French Intent, Implementation & Impact

Intent

Our Modern Foreign Language curriculum provides children with a high quality foreign language education that will enable children to express their thoughts and ideas in another language, and to be able to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. We recognise that learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality language education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world and their place within it.

Through high quality teaching, we develop the following essential characteristics of multi-language users:

• To understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
• To 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
• To write at varying lengths, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures learnt
• To discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing
• To engage in positive experiences so that multi-language usage is the foundation for learning further languages and equips children to study and work in other countries in the future.
• A genuine interest in the subject and the ability to be able to apply the skills learnt enabling them to gain an understanding of their own language as well as to become an active participate in a multi-cultural society.

Implementation

Modern Foreign Languages is taught in Key Stage 2 on termly basis using the resources from the ‘Language Angels’ website. Children will learn French and follow the Egerton Modern Foreign Language Scheme of learning so that they will progress and develop their listening, pronunciation, speaking and writing skills throughout the key stage.

We ensure that our French curriculum excites and engages the children by selecting programmes of study that are most appropriate, encourage children to become self-motivated learners that make progress through the units of work. Phonetics and pronunciation are key components to fostering confident language users; lessons are planned in a way that children learn, develop and consolidate these skills allowing them to embed these in environment that is rich is dialogue and discussion.

Children have access to a wide range of resources to support the learning including the phonetic components of the French alphabet, key vocabulary and phrases, songs, poems and rhymes as well as to listen to native speakers.

Impact

• Children will develop a love of the French language.
• There will be a clear progression of skills throughout Key Stage 2 that builds on prior knowledge that can be demonstrated in final unit outcomes, and class floor books that show good or better progress from their starting points.  
• Children will have listened to spoken French language, including by native speakers, and will be able to respond appropriately.
• Repeated opportunities to practice the phonetics and pronunciation of the French alphabet and key sounds to improve the accuracy of speech.
• Gain an awareness and understanding of the basis grammar techniques of the French language enabling children to identify the differences with English and allowing them to build sentences in French.
• Children will enjoy participating and exploring language through songs, poems and rhymes, which will provide them with a basis to make links and consolidate their French spelling, sounds and word understanding.
• Opportunities for children to engage in conversations and develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others can understand them.
• Continued training and support for teachers ensuring they are the experts in the subjects that they teach.
• Our children will be confident to present ideas and information in French to a range of audiences.