French

Here at Lyminster Primary School, our language of choice is French. 

French is taught across Key Stage 2 by the class teacher on a weekly basis.

The children begin to learn through songs, stories and poems which progressively develop children’s language learning skills and reinforce their spoken and written language. As they move up in the school there is a greater focus on the written word with children beginning to write pieces about themselves and their families. This writing is then shared with the class to improve linguistic skills.

The lessons follow the guidelines outlined in the National Curriculum whilst ensuring that the children are having fun as they learn.

What is this curriculum trying to achieve, and how does this relate to our overall aims and ethos? 

We show belief in the children, and inspire their confidence, through a disciplinary and language-rich approach that encourages them to see themselves as Linguists. In line with the National Curriculum, the focus of study is on ‘practical communication.’ Speaking and Listening opportunities are the key to this and are the underlying themes of our French curriculum. We add cultural capital through access to native speakers, short films and animations, authentic sources and language rich texts, e.g. Le melon énorme; La surprise de Handa; Cher Zoo, Pas Aujourd’hui Claude.  These experiences aim to engage the children and inspire a lifelong love of languages. Where possible, topics such as Space can be linked allowing the children to use knowledge they already have to support their language learning. For the most part, children are provided with varied opportunities to ‘communicate for practical purposes’ (NC). 

How is the curriculum actually implemented – how do we ensure progression, retention, and what does teaching and learning in this subject actually ‘look’ like? 

We follow the National Curriculum and use the Standard and Novel approaches (provided by the University of Chichester Primary MFL dept) for lower KS2 as a starting point to their language learning. In upper key stage 2 our planning of units is based on the National Curriculum and BBC French and follows a graduated approach that allows the children to explore topics and texts to enhance their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. Children learn to communicate their own ideas thus further enhancing one another’s listening skills.  Children in all years are given opportunities in every lesson to listen, speak, read and write in French.  Lessons usually begin with a quick vocabulary or grammar recap activity to cue the children into being linguists.  

The curriculum is carefully sequenced in terms of the 4 key skills: speaking (speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity); and listening (understand and respond to the spoken language); reading (discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing); and writing (can write at varying lengths for different purposes).  

The youngest children begin with simple rhymes and stories and start writing at a word level e.g. le chien, la grenouille; by Year 5/6 children are beginning to write short paragraphs expressing their ideas. 

Retention of the curriculum is promoted through the revisiting of language learnt, using actions, pictures and songs to represent new vocabulary in the younger years as well as conversations and cloze procedures in the older years.   Quizzing is also used as an engaging way for the children to recall prior knowledge. 

How is this curriculum adapted to meet the needs of different children and groups of children, particularly those with SEND? 

Some children will benefit from further input before starting a task, particularly where the teacher or an adult can model the pronunciation again and revisit the language with them. Pair work and small group work benefits those who do not wish to speak out in front of the whole class. Where particular support is identified on ISPs or EHCPs that are applicable across the curriculum, these will also be in place during French lessons. For some children with SEND, some aspects of the curriculum may be too complex for them to fully access, in which case the teacher will have adapted the task to link the objective to more concrete or physical resources for that child. In a very, very small number of cases, the child may not be able to meaningfully access the learning of particularly the Upper Key Stage 2 curriculum at all, in which case we will revisit the lower years curriculum to ensure the child/ren have a solid vocabulary base and an understanding of simple grammar features e.g masculine/feminine, simple greetings. 

For children who grasp the concepts more quickly, they are required to expand their knowledge using dictionaries, creating their own sentences by using what they know and adapting it to their ideas. The teacher prompts their thinking through a range of questions and the offering of alternative phrases. 

How is progress against, and retention of, this curriculum assessed? How are any gaps in learning then addressed? 

Key tasks are identified in the long-term planning below which offer opportunities to assess the children’s understanding and grasp of the grammar. At the start of all lessons, previous learning is revisited, and the children are constantly building on learnt structures and amassing vocabulary. Where gaps are identified, these are then followed up with the whole class, or with groups or individuals, ideally in the moment through teacher intervention or plenary, or alternatively in subsequent lessons and through adaptation of future plans. In the Spring Term, the teachers make a summative judgement of each child’s level of mastery of the National Curriculum content, which is shared with their parents/carers. Any persistent gaps in learning are shared verbally with their next teacher in our ‘Handover Meetings’ at the end of the summer term, to inform future planning. 

Teachers’ professional judgement is based on the progression of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills given below, which then give learning intentions for each lesson based on which teachers can make a series of ‘can they/can’t they’ judgements formatively, by comparing the objectives with the children’s responses to the tasks. An exemplification file of children’s work is also stored on our drive which teachers refer to when making summative judgements, as a form of standardization.