French

At Glebe Primary School, our chosen modern foreign language (MFL) is French. In Key Stage 2 (KS2) teachers use the Twinkl PlanIt French scheme of work to support the delivery of the National Curriculum.

Intent

The Twinkl PlanIt French scheme offers a carefully planned sequence of lessons, ensuring progressive coverage of the skills required by the national curriculum whilst also introducing the culture of French-speaking countries and communities.

The scheme aims to foster children’s curiosity and help deepen their understanding of the world. Children are given the opportunity to express their ideas and thoughts in French as well as interact and communicate with others both in speech and in writing. The scheme also offers regular exposure to authentic French, with children receiving regular opportunities to listen to native speakers.

Through our French lessons at Glebe Primary School, we intend to inspire pupils to develop a love of languages and to expand their horizons to other countries, cultures and people. We aim to help children grow into curious, confident and reflective language learners and to provide them with a foundation that will equip them for further language studies.

Implementation

At Glebe Primary School, French is taught once a week in Key Stage 2 for at least half an hour. During these lessons, we use a variety of teaching and learning styles as well as a variety of resources, such as books, audio/visual materials and games, to make the learning of another language fun and engaging.

Lessons help children to build on prior knowledge alongside the introduction of new skills as the introduction and revision of key vocabulary and grammatical structures are built into each lesson. Most lessons also provide pupils with the opportunity to listen to French native speakers which assists them with the pronunciation of the key vocabulary.

In Lower KS2, there is a strong emphasis placed on developing pupils’ speaking and listening skills. These will then be embedded and further developed in Upper KS2, alongside reading and writing, with lessons gradually progressing onto more complex language concepts and greater learner autonomy.

Our French curriculum is split into units per year group, which each contain six lessons. There are six units for Years 3-5 and four units for Year 6. Below is a list of the units taught as well as some of the topics covered within them.

Impact

At Glebe Primary School, we want to ensure that French is enjoyed by staff and pupils. As a result, the MFL subject leader seeks feedback so that provisions can be amended accordingly.

With regards to pupil assessment, all pupils are assessed against the end of KS2 National Curriculum objectives. There are as follows:

• 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 (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the 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 similar to English.

All teachers have access to the MFL Curriculum Pathway, which highlights how pupils can show success against each of the objectives in each year group, as they gradually progress up to the end of KS2.