French

“Learning a language enriches the curriculum. It provides excitement, enjoyment and challenge for children and teachers, helping to create enthusiastic learners and to develop positive attitudes to language learning throughout life. The natural links between languages and other areas of the curriculum can enhance the overall teaching and learning experience. The skills, knowledge and understanding gained can make a major contribution to the development of children’s oracy and literacy and to their understanding of their own culture/s and those of others.”

Framework for Languages (DfES 2005)

INTENT

Since 2014 the teaching of a Modern Foreign Language to all KS2 children has been a part of the statutory curriculum. At Fressingfield Primary School, we believe strongly in the benefits of learning a modern foreign language: language learning is fun, active, challenging and enjoyable and it leads to wider benefits across the curriculum, such as the development of literacy skills and to a greater understanding of themselves and others. We intend to inspire pupils to develop a love of languages and to expand their horizons to other countries, cultures and people. We aim to help children grow into curious, confident and reflective language learners and to provide them with a foundation that will equip them for further language studies.

IMPLEMENTATION

At Fressingfield Primary School the children learn French throughout Key Stage 2. French is taught on a two-year cycle, using the Twinkl Plan-It French Scheme of Work. The scheme offers a carefully planned sequence of lessons, ensuring progressive coverage of the skills required by the national curriculum. Our chosen themes – Time Travelling, Let’s Visit a French Town and This Is France – provide an introduction to the culture of French-speaking countries and communities. It aims to foster children’s curiosity and help deepen their understanding of the world. A linear curriculum has been chosen to allow opportunity for children to gradually build on their skills. PlanIt French enables children to express their ideas and thoughts in French and provides opportunities to interact and communicate with others both in speech and in writing. At the heart of PlanIt French is the desire to expose children to authentic French, so the scheme offers regular opportunities to listen to native speakers.

Weekly French lessons are taught throughout Key Stage 2. Lessons are sequenced so that prior learning is considered and opportunities for revision of language and grammar are built in.

In Lower KS2, children acquire basic skills and understanding of French with a strong emphasis placed on developing their Speaking and Listening skills. These will be embedded and further developed in Upper KS2, alongside Reading and Writing, gradually progressing onto more complex language concepts and greater learner autonomy.

Our French lessons help children build on prior knowledge alongside the introduction of new skills. In addition to language-learning, our French lessons also provide context by offering an insight into the culture of French-speaking countries and communities. The introduction and revision of key vocabulary and grammatical structures is built into each lesson. This vocabulary is then included in display materials and additional resources so that children have opportunities to repeat and revise their learning. Teachers are supported to deliver French lessons through the knowledge that the scheme has been designed by a language specialist teaching team (including French native speakers). In addition, every lesson pack contains adult guidance, accurate language subject knowledge and accompanying audio materials.

IMPACT

We want to ensure that French is loved by teachers and pupils across school, therefore encouraging them to embark on further language studies. The impact can be measured through key questioning skills built into lessons, child-led assessment such as success criteria grids, jigsaw targets and KWL grids and summative assessments aimed at targeting next steps in learning.

French displays in each class and across the school will increase the profile of languages across school. The learning environment will be consistent with key French vocabulary displayed, spoken and used by all learners. The impact of learning French will have the wider benefits inherent in learning any foreign language, namely:

LANGUAGE LEARNING STIMULATES CREATIVITY

Children enjoy taking an active part in language lessons. They join in with singing, reciting rhymes and poems and responding to stories. They create sketches and role-play, imitating accurate intonation and pronunciation. They play games, take turns, make things, take the role of the teacher and experiment creatively with language.

LANGUAGE LEARNING SUPPORTS ORACY AND LITERACY

Children spend much of their language lessons speaking, listening and interacting – more that in most other subjects. They take part in role-plays, conversations and question and answer work. They sing songs, perform to an audience and respond to a wide range of aural stimuli. This emphasis on communication, including language learning’s important role in the ‘education of the ear’ underpins children’s capabilities in oracy, which is critical to effective communication as well as a key foundation for literacy.

LANGUAGE LEARNING LEADS TO GAINS ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Children approach a broad range of learning activities in a new and challenging context;  these relate to mother tongue literacy, to mathematics and other subject areas such as geography, music and citizenship. This can lead to deep learning and significant gains in their general understanding as they recycle and reinterpret existing knowledge. Through the conscious development of language learning they are also learning how to learn.

LANGUAGE LEARNING SUPPORTS AND CELEBRATES THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION

Although it enjoys much more linguistic diversity than in the past, England remains a place where the motivation to learn another language is affected by the position of English as a widely spoken, world language. This makes it even more important that we give all children the chance to learn a language in order to gain insights into their own lives and those of others around the world. They need the chance to make contact with people in other countries and cultures and to reflect upon their own cultural identities and those of other people.