Modern Foreign Language

Intent

At Western Primary School, we aim to instil a love of language learning and an awareness of other cultures. We want pupils to develop the confidence to communicate in French for practical purposes, using both written and spoken French. Through our bespoke scheme of work, which has been carefully adapted and designed with support and resources from the creators of the Primary French Project, we aim to give pupils a foundation for language learning that encourages and enables them to apply their skills to learning further languages, developing a strong understanding of the English language, facilitating future study and opening opportunities to study and work in other countries in the future.  Our French scheme of work supports pupils to meet the National Curriculum end of Key stage 2 attainment targets.

French at Western Primary is designed with three knowledge strands that run throughout our units with knowledge building cumulatively. These are:

  • All About Me
  • Close to Me
  • The World Around Me

This knowledge can then be applied within our skills strands, which also run throughout each unit in the scheme:

  • Language comprehension (Listening and reading)
  • Language production (Speaking and writing)
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Our French Progression Map details the skills and knowledge that are taught within each Key Stage and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of Key Stage 2.  Through the French scheme, pupils are given opportunities to communicate for practical purposes around familiar subjects and routines. The scheme provides balanced opportunities for communication in both spoken and written French, although in LKS2 the focus is on developing oral skills, before incorporating written French towards the end of LKS2 and beyond.  Throughout KS2, key skills and vocabulary are revisited repeatedly with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning.  Cross-curricular links are included throughout our French units, allowing pupils to make connections and apply their language skills to other areas of their learning.  Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including role-play, language games and language detective work.  Our scheme of work focuses on developing an understanding of French grammar and key vocabulary rather than on committing to memory vast amounts of French vocabulary. Pronunciation is emphasised early on to support pupils with phoneme pronunciation in French.

French is timetabled for every other half term to allow for a longer session to embed key knowledge and skills. In order to help pupils retain their French learning, we incorporate French into the classroom environment during our registration and class assembly sessions, particularly around key French or languages events, such as Bastille Day and World Languages Day.

Impact

Progress in French is measured through the pupils’ ability to understand increasingly challenging vocabulary, identify the key structures within French grammar and how this differs to English, and the increasing ability to accurately compose their own oral and written statements.

After the implementation of French at Western Primary, pupils should leave school equipped with a range of language-learning skills to enable them to study French, or any other language, with confidence at Key Stage 3. 

Pupils will understand the concept of manipulating grammar appropriately and be able to:

  • Engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations (e.g., ordering in a cafe, following directions) and express an opinion.
  • Make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases, and short texts.
  • Speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation.
  • Demonstrate understanding of spoken language by listening and responding appropriately.
  • Use a bilingual dictionary to support their language learning.
  • Be able to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt.
  • Have developed an awareness of cognates and near-cognates and be able to use them to tackle unfamiliar words in French, English, and other languages.
  • Be able to construct short texts on familiar topics.
  • Meet the end of Key Stage 2 stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Languages.

Progression Map

Click to Download French progression of knowledge and skills [pdf 138KB] Click to Download