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.
Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 |
Getting to Know You Greetings Feelings Numbers 0-10 | All Around Town In my town Counting in 10s Counting to 100 | Getting to Know You Jobs Feelings Actions | All in a Day Telling the time At the airport School week |
Time Numbers 11-31 Days of the week Months of the year Dates | What’s the Time? Telling the time My day School day | All About Ourselves The body Appearance Fashion Feelings | Let’s Go Shopping At the shops Clothes Money |
All About Me Classroom instructions Body parts Actions Colours Clothing | On the Move Transport Directions | Family and Friends Family At the farm In my house | This is France Neighbours Directions Paris Famous people Nationalities |
Family and Friends Family Pets Alphabet Home | Gone Shopping Fruit Vegetables Clothes Money | That’s Tasty Drinks Breakfast Sandwiches Pizza | Let’s Visit a French Town Directions Maths My home |
Food Glorious Food Preferences Colours Food | Holidays and Hobbies Seasons Weather Holidays Sports Hobbies | Time Travelling French history Famous lives |
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Our School In the classroom In my pencil case Subjects Preferences | Where in the World UK French speaking countries Continents Animals | School Life Classroom objects Subjects Maths |
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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:
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.