Vision Statement and Curriculum Intent

At Stock, our French curriculum aims to inspire pupils to become curious and enthusiastic language learners with a broad understanding of not only the French language but also its culture; in other words, we want the children to think and communicate like linguists. The intention is for pupils to develop the skills to listen, speak, read and write in French, whilst building confidence to express themselves and explore new ways of thinking through language and learning.

Our French curriculum is based on the Kapow Primary scheme of work, which is designed to develop pupil’s understanding of how learning another language connects people, cultures, and communities worldwide. The aim is to encourage pupils to become open-minded, active citizens who can appreciate diversity and engage meaningfully with the wider world.

Our curriculum ensures that all pupils:

• Understand and respond to spoken word and written language from a variety of sources

• Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussions 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 French

Our curriculum supports pupils to meet the National Curriculum end of Key Stage 2 attainment targets (there are no Key Stage 1 attainment targets for Modern Foreign Languages). It aims to equip all pupils with broad and balanced learning opportunities that deepen knowledge but also provide the cultural experiences they need to flourish throughout primary phase and beyond. 

Implementation

From Year 3 onwards, French class is taught 50 minutes every other week to meet the needs of the National Curriculum. Teachers follow the lesson plans and resources from Kapow Primary.

Our curriculum is a spiral curriculum model, ensuring that pupils revisit and develop their understanding of key themes and concepts as they progress. This approach allows them to make meaningful connections, reinforce their learning and achieve mastery over time. Teachers are familiar with the whole school progression document and revisit prior learning at the beginning of, and regularly throughout, units of work.

Knowledge organisers and vocabulary are provided to the children for each unit of work. These include key grammatical knowledge and vocabulary as well as guidance around phonetic pronunciation.

Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Disabilities

Our French curriculum is inclusive and ambitious for all learners and we expect that all children should be successful, regardless of any special educational need. All learners are given full access to the French curriculum. Class teachers will adapt teaching inputs and provide additional support through scaffolding for any child who requires support. Kapow Primary contains adapted resources where appropriate. Class teachers are supported by our SENCo and MFL Coordinator, in meeting the needs of all learners and pupil One Plans provide teachers with learning strategies for specific pupils.

More Able Children

Teachers may identify children as more able in French either through end of unit summative assessment or through observation in lessons and formative assessments. In French, we may identify a child as more able if they:

• Have a strong desire to put language together by themselves

• Show creativity and imagination when using language

• Have a natural feel for languages

• Pick up new language and structures quickly

• Make connections and classify words and structures to help them learn more efficiently

Children will be challenged in their learning through challenges provided by the Kapow Curriculum that aim to deepen their fluency and understanding of the language.

Lesson structure

Each unit of work provides children with an opportunity to develop their skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing, although the focus in year 3 is largely on spoken French, with written French incorporated in Year 4 and beyond.

French lessons focus heavily on achieving accurate pronunciation.

French lessons begin with a recap of prior learning, from prior year groups, terms or lessons. Key vocabulary is included in lesson starters, modelled by adults within lessons and displayed in lessons. The lessons also incorporate various learning strategies, including independent, paired or team work, role-play, song, rhyme and language games. Teachers also adapt the lessons to best meet the needs of their class. Written work is completed in French exercise books.

Impact

The expected impact of our curriculum is that children will:

• Be able to engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations (e.g. ordering in a cafe, following directions) and 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.

• Be able to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt.

• Have developed an awareness of cognates and near-cognates and be able to use them to tackle unfamiliar words in French, English, and other languages.

• Be able to construct short texts on familiar topics.

• Meet the end of Key Stage 2 stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Languages.

The Impact of our curriculum is constantly monitored by class teachers through formative and summative assessments. Our scheme of work includes guidance for teachers in assessing pupils against learning objectives. Teachers use lesson starters (recaps) to identify gaps in children’s knowledge and subsequently plan opportunities to close any identified gaps.

Standards of teaching and learning in French are monitored by the subject leader and the headteacher. 

Monitoring may include: 

• pupil interviews

• work scrutiny

• learning walks 

Research which underpins our curriculum design

Our French curriculum fulfils the statutory requirements outlined in the National curriculum (2014) and was created based on the principles outlined in the Ofsted research review series: languages.