MFL - French

Mission Statement

To provide engaging and challenging French lessons so our children advance their understanding and fluency level by developing their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. Our children will deepen their understanding and respect of other cultures and languages, and be inspired to continue their MFL studies post primary.

Intent

• To foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.
• To enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing.
• To provide a stimulating, challenging French curriculum that uses themed days, high quality resources and role-play to engage and enhance the learning experience.
• To deliver a progressive and challenging French curriculum that is carefully monitored with a view for constant evolution and improvement. 
• For our French curriculum to be an important part of our broad and balanced curriculum with the  aim of providing pupils with the knowledge, skills and understanding necessary to succeed in the next stage of their education and in later life.
• To deliver a range of topics that will allow the children to build upon previous learning to progress their understanding as they move up through the school. 
• To ensure French vocabulary knowledge is expanded, encouraged and used, progressively building across the year groups. 
• To deliver an inclusive curriculum so that all children, including those with SEND, can make progress and demonstrate success in a variety of different ways.
• For children to have opportunities to develop their learning further, both in and out of lessons, via our additional end points and use of the Duolingo app for home learning.
• To provide the foundation for learning further languages post primary, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries in later life.

Implementation

• French is taught as a standalone subject throughout the school year, on an alternative week basis. This decision was taken so that we could ensure enough curriculum time was devoted to the subject and French was delivered more frequently so that the children could more easily retain and build upon prior learning.
• In EYFS, children are introduced to very basic, conversational French e.g. completing the register in French, saying bonjour and merci.
• In KS1, French is delivered primarily through speaking and listening activities, using games and songs to encourage the children’s oral participation. French is delivered every other week in half an hour blocks. Evidence of learning will be photographed when possible and kept in a whole class French folder.
• In KS2, French is delivered primarily using the Kapow scheme of work. French is delivered in one hour blocks every other week. Children are provided with opportunities to develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills through carefully planned units of work.
• French is taught through topic based units of work with a clear progression in all skills from Year 3 to Year 6 building on pupils’ prior learning.
• Throughout the year, changes are often made to long term and medium term planning in order to ensure the topic content allows for progress. The order of topics is carefully considered to ensure pupils have the prior learning needed to build on and deepen their understanding.
• Themed days are planned regularly (when the topic allows) to provide pupils with a real-life experience and role-play opportunity to put their classroom learning into practice.
• Assessments are carried out at the end of each unit to check on pupil progress and attainment. Formative assessment takes place throughout each unit of work using pupil voice and end points. Findings from assessment are then used to develop future planning.
• To ensure CPD is kept up to date in French, we attend School Improvement Liverpool courses and cluster meetings with other schools when they are available.
• In 2019, Erasmus funding was used to send three members of staff to a French language centre, in France, for a CPD opportunity. Learning from this experience is used in order to deliver a broad and balanced, engaging French curriculum with real-life French resources.
• Children’s progress and learning will be assessed against the core and additional end points.

Impact

• Feedback from our local secondary school (Halewood Academy), when their specialist staff came in to deliver lessons, was extremely positive. They were impressed by how much French we do and how confident the children were in lessons. They were pleased with the progress children made throughout KS2 and stated that it would greatly benefit their language learning in KS3.
• Children are excited and engaged in French lessons. They look forward to these lessons and many of them engage in home learning through the Duolingo app.
• Children use basic, conversational French to members of staff who deliver the lessons outside of class e.g. Bonjour, Ca va? and comments on the weather.
• End of unit assessments will be completed in Key Stage 2 using the core and additional end points. The data will be used to identify areas for development in the subject.
• Subject moderation using pupil voice, book look and a learning walk will provide evidence of the impact of our curriculum and feed into the development plan.  

Long Term Plan 

Please click here to view our schools long term French plan

French Policy 

Please click here to view our school's French policy. 

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