Parler Français

Intent

Pupils at St. Gerard’s become confident and comfortable speaking French during Key Stage Two and this language acquisition will provide them with a life-long practical skill, stimulating their interest in other languages and cultures.

Pupils see the opportunity to learn a foreign language as enjoyable but purposeful. Pupils develop oral skills and become more attuned to French language pronunciation as well as having opportunities to write in a foreign language. This experience will enrich their awareness of grammar and provide opportunities for children to discuss and reflect similarities and differences to English grammar. The three pillars of language learning (Phonics – Vocabulary – Grammar) underpin our curriculum and knowledge is mapped out from Year 3 to Year 6.

Pupils develop a knowledge and understanding of France, its society and culture that will  inspire a lifelong interest and curiosity about the wider world, promoting tolerance of diversity in society.

Implementation

French lessons follow our Teaching and Learning model. Every lesson focuses on an element of phonics and French culture. Each lesson children are encouraged to retrieve learning from previous lessons. Key knowledge is also displayed in  KS2 classes on working walls for retrieval. KS2 children are encouraged to answer the register in French on an afternoon and may be asked some questions linked to their learning that week for extra retrieval opportunities. Teachers explain and model effectively and have access to sound clips to ensure authentic and accurate pronunciation of foreign sounds.

Children apply their learning in speaking and reading tasks and by drawing and writing in their French work booklets. Booklets include adaptive teaching where needed to promote progress for all.

Checking for understanding occurs throughout by the teacher during lessons, through questioning and oral feedback. Teachers log their assessments lesson by lesson in an assessment folder.

French Overview

Impact

Pupils develop key language learning skills, as set out by the national curriculum, as well as a love of languages and learning about other cultures. These are as follows:

• understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources

• speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation

• can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt

• discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied