Our Intent for French:

At Frodsham Manor House, we believe that languages should be taught in a way that provides children with the building blocks to have belief in their own language ability and to become confident language learners.  We provide opportunities for children to develop their communication skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing, with the aim of making substantial progress in one language (French). Therefore, our children’s knowledge of how language works will be developed and will provide the foundation for learning further languages at secondary school and beyond. We aim for children to feel prepared and enthusiastic about continuing their language learning at secondary school. Learning a language fosters pupils’ curiosity, provides an opening to other cultures and encourages our children to appreciate and celebrate difference. In addition, it improves children’s ability to communicate with others outside of the UK and opens up future opportunities in terms of working, travelling and living in different countries. As such, we encourage our children to see the relevance of learning a language in their lives.

Our Implementation for French:

Our French curriculum enables pupils to meet the end of Key Stage Two attainment targets in the National Curriculum. This is taught in a sequential manner, building on prior learning and preparing children for future learning. The Languages National Curriculum outlines the importance of a balance between spoken and written language, which should lay the foundations for further language teaching at Key Stage 3. In addition, pupils should develop their knowledge of phonology, grammatical structures and vocabulary (the 3 ‘Pillars of Progression’) in order to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing.  At Frodsham Manor House, we follow the Primary Languages Network scheme of work, which is adapted to meet the needs of our own children and provides them with the building blocks in language learning that they will need in order to be able to embrace the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and as language learners beyond. Children at Frodsham Manor House begin their language leaning journey from EYFS via whole-school assemblies, which celebrate language learning and our position in the wider world through the use of song and stories.

We seek to inspire all of our children, foster their curiosity about languages and the wider world, and to develop their knowledge and skills. French is a subject where children of all abilities can showcase their creativity and skills. Our French curriculum is engaging, enriching and inclusive. It has a focus on multi-sensory learning, the scaffolding of speaking and listening and the opportunity to regularly revisit prior learning.

The Impact for French:

The Frodsham Manor House scheme of work and related curriculum documents include key learning objectives that are used to assess children’s learning. These are used throughout each unit as ongoing teacher assessment and this is recorded. We assess the progress of children in French by using ‘Puzzle it out’ assessments from the Primary Languages Network scheme of work. This is a quiz to recall key facts or vocabulary, as well as to practise skills.  These allow teachers to measure progress in the three pillars of language learning (vocabulary, grammar and phonics) and adapt teaching as necessary to meet the needs of children. Children also receive verbal formative feedback on their work in lessons .Additional to this, we return to a unit at a later date through spaced assessment.  

The expected impact of following the French scheme of work is that children will:

• 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
• 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
• Meet the end of key stage expectations outlined in the National Curriculum