Intent
Our belief at Christ Church is that the acquisition of a different language deepens pupil’s understanding of the world around them and makes a contribution to the development of their oracy and literacy. We teach French at Christ Church as it is the most popular language currently taught in secondary schools within Calderdale and this means that our children are provided with the building blocks to continue their language journey at high school.
The curriculum is planned so that children are provided with the opportunity to experiment with expressing their ideas and thoughts in another language as well as fostering their curiosity and interest about a different culture. The sequence and structure of teaching reflects the national curriculum but is also set within a context that reflects the needs of the school community with an emphasis on listening and responding to spoken French as well as an early development of oracy.
It is the aim of our MFL curriculum to ensure all of our pupils:
- 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
Implementation
At Christ Church, we teach French throughout KS2 on a weekly basis. Our French curriculum is based on the Rachel Hawkes scheme, which has been edited to suit our children. In addition, we also use the ‘Salut’ scheme which provides for further interactive language acquisition. The scheme has been designed to progressively develop skills in French. Further details regarding curriculum coverage in KS2 are attached below.
Teachers follow the scheme of work to deliver each objective and use a variety of teaching methods to encourage children to have an active engagement with languages:
- Games – in order to develop vocabulary through repetition, reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
- Role-play – these should relate to the situations the children may find themselves in the future
- Action songs and rhymes – to develop phonetic skills, memory skills and to further vocabulary.
- Puppets and toys – to be used to develop communication skills.
- Mime - to associate vocabulary with kinaesthetic learning.
- Reading and writing quality materials
- ICT programs and websites; the use of ICT to develop communication skills
In addition to lessons, we plan to introduce a range of celebrations of French culture so that all of our pupils including those in KS1 are able to experience different aspects of French life.
The School’s continued development of the teaching and learning of MFL French is documented in the MFL Action Plan.
Curriculum Coverage
| Name | |
|---|---|
| Year 3 planning overview.pdf | Download |
| Year 4 Planning Overview.pdf | Download |
| Year 5 planning overview.pdf | Download |
| Year 6 planning overview.pdf | Download |
| Year 3 Progression of Language.pdf | Download |
| Year 4 Progession of Language.pdf | Download |
| Year 5 Progression of Language.pdf | Download |
| Year 6 Progression of Language.pdf | Download |
Curriculum Policies
To see all of our policies concerning the curriculum click the link below:
Below are some links to help you practice French at home with your child.
BBC - Primary French games and activities.
French-games is a free website for beginners learning French, both young and old. It has games and quick tests to make learning fun.
The Government KS2 Languages Programme of Study can be found online.