MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES - FRENCH

Intent

At Summer Lane  we believe that teaching French allows the children to develop communication skills for a wider community. Children are encouraged to develop a broad vocabulary and use this within both spoken and written communications. They are encouraged to find out about the people who speak French and ask questions about the culture of these communities' considering the similarities and differences to their own. Through our MFL curriculum, we aim to encourage our children to develop a lasting enthusiasm for learning languages and ultimately pursue their foundation of knowledge into KS3 and beyond.

Implementation

Summer Lane's  teaching of French is supported by the Primary Languages Network, which ensures all pupils receive consistent and quality language lessons. This supporting resource places an experienced primary languages teacher and native speaker in every classroom, delivering weekly, high-quality video resources for every lesson throughout KS2. https://primarylanguages.network/

The Curriculum

The curriculum has been specifically sequenced in a logical progression to ensure that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before: Year 3 to Year 6. This enables our pupils to know more and remember more. End points are identified for each year group through a whole school French progression plan. The sequence develops pupils’ linguistical skills over time; we use the basis of the 3 Pillars (phonics, grammar and vocabulary) to aid progression in speaking, listening, reading and writing in French.

All pupils in key stage 2 participate in six units of French throughout the year. Pupils access at least 30 minutes per week of taught French where they apply the 3 pillars to speak, listen, read and write.

Every year group has a Two year  Curriculum Map that outlines the units of French which will be taught throughout the year. This ensures that an adequate amount of time and coverage is allocated to each key area.

Medium Term planning, from the Primary Languages Network, supports teachers to plan a sequence of progressive lessons and over time, giving the children opportunities to master new learning. Within this document key objectives are outlined as well as the key performance indicators. Progression documents, used to support the Medium-term plan, ensure that staff are delivering a consistent curriculum that increases in complexity. 

To support teachers’ own CPD, we use the Primary Language Network to make the teaching and learning of primary foreign languages effective and accessible by using the native speaking resources to aid delivery of lessons. This ensures that the learning is creative, purposeful and memorable for all learners.

All lessons start with a warmup where pupils revisit recently and previously learned phrases and vocabulary. In most lessons, pupils will revisit phrases and vocabulary from the previous lesson. After this, pupils move onto new learning and consolidation from the previous lesson. Pupils then practise their speaking and listening skills through partner work and visual tasks before completing a written task in their French books, using Widgits to compose 3 or more sentences. Within the lesson, teachers check pupils understanding effectively and address any misconceptions through regular feedback.

Throughout key stage 2, pupils listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding and engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others. Pupils can speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures and develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud. In lessons, pupils read carefully, and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing and write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly. They can describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing and understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including feminine and masculine form.