French

Intent

At our school, we believe that learning a foreign language is a vital part of a broad and balanced curriculum. Through the teaching of French, we aim to develop pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world, helping them to become confident, respectful and culturally aware global citizens.

Our French curriculum is designed to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages, enabling pupils to:

  • Understand and respond to spoken and written language
  • Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity
  • Write for different purposes using a range of vocabulary and grammatical structures
  • Develop an awareness of linguistic structures and language-learning strategies

French strongly supports our curriculum drivers:

  • Aspiration – encouraging pupils to see languages as valuable life skills and opening doors to future learning, travel and careers.
  • Endeavour – promoting resilience, perseverance and a positive attitude to challenge as pupils practise pronunciation, grammar and sentence construction.
  • Expression – enabling pupils to express ideas, opinions and emotions in another language, both orally and in writing.

We believe French should be enjoyable, practical and purposeful. We want pupils to develop a love of languages, confidence in communication and an appreciation of French culture alongside linguistic skills.

Implementation

As a school, we follow Grammarsaurus for French. In our Key Stage 2 classes, each lesson begins with a retrieval task to help strengthen memory and improve long-term retention. Lessons often include songs, games, role play, repetition, and opportunities for pupils to practise speaking in pairs and groups. We listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding. Grammar is taught to enable pupils to understand how language works. Vocabulary is carefully selected and revisited regularly. 

Examples of learning include:

  • Learning about France and its culture
  • Introducing themselves and greeting others
  • Naming colours, numbers and days of the week
  • Describing themselves and others using simple sentences
  • Naming pets and saying whether they have pets of their own
  • Being able to talk about their daily routine 
  • Using basic sentence structures and verbs accurately

Cultural understanding is woven throughout lessons, helping pupils to recognise similarities and differences between life in France and their own experiences.

Impact

By the time pupils leave our school, they will have developed a secure foundation in French and the confidence to continue language learning at secondary school. Pupils will be able to understand and communicate basic ideas, both verbally and in writing, using accurate pronunciation and appropriate grammatical structures.

The impact of our French curriculum is that pupils:

  • Enjoy learning a foreign language and show enthusiasm and curiosity
  • Can listen, speak, read and write with increasing confidence and accuracy
  • Demonstrate resilience and independence when faced with linguistic challenges
  • Appreciate other cultures and respect linguistic diversity

Through French, pupils develop aspiration for future learning, endeavour through sustained practice and challenge, and expression by communicating ideas in another language. This ensures they are well prepared not only for the next stage of their education, but also for life in an increasingly interconnected world.