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French

Intent

At St. Andrew’s Primary we aim to provide all our children in KS2 with a high-quality education in French, which in turn supports children in developing positive attitudes to other languages and culture. 

Their interest in languages is encouraged through weekly stimulating and enjoyable lessons, led by the class teachers, which build confidence and promote the skills of reading, speaking, listening and writing. 

It is our intention to ensure that by the end of KS2, children have acquired an understanding of both spoken and written French and with an understanding of France and the French culture. Learning a second language offers pupils the opportunity to explore relationships between language and identity, develop a deeper understanding and tolerance of other cultures and the world around them with a better awareness of self, others and cultural differences. At St. Andrew’s, we are fortunate that many children already speak another language at home and this rich tapestry of the spoken word can open up further opportunities later in life.

Implementation

The teaching of French at St Andrew’s is organised by a clear scheme of work, which is in line with the National Curriculum. Children will be introduced to French in KS1 through simple songs and ‘Phrase of the Week’ in order to develop their initial interest in French. Whole class French is then taught formally in Years 3-6 by class teachers and is supported by the ‘Language Angels’ programme. Children progress as they acquire and use a growing amount of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge through the topics and year groups, which are organised around age-appropriate themes.

Lessons offer appropriate levels of challenge, to ensure pupils learn effectively, continuously building their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the language.

Knowledge Organisers are planned and given to the children, so that they can engage in prior learning build relevant vocabulary and phrases, linking to the topic. These are shared with parents on our communication platform.

The skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing are evident across the Key Stage 2 lessons. Children will build on previous knowledge gradually as French lessons continue to revisit revise and consolidate previously learnt language skills whilst building on all four areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Enrichment

To enable our younger children to have a taste of the French language, we present a French phrase in our Monday Collective Worship for the whole school to learn.

We make close links with Enfield Grammar School through sharing their language expertise. Year 5 children take part in Bastille Day with Y10 boys at the Grammar school, where they eat French food, speak in French and take part in a quiz.

Impact

Our MFL curriculum ensures that children develop their knowledge of where different languages, including the range of home languages spoken by the families of the school, as well as French, are spoken in the world. 

These are as follows:

  • 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.
  • 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.

The children are assessed continually throughout the year, with the teacher giving feedback through marking and verbal feedback, as well as assessing the four key skills at the end of each ‘Language Angels’ unit. The FL Subject Lead monitors the impact of the teaching through book looks, observations, pupil voice and curriculum reviews, to ensure the progress of knowledge and skills is evident. They will also ensure the knowledge taught is retained by the children and continually revisited, through use of Knowledge Organisers and choice of units taught.  

At St. Andrew’s, we believe that learning a foreign language has many benefits to our pupils. 

It helps us to communicate effectively with others in both speech and writing, enables us to read text in another language and supports the development of pupils as global citizens. 

We use a programme called Language Angels, which provides a clear, step-by-step approach to language learning, which is both engaging and progressive. This programme commences in Year 3.

Our Aims

Through our teaching, we intend to:

  • foster positive attitudes and enjoyment towards learning 
  • stimulate curiosity about language
  • develop speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
  • develop awareness of language structures, recognising similarities and differences between them and our mother tongue
  • give an insight into the culture and civilisation of France
  • inspire children and increase cultural capital

As children leave our school, we expect them to be able to express their ideas and thoughts in French, both orally and in writing and to have developed an international outlook of the world and their place within it. 

Assessment

Children’s progress towards key objectives will be assessed regularly in order to inform and adapt future planning to meet the needs of our children, appropriately. Assessments are undertaken at the end of each unit and involve answering key questions to assess skills individually.  Using the tracking grid, we are able to establish progress made and identify any gaps in learning.  At the end of the year, pupils will be assessed as either meeting or not meeting or working towards national expectations. In exceptional circumstances, they may be recorded as exceeding them.