'A different language is a different vision of life.'

Federico Fellini

Intent

Lydney C of E School we offer a relevant, broad, vibrant and ambitious foreign languages curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety of topics and themes. We use the Kapow scheme of learning which instils a love for learning languages and an awareness of other languages. All pupils will be expected to achieve their full potential by encouraging high expectations and excellent standards in their foreign language learning - the ultimate aim being that pupils will feel willing and confident to continue studying languages beyond key stage 2 and apply in future life.

The intent is that all content will be continuously updated and reviewed annually, creating a dynamic programme of study that will be clearly outlined in both long-term and short-term planning. This will ensure that the foreign language knowledge of our pupils progresses within each academic year and is extended year upon year throughout the primary phase and, in so doing, will always be relevant and in line with meeting or exceeding national DfE requirements.

Underpinning our French curriculum are our Christian values: trust, friendship, respect, forgiveness, courage and truthfulness and curriculum drivers.

World Aware: Learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. A high quality languages education should foster children's curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. 

Spirituality: By the end of KS2 they will have an understanding of French culture, customs, celebrations, food, landmarks etc. We hope that their learning about France and the French culture will create a desire to travel beyond their local community and experience other countries and cultures around the world. Our Year 6 residential trip to France lets children put into practice the French they have learned throughout KS2 and gives them an opportunity to experience other cultures first hand.

Belonging and well-being: The teaching should enable children to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and writing.

Possibilities: Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping children to study and work

in other countries.

The lessons we teach have an intention of providing a high-quality, coherent and progressive experience of the subject, with scope for cross-curricular learning.

Implementation

The French scheme of work is designed with three knowledge strands that run throughout our units with knowledge building cumulatively.

These are:

● Phonics

● Vocabulary

 ● Grammar

This knowledge can then be applied within our skills strands, which also run throughout each unit in the scheme:

● Language comprehension (Listening and reading)

● Language production (Speaking and writing)

Our National curriculum coverage shows which of our units cover each of the National curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the strands.

Our Progression of skills and knowledge shows the skills and knowledge that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of Key Stage 2.

Through the French scheme, pupils are given opportunities to communicate for practical purposes around familiar subjects and routines. The scheme provides balanced opportunities for communication in both spoken and written French, although in Year 3 the focus is on developing oral skills, before incorporating written French in Year 4 and beyond.

The scheme is a spiral curriculum, with key skills and vocabulary revisited repeatedly with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Cross-curricular links are included throughout our French units, allowing children to make connections and apply their language skills to other areas of their learning.

Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including role-play, language games and language detective work. 

Our scheme of work focuses on developing what we term ‘language detective skills’ and developing an understanding of French grammar, and key vocabulary rather than on committing to memory vast amounts of French vocabulary. Pronunciation is emphasised early on using our Mouth mechanics videos to support pupils with phoneme pronunciation in French.

Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed and enjoyed by all. In order to help pupils, retain their French learning, we provide information about how to incorporate French into the classroom environment every day in our ‘During the week’ sections.

Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective languages curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD. This has been created with the understanding that many teachers do not feel confident delivering the full languages curriculum and every effort has been made to ensure that they feel supported to deliver lessons of a high standard that ensure pupil progression.

Lessons include a section entitled, 'Teacher knowledge - language points' to explain key grammar and other details to the teacher before the lesson, together with a Key vocabulary and pronunciation presentation with sound files to demonstrate the correct pronunciation.

On-going assessment is vital in the implementation of a subject. Assessment is completed at the beginning of each topic, through knowledge catchers, assessing the children's knowledge and enabling teachers to grasp the children's prior learning.

Assessment at the end of each topic will be used to gain understanding before moving on to the next topic in French.

Impact

The impact of the scheme can be monitored continuously through both formative and summative assessment. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. An assessment spreadsheet is also available to record children’s progress in each lesson to enable you to build a picture of their learning through each unit.

After the implementation of French, pupils should leave school equipped with a range of language-learning skills to enable them to study French, or any other language, with confidence at Key Stage 3.

The expected impact of following the French scheme of work 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.
• Use a bilingual dictionary to support their language learning.
• 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.

Pupils will be aware of their own learning goals and progression as each unit offers a pupil friendly overview so that all pupils can review their own learning at the start and at the end of each unit. They will know and will be able to articulate if they have or have not met their learning objectives and can keep their unit learning intention sheets and unit core vocabulary sheets as a record of what they have learnt from unit to unit and from year to year.