home language.