At Aldborough Primary School, our aim is to deliver a broad French curriculum in Key Stage 2. Our sequence of learning in French aims to instill a love of language learning and an awareness of other cultures to complement our key values of respect and community. We want our children to develop the confidence to communicate in French for practical purposes, using both written and spoken French, thus instilling a sense of pride; a further core value of our school.
Through our sequence of learning we aim to give our children a foundation for language learning that encourages and enables them to apply their skills to learning further languages in preparation for their transition to KS3. Our aim is that through our teaching of French the children will develop strong links with their understanding of the English language thus facilitating future study and opening opportunities to study and work in other countries in the future. We hope that this will add to the children’s view of themselves as global citizens and enable them to see beyond the boundaries of our rural community.
Our French sequence of learning supports our children to meet the National Curriculum end of KS2 attainment targets.
The French curriculum is delivered over a two year cycle to ensure children in mixed aged classes receive a broad and balanced curriculum enabling them to develop the same skills as their contemporaries in different classes but within the same year group. French is taught across KS2 for 45 minutes per week. Our sequence of learning is designed with three knowledge strands (disciplinary knowledge) that run throughout the units, enabling the knowledge to build cumulatively. These are:
- Phonics
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
These 3 knowledge strands are in line with the key priorities in our SIDP (23-24) and complement our teaching of the English language. The knowledge from these 3 strands can then be applied within our skills strands (substantive knowledge) which also run throughout the sequence of learning. Our skills strands are:
- Language comprehension (Listening and Reading)
- Language production (Speaking and writing)
Throughout our sequence of learning for French, our children are given opportunities to communicate for practical purposes around familiar subjects and routines. We aim to provide balanced opportunities for communication in both spoken and written French from C3 and beyond.
Our sequence of learning follows a spiral curriculum, with key skills and vocabulary revisited repeatedly with increasing complexity, encouraging children to revise and build on their previous learning. Cross-curricular links are included throughout our French units, allowing children to make connections and apply their language skills to other areas of learning.
French lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including role play, language games and language detective work. Our sequence of learning focuses on developing the skills as a ‘language detective’ alongside developing an understanding of French grammar and key vocabulary. Pronunciation is emphasized early on using Kapow’s ‘Mouth Mechanics’ videos to support children with phoneme pronunciation in French.
Every lesson is differentiated to ensure that lessons can be accessed and enjoyed by all children. In order to help children remember their French learning, cognitive learning strategies will be used alongside retrieval practice activities. Key themes are spaced and returned to throughout the LTP to enable children to remember and build upon their prior learning (i.e. shopping in France, French food, animals and colours.)
We aim to have a French curriculum afternoon each academic year.
At Aldborough Primary School our sequence of learning and the impact it has on the children’s development in French is monitored half termly by the subject leader and assessed half termly using formative assessment strategies. An assessment spreadsheet is used by the teachers to record the children’s progress and to enable them to build a picture of the children’s learning. It is our aim that children at APS should leave us equipped with a range of language-learning skills to enable them to study French, or any other language, with confidence at KS3.
We expect that through our French curriculum, the children will:
- Be able to engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations (e.g. ordering in a café, following directions) and be able to express an opinion.
- Make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases and short texts.
- Speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation.
- Demonstrate understanding of spoken language by listening and responding appropriately.
- Use a bilingual dictionary to support their language learning.
- Be able to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt.
- Be able to construct short texts on familiar topics.
- Have developed an awareness of ‘cognates’ and ‘near cognates’ (a word that is related in origin to another word) and be able to use them to tackle unfamiliar words in French, English and other languages.