At Bishop’s Waltham Junior School the health, safety and well-being of every child is our top priority.

Modern Foreign Language (MFL) - French

 

National Curriculum Aims for French

The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • 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
  • can 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.

  

French at Bishop's Waltham Junior School

Intent – Skills

  • Children should be able to listen, respond to and join in with spoken language.
  • They will engage in conversations, speaking in sentences of varying lengths using familiar language, sentence structures and phrases.
  • They will develop accurate pronunciation, intonation, present ideas, and information orally to a range of audiences.
  • Children will broaden their vocabulary and increase their understanding of new words, including through use of a dictionary.
  • In writing, they will write phrases from memory and adapt these to create sentences, including being able to describe people, places and things.
  • Children will develop a basic understanding of grammar, including feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs, and how to apply these to build sentences.
  • They will appreciate how these differ from or are similar to the English language.

 

Intent – Values

What values have guided our decisions about the French curriculum?

As with all subjects at BWJS, our French curriculum will underpin our school values.

We aim for children to be confident & participate in learning French. They should be independent learners where appropriate and be resilient, with enough confidence to 'have a go' even when they might not be 100% accurate!

In French we do this through:

  • Understanding the importance of precise language usage in speech and writing in order to communicate effectively in another language
  • Being ambitious: recognising that writing and speaking well in a foreign language is not easy, but that the challenge of self-improvement should be embraced 
  • Valuing independent thought and creativity
  • Cultivating a love of language learning as a means of self-improvement and relaxation 

  

Implementation

How does our current French curriculum match our intention?

  • Bishop’s Waltham Junior School provides French language learning in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6. Each class has 1 x 30 minute MFL lessons, taught on a weekly basis. Children will develop their skills to speak, listen and write in French to a higher level and cover a range of themes.  
  • A variety of language teaching methods are used to match groups and individuals with different learning styles, these include games, role-play, use of a range of media and songs. The lessons are made as entertaining and enjoyable as possible, as we realise that this approach serves to develop a positive attitude in the children to the learning of modern foreign languages.
  • At Bishop’s Waltham Junior School, there is a clear progression of skills and understanding, that builds through Key Stage based on the National Curriculum Programme of Study.
  • Teachers plan and deliver French lessons using the Salut! Scheme of Work, which supports staff in ensuring that their delivery of French is accurate, even if they are not a French speaker themselves.
  • This planning takes account of prior learning and builds on this.
  • At each stage, the teacher will refer to prior learning and carry out informal assessment of children’s stage of development before moving on. 

 

  

Impact

How will we know the if French curriculum is having the desired impact? 

  • The monitoring of the standards and the quality of teaching in French is the responsibility of the MFL Curriculum Leader. The work of the MFL Leader also involves supporting colleagues in the teaching of French and providing lead and direction for the subject in the school.
  • The impact of the curriculum is measured through pupil discussions about their learning, assessment against subject specific knowledge and skills in each year of study and the pupils applying their cultural understanding across society and other cultures.

Monitoring

  • The effectiveness of the French curriculum with be assessed via a triangulation of speaking with the pupils/teachers, looking at work in the children’s French books and via lesson observations/learning walks. 
  • When speaking to the children/teachers, questions will be focused on how much the children have remembered about their learning and built on prior learning.
  • Teachers will be formatively assessing pupils during every lesson using a range of questioning techniques, assigning work and by making observations of their French interaction. All KS2 teachers will track child assessments on a half-termly basis and the subject leader will rely on pupil and teacher feedback (through conversations and questionnaires) to monitor impact. 

French Overview

 

Knowledge and Skills Progression (A breakdown of the learning outcomes on the KS2 Programme of Study for Foreign Languages)

Y3&4 Pupil Progress Checklist - (Assessing pupil progress across areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing - Stage 1)

Y5&6 Pupil Progress Checklist - (Assessing pupil progress across areas of listening, speaking, reading and writing - Stage 2)

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