French

Intent:

Our Village Schools Partnership French Curriculum is designed to provide a rich and engaging language learning experience for children in weekly taught sessions.  We use two bespoke Long Term plans to meet our current needs within mixed age classes and language ability. Buckland Brewer and Parkham schools, who have the same class structure, follow one Long Term plan and Woolsery follow the other. The curriculum is structured to accommodate mixed-age classes, starting from Year 2, and follows a progressive approach that prioritises the development of speaking and listening skills before introducing reading, writing, and grammar concepts.

Our intention is that by the end of Key Stage 2, our children will have confidence and familiarity with basic conversational French.

Implementation:

●     Listening exercises are carefully integrated to expose children to authentic French accents and various linguistic nuances.

Introduction of Reading Skills:

●     Reading skills are gradually introduced as children advance in their language proficiency. Simple and age-appropriate texts are used to enhance vocabulary, comprehension, and pronunciation.

●     Reading activities are designed to be enjoyable, fostering a love for reading in French.

Writing Skills and Grammar:

●     Writing skills are introduced progressively, starting with basic sentence structures and gradually advancing to more complex compositions.

●     Grammar concepts are integrated into lessons in a contextual manner, allowing children to understand and apply rules naturally.

Assessment and Feedback:

●     Assessment methods are varied and include formative and summative assessments, as well as ongoing teacher observations.

●     Feedback is constructive and encourages children to reflect on their progress, fostering a growth mindset in language learning.

By following this curriculum model, we aim to instil a lifelong love for the French language, equipping children with valuable linguistic and cultural skills that extend beyond the classroom.

The journey begins with interactive matching activities, where children connect French words with their English equivalents or corresponding images, laying the foundation for vocabulary acquisition. As children progress, listening exercises become an integral part of the curriculum, incorporating songs, stories, and dialogues to enhance auditory comprehension and pronunciation skills. The inclusion of songs and rhymes adds a rhythmic and memorable dimension to language learning, making it both enjoyable and effective. Moving forward, fill-in-the-blank exercises reinforce vocabulary and sentence structures, encouraging active recall. The curriculum evolves to incorporate reading comprehensions, offering short passages that align with child proficiency levels, thereby developing their reading skills and comprehension. Subsequently, children engage in writing exercises, starting with constructing sentences and advancing to paragraph writing, promoting expressive and creative language use. This comprehensive approach ensures that our children not only acquire linguistic proficiency but also develop a genuine appreciation for the richness of the French language and culture.

Impact

We aim for children leaving at the end of Key Stage 2 to be confident in basic conversational French, know some key vocabulary and how to express themselves.

This is regularly monitored by the French subject lead who undertakes activity such as lesson and planning monitoring, scrutiny of written outcomes and discussions with colleagues and children about their developing skills and confidence in this subject area.