French
Modern Foreign Language -French
Intent
At Eccleston St. Mary’s CE Primary School, Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) should be fully inclusive to every child. Our aims are to fulfil the requirements of the National Curriculum for MFL, which should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language.
The aims of teaching Modern Foreign Languages in our school are for pupils to:
- 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
- Be able to 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
Implementation
To ensure high standards of teaching and learning in French, we implement a curriculum that is progressive throughout Key Stage Two. French is taught in discrete lessons covering at least one unit per half term. These units are based on the ‘Salut’ scheme from CGP Publishing but they are adapted to suit our pupils’ needs. The content to be taught is accessible to teachers through our Key Knowledge documents.
The French curriculum at Eccleston St. Mary’s CE Primary School is based upon the 2014 Primary National Curriculum in England, which provides a broad framework and outlines the knowledge and skills taught. Teachers plan lessons for their class using our progression of knowledge and skills document. When teaching French, teachers follow the children’s interests and real life experiences to ensure their learning is engaging, broad and balanced. Before planning a unit of work, teachers should assess children’s prior knowledge and understanding to ensure the work planned is pitched at the correct level. A variety of teaching approaches are used based on the teacher’s judgement.
In French, skills in speaking, listening to, reading and writing another language are developed through a multi-sensory approach such as rhymes, songs, stories and repetition. In addition, children take part in role-plays to practise their speaking and listening skills. Throughout the course, but especially in Upper Key Stage Two, children begin to develop their understanding of grammar in another language.
Focused language days are encouraged throughout school whereby children can not only immerse themselves in the language, but also the food, history, geography and culture of the country in which the language is spoken.
Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND) / Pupil Premium / Higher Attainers
All children will have Quality First Teaching. Any children with identified SEND or in receipt of pupil premium funding may have work additional to and different from their peers in order to access the curriculum dependent upon their needs. As well as this, our school offers a demanding and varied curriculum, providing children with a range of opportunities in order for them to reach their full potential and consistently achieve highly from their starting points.
Impact
Our French curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. We focus on progression of knowledge and skills in all four areas (listening, speaking, reading and writing) as well as grammar and discrete vocabulary progression also forms part of the units of work.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- Observing children speaking and listening in another language
- Marking of writing in the target language
- Marking of responses to the written language (ie gauging reading comprehension)
- Images and videos of children completing speaking and listening activities
- Interviewing the pupils about their learning (pupil voice)
- Moderation staff meetings where pupils’ work is scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work
- Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum to parents
- Learning walks
The Modern Foreign Languages subject leader will continually monitor the impact French teaching is having on the children’s learning through work scrutinies to ensure the progress of knowledge and skills is being taught. They will also ensure the knowledge taught is retained by the children and continually revisited and that the learners are able to apply the skills they have been taught to a variety of different settings, showing independence with their learning.