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French
Intent
The 2013 National Curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages aims to ensure that all children:
- Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
- Are able to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and that they are continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
- Can 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.
A high quality languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. At Prior’s Mill we are committed to ensuring that competence in another language enables children to interpret, create and exchange meaning within and across cultures. It also helps children develop skills that will open further opportunities later in life. The teaching of French in KS2 provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further foreign language teaching at KS3.
Implementation
Children are introduced to French from the Year 3 and receive a weekly 30 minute lesson. This enables the children to develop early language acquisition skills that facilitate their understanding of the patterns of language and how these differ from, or are similar to, English. Children are taught to listen attentively to spoken language and respond, joining in with songs, rhymes and games.
- Children develop an appreciation of a variety of stories, songs, poems and rhymes in French that are delivered through the curriculum content as well as by native French speakers within the wider school community.
- Cross curricular links with computing are provided using the appropriate links from the North Yorkshire Scheme of Work.
- Through games, interactive resources and songs, pupils willingly mimic pronunciation without the inhibitions and self-consciousness of older students. The North Yorkshire Scheme promotes progression in vocabulary through a themed approach and the language is picked it up very quickly and efficiently. Using these resources, the pupils’ sensitive ears help them pick up on and duplicate tricky sounds that adults, and even adolescents, often stumble over.
Impact
Children gain a great sense of accomplishment from learning to say something in a foreign language – it’s like learning to crack a code! Language learning also provides frequent opportunities to perform before an audience. This nurtures pupils’ self-esteem and self-confidence and develops strong interpersonal skills.
Language learning is more than just learning to speak and write in a different language. Learning about festivals and traditions from countries where the language is spoken, helps children appreciate other cultures so that they can take a place in our global society
As the world becomes more global, businesses and public organizations will need more people who can communicate in other languages, and are aware of different cultures. The teaching of French from Key Stage 2 prepares children for this effectively while fostering a love of language.
Download the progression of skills document:
