“Learning a language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures”
KS3 National Curriculum Learning Programme of Study 2013.
French is a widely spoken first language across the world. Learning it at Key Stage 2, will open a wide range of opportunities for our pupils as they enter KS3 and beyond. We believe that learning French will give our pupils a significant advantage when competing for jobs in the future. We also believe that learning French will connect our pupils with wider cultures, thus approaching global citizenship with an open mind.
From Year 3 to Year 6, we deliver the aims of the National Curriculum through a weekly French lesson delivered by our class teaching teams in year 3 and 4 and a secondary specialist teacher in years 5 and 6 . Lessons provide opportunity for pupils to practice and develop, in a balanced approach, their spoken and written language. Children understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings, orally and in writing. Our aim is to provide a strong foundation for reading comprehension and an appreciation of French culture.
Our curriculum is sequenced so our pupils’ schemata can grow, through the connection of new knowledge with previous knowledge. We define progress by our pupils knowing more, remembering more and being able to do more.
The French curriculum is carefully mapped out, considering some of the following:
- Are we enabling children to understand and respond to spoken and written language from a range of authentic sources?
- How is the learning of new vocabulary developed? Do lessons facilitate the exploration of the interplay between French and English vocabulary?
- Is the curriculum planned in accessible step-by-step manner so children can build on previous learning?
- Are we enabling children to remember what is most important?
- Does our curriculum support effective transition in language?
The careful sequencing of the curriculum – and how concepts are gradually built over time – is the progression model. If pupils are keeping up with the curriculum, they are making progress. Formative assessment is prioritised and is focused on whether pupils are keeping up with the curriculum.
For example:
- Questioning in lessons. Teachers check understanding so they can fill gaps and address misconceptions as required.
- Pupil conferencing with books. Subject leads and SLT talk to pupils about what they have learnt – both substantive and disciplinary knowledge – and how this connects to the vertical concepts that they have been developing in previous years and other subjects. For example, pupils in Year 4 may be asked to talk about pets and this will revisit and build on the vocabulary, phonics and grammar met in the Year 3 Animals unit.
- Pre-learning quizzes at the start of each unit. These assess pupils’ understanding of the prior knowledge that is required to access the new content in the unit. These are used to identify gaps to be filled prior to teaching the new unit. For example, at the start of the lesson in Year 5 on possessive adjectives in the clothes unit they may be asked which possessives they used in the family unit at the start of the year.
- Post-learning quizzes at the end of each unit. These give teachers an understanding of the knowledge that pupils can recall at the end of the unit, and can be used to identify any remaining gaps to be filled. These are divided into the key skills areas of Speaking, Reading, Listening and Writing.
