French

At Bincombe Valley Primary School, we aim to ensure a progressive development of foreign language knowledge, skills and vocabulary as part of a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum. Our French curriculum aims to instil a love of language learning and an awareness of other cultures. We want pupils to develop confidence to communicate in French for practical purposes, using both written and spoken French.

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.

Through our school values, lessons will develop pupil’s creativity allowing them to explore sounds and patterns, build resilience by encouraging them to have a go. Our French curriculum link the learning from Year 3 to the end of Key Stage 2. We make our French learning inclusive to all learners by adapting learning tasks to suit pupil’s needs.

 Intent

At Bincombe Valley Primary School we aim for our pupils to:

Promote the early development of linguistic competence.

Pupils will be taught to:

• Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding.
• Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words.
• Engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help.
• Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures.
• Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases.
• Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences.
• Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing.
• Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language.
• Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary.
• Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly.
• Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing.
• Understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including feminine, masculine and neuter forms and conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are like English.

Implementation

Our French curriculum is designed with three knowledge strands that run through the different units we teach building cumulatively. These are:

• Phonics
• Vocabulary
• Grammar

This knowledge can then be applied within our Golden Threads, which also run throughout each unit of the scheme we follow:

• Language comprehension (listening and reading)
• Language production (speaking and writing)

Throughout the units of work, pupils are given opportunities to communicate for practical purposes around familiar subjects and routines. There are balanced opportunities for communication in both spoken and written French, although in Year 3 the focus is on developing oral skills.

The scheme of work we follow is a spiral curriculum with key skills and vocabulary revisited with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revisit and build on their previous learning. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies including independent tasks, paired and group work including role-play and language games.

We teach the children to know and understand how to:

• Ask and answer questions;
• Use correct pronunciation and intonation;
• Memorise words;
• Interpret meaning;
• Understand basic grammar;
• Work in pairs and groups to communicate in the other language;
• Learn about life in another culture.

We teach a modern foreign language to all children, whatever their ability. Through our modern foreign language teaching, we provide learning opportunities that enable all pupils to make progress. We do this by setting suitable learning challenges and responding to each child’s different needs.

French curriculum overview

Years 3 and 4 French planning

Years 5 and 6 French planning
SEND support for pupils in French

Impact

Assessment is formative and is used to support teaching and learning and inform future planning. Assessments are based on observation of children working on a variety of different oral activities and, where appropriate, written content.

Our French curriculum will ensure all pupils develop key language learning skills as well as a love of languages and learning about other cultures.

We use pupil voice to measure and monitor the impact of the French curriculum on pupils, ensuring the children leave Bincombe Valley Primary School with an enthusiasm to further their knowledge of MFL and experience life in other cultures as part of their understanding of our wider world.  Children will recognise and apply key vocabulary verbally and will be able to write a limited amount in French, meeting the end of Key Stage 2 expectations outlined in the National curriculum for languages.