Intent

The Woodland Federation intends to use the Twinkl Planit French scheme of work and resources to ensure we offer a relevant, broad, vibrant and ambitious language curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety of topics and themes.  We aim to foster children's curiosity and help deepen their understanding of the world. We use a linear curriculum to allow children the opportunity to build on their skills. Children are able to express their thoughts and ideas in French and they are able to interact and communicate with others in both speech and writing. The opportunity to listen to native speakers is embedded within the scheme. 

In years 3 and 4, children acquire basic skills and understanding of French with a strong emphasis placed in developing their speaking and listening skills. In year 5 and 6, these skills are embedded and further developed. There is a progression towards more reading and writing in French. 

Our ultimate aim is to help children grown into curious, confident and reflective language learners and to provide them with a solid foundation that will equip the for further language study.

Through our French curriculum, learners will:

• Develop resilience in language learning as well as enjoyment of it through a challenging scheme or work.
• Acquire language learning strategies for memorisation and retrieval as well as for listening, reading and understanding.
• Develop the skill of using a bi-lingual dictionary to decode unfamiliar language.
• Learn to manipulate a language to speak or write sentences creatively, using prior knowledge of grammar and key features (both with and without a dictionary).
• Develop a sound grasp of the key sounds in the French language and their corresponding graphemes and learn to apply this knowledge when speaking, listening and reading aloud.
• Recognise some language patterns in French and how these are similar or different to English.
• Appreciate and be able to copy the sound of the language at text level through songs, stories and rhymes.
• Develop a deeper understanding of cultural differences and similarities.
• Make progress in learning of French and work towards or meet the targets of the KS2 Programme of Study for Languages.

Implementation

Pupils at The Woodland Federation are introduced to French in Year 3.  In KS2, each class a weekly timetable French lesson.  These lessons enable the children to develop early language acquisition skills that enable facilitation of the understanding of patterns of language and how these compare to English or home language.

The French curriculum is sequenced so that prior learning is considered and opportunities for revision or language and grammar are built in.

Each lesson builds on prior learning with new content added in. Key vocabulary is revisited frequently to help children to remember it. There are opportunities in every session for children to practise their speaking and listening in French. 

How will we teach French?

1. Lessons are sequenced so that prior learning is considered and opportunities for revision of key vocabulary, language and grammar structures is built into each lesson.

2. Our lessons and resources help children to build on prior knowledge alongside the introduction of new skills.  The lessons are designed to be progressive, moving from word to sentence level over the four years.

3. Lessons will offer appropriate levels of challenge and stretch to ensure pupils learn effectively.  The lesson plans include ideas for support for the less able and to extend the more able.

4. The lesson activities are challenging, varied and interactive developing listening, reading, speaking and writing skills.

5. The choice of vocabulary ensures exposure to all the key phonic sounds and the ability to build sentences using grammatical knowledge.

6. It is expected that formative assessment in each lesson informs the planning and teaching of subsequent lesson plans.

Impact

The children will develop a lifelong love of learning languages and also learning about other cultures and countries.