Our school vision

"This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118 

 

Our curriculum vision for MFL 

Languages are important for global citizens of the future, raising an awareness of the multilingual and multicultural world in which we live and introducing an international dimension to children’s learning. From Reception, children learn to greet each other in a wide range of languages while doing the register, developing  curiosity about people in the wider world.

 At Finchampstead School, the children learn French more formally throughout Key Stage 2 with a  focus on listening and speaking. We aim to encourage enjoyment and confidence in language learning, hopefully inspiring children to go on to secondary school feeling positive and open to learning a wider range of languages available. With its roots in Latin, we can investigate etymology and the many similarities between French and English.  In Key Stage 2, the children are encouraged to share their language learning with their families by taking home their Year group’s French sac containing recipes, games and books. Every summer, the children in year 6 run a French cafe to raise money to buy further French language resources.

 

 

Intent

Learners will

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

See the ‘Language Overview’ document for specific vocabulary.

Years 3 and 4 – Skills and Knowledge

Skills

• Listen, read and show understanding of single words
• Listen, read and show understanding of short phrases in texts as well as songs and rhymes
• Recognise a familiar question and respond
• Ask and answer several simple and familiar questions
• Write and say a sentence with single familiar words and a connective with support and confident to attempt it without
• Write and say a simple phrase to describe people, places and things with a language scaffold as well as be confident to do the same without support
• Recognise some letter strings and pronounce them in familiar words
• Read aloud short familiar sentences using knowledge of phonics
• Use strategies for memorising vocabulary
• Find the meaning of word in a bi-lingual dictionary
• Use a bi-lingual dictionary  to find the meaning or translation of a word
• Join in with the actions of familiar songs, stories and rhymes
• Join in with the words of familiar songs, stories and rhymes sometimes from memory

 

Knowledge

• Awareness that different word classes exist in French and know some vocabulary for nouns, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, adverbs and conjunction
• 1^st and 2^nd person pronouns with irregular high frequency verbs
• Awareness that there are 2 groups of nouns in French
• 2 forms of ‘you’ in French
• Awareness that letters in French can make a different sound to English and silent letters are frequent
• Formation of a question with rising intonation
• Pattern of questions with question words
• Awareness of silent letters
• Awareness of elision
• Rules for making nouns plural
• Making a sentence say not
• Position of colour adjectives in a sentence
• Awareness that French is spoken in other countries besides France
• Some French speaking countries in Europe

Years 5 and 6 – Skills and Knowledge

Skills

• Listen, read and show understanding of more complex familiar phrases and sentences in texts
• Listen, read and show understanding of more complex sentences using familiar and unfamiliar words
• Ask and answer more complex familiar questions
• Engage in a short conversation using familiar questions and express opinions
• Write and say a more complex sentence to describe people, places and things with a language scaffold as well as be confident to do the same without support
• Write and say a more complex sentence to describe people, places and things manipulating language with a bi-lingual dictionary as well as be confident to do the same without support
• Read aloud more complex familiar sentences using knowledge of phonics
• Pronounce unfamiliar words in a sentence with a high degree of accuracy using phonic knowledge
• Use a bi-lingual dictionary  to find the meaning of nouns in the plural, adjectives in agreement and conjugated verbs
• Follow the text of a familiar rhyme, song or story and identify the meaning of the words
• Read aloud the text of familiar songs, rhymes and stories

 

Knowledge

• Indefinite article and gender of nouns
• Plural nouns
• Rules of agreement of adjectives in the singular and plural
• Position of majority of adjectives in a sentence
• 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd person singular and 3^rd person plural of an irregular high frequency verb
• Development of understanding of formation of questions
• 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd person singular pronouns and 3^rd person plural pronouns and verb conjugation for regular -er verbs
• Formal use of ‘you’ with regular and irregular high frequency verbs
• Formation of a question with rising intonation
• Pattern of questions with question words
• Partitive in singular and plural
• Definite article
• Formation of a relative clause
• Elision
• Concept of liaison
• Traditional songs and rhymes

• The lesson plans indicate which activity is an opportunity to assess progress and is linked to the KS2 targets and in particular to those of the appropriate year group as detailed above
• A teacher assessment grid is provided to record attainment of each target for each skill in each year group and to track progress
• Evidence of speaking activities can be gathered by making audio recordings of the suggested activities in the lesson plans
• Children self-assess their progress at the end of each section of work using a traffic light system and comment on their grasp of the new knowledge. In addition, there is space for teachers to provide a written response
• Based on the evidence of the above records of achievement and progress, teachers can inform parents/guardians of this, using report statements which relate to the expected targets of each year group under the headings ‘working towards, meeting and exceeding’
• To enhance the impact on enjoyment and intercultural understanding, we try organising language events such as the annual French cafe; provide access to out-of-school online materials; take-home French Sacs of resources etc.
• All of the above provides evidence that the ‘statements of intent’ are met