French
Intent
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart” Nelson Mandela
At St Peter's School all children will have had a positive experience of learning a language and will have had every opportunity to develop their learning. They will be able to apply their French language learning skills to other languages. Through a high quality language education St Peter's will foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching will enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It will also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.
Implementation
Since September 2014, the new National Curriculum has made learning a language compulsory in Key Stage 2. In our school we learn French. We are learn how to listen, speak, read and write in French. We enjoy singing songs, playing games and listening to simple stories. We find out interesting facts about France.
In order to provide the children with the opportunity to learn a new language with confidence and to ensure the language skills of staff are developed and sustained, the school are members of the Primary Languages Network. This provides all the materials, resources and support sound files and activities to enable the school to ensure progression in language learning across the four core skills and also the 12 Attainment Targets of the National Curriculum.
The MFL Lead will advise, work with and guide staff when required. A curriculum overview is provided, along with an MFL skills progression document and topic map. The weekly lessons are designed to be approximately 45 minutes in length. There are follow-up activities to each lesson to increase the exposure time in a week. The lessons are designed to be progressive and build on prior learning, moving from word to sentence level over the four years. The lesson plans include ideas for support for the less able and to extend the more able. The lesson activities are challenging, varied and interactive and develop listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. An annual Bastille Day Celebration and European Day of Languages enables the whole school, governors and parents to be immersed in the inclusion of the culture and use the language in a meaningful context.
Impact
Children are enthused about their language learning and are keen to extend this learning beyond the classroom and can make cross curricular links. The Children become confident at attempting to communicate in a foreign language and are resilient in the face of difficulties and they develop the skills to be independent and critical thinkers. The children are aware of cultural differences, are keen to learn about them and embrace them and will talk enthusiastically about their language learning and are eager to further their learning in the next stages of their education. The impact is demonstrated through the children’s learning outcomes by the end of KS2.
They:
• understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
• speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and 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
