FRENCH
BORROW WOOD PRIMARY SCHOOL
Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement for Modern Foreign Languages - French
Intent
Our intent, when teaching French at Borrow Wood, is to provide our pupils with a language education that will capture their curiosity and enhance their understanding of the world. We believe that the teaching of French should allow children to express their ideas in a different language, and be able to listen, understand and respond to French speakers. We aim to foster children’s enjoyment of learning to speak another language at an age where they tend to be less self-conscious about speaking aloud. Children are always encouraged to have a go, support each other and persevere with their pronunciation and written work. This links into the ‘Challenge’ part of our school ethos of CHOICE alongside ‘Ownership’.
It is widely believed that the early acquisition of a foreign language facilitates the learning of other foreign languages later in life and that the earlier a child is exposed to a foreign language, the faster the language studied is acquired. Our mission is to create a French curriculum that is accessible for all and allows all children to make progress.
Implementation
We follow the National Curriculum for the teaching of languages. Children are taught French from Year 3 onwards. French lessons are taught weekly during a 30-to-40-minute lesson and practice parcels throughout the week are designed to reinforce prior learning. The Catherine Cheater Scheme, along with additional high quality resources, enables us to teach the knowledge and skills in French progressively across all year groups. We adapt resources so that core knowledge and skills can be revisited and embedded. Through frequently reviewing existing knowledge in this way, children will develop fluency and confidence when speaking French.
Children will learn simple rhymes and songs as well as listen to stories which they will be able to join in with.
Children work in a range of whole class or group situations and are consistently encouraged to use the correct pronunciation. The children are taught some French grammar rules and they are encouraged to apply their knowledge in spoken and written tasks.
Impact
We measure the impact of our French curriculum in a range of ways including summative assessment at the end of each term and through pupil voice interviews throughout the year.
Although French is the language we teach at Borrow Wood, children are encouraged to understand the value and importance of learning any language and the benefits this can have when travelling abroad, enjoyment or in future employment.
By the time children leave our school they will:
- 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
- gain an awareness and understanding of the basis grammar techniques of the French language enabling them to identify the differences with English and allowing them to build sentences in French
- write at varying length using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
Children will have foundations in language learning to continue in Secondary education or to apply in learning other languages.