French

The Teaching of French

Learning another language enriches our children’s cultural understanding and enhances their linguistic skills. Additionally, we aim to help children grow into curious, confident and reflective language learners; we are keen to lay the foundation for our learners as they go forward in their educational career. The PlanIt French scheme, intends to inspire pupils to develop a love of languages and to expand their horizons to other countries, cultures and people. 

We deliver the Primary National Curriculum for Languages in KS2. We have decided to teach French as this is a language which is taught at our feeder secondary school who we work closely in partnership with. We have ensured a progressive coverage for all year groups by adopting the Twinkl PlanIt French scheme of work which we have mapped to meet the needs of our mixed age class structure. This supports teacher confidence and subject knowledge but also provides the children with high quality learning opportunities. Our curriculum allows the children to revisit ideas several times during their time with us; this allows them to develop a deep understanding of the main ideas of Languages. The progression map below shows the knowledge and skills that we expect children to leave Braithwaite CE School with.

Overview units are taught in the first term which give all children the essential knowledge they need in order to achieve the objectives regardless of which year they are in. We recognise children will have differing prior knowledge depending on whether they are in Y3, Y4, Y5 or Y6 so this approach not only gives children an opportunity to revisit and practice existing concepts but also secure key knowledge for those who may have gaps, allowing all children to move on to a deep level of learning later in the term when they access the Go Deeper units. Knowledge organisers are used to support the acquisition of new information and to scaffold the learning process over the term. These are displayed in subject books at the start of each term and children are quizzed on them over the year. They are also available for children to refer to in later years.

PlanIt French offers a carefully planned sequence of lessons, ensuring progressive coverage of the skills required by the national curriculum. Our chosen themes - All About Ourselves, This is France and Food and Towns - provide an introduction to the culture of French-speaking countries and communities. In Lower KS2, children acquire basic skills and understanding of French with a strong emphasis placed on developing their Speaking and Listening skills. These will be embedded and further developed in Upper KS2, alongside Reading and Writing, gradually progressing onto more complex language concepts and greater learner autonomy.