Modern Foreign Languages
"C'est simple comme bonjour!” - It’s as simple as hello!
At Stanton Road, we offer a French curriculum designed to engage and motivate our Key Stage 2 pupils, helping them to develop positive attitudes towards learning languages on which to build further as they enter Key Stage 3. Our curriculum has been designed to build children’s belief in their own ability in French, by ensuring children understand the phonetic code, have a secure grasp of the building blocks in the French language and can communicate effectively in French. Through our French curriculum, we aim to deepen children’s understanding of the world around them and develop children’s knowledge about the cultural aspects of communities around the world that speak French, exploring similarities and differences to their own culture. The French curriculum at Stanton Road has been designed to develop our pupils’ skills around three areas to ensure progression: phonics, vocabulary and grammar.
Phonics- Learning in phonics is sequenced and regularly reviewed. The differences between English and French language pronunciation are taught.
Vocabulary- Vocabulary is selected carefully. Words are deliberately chosen that are the most useful to our children as this vocabulary can be used in a number of different grammatical contexts.
Grammar – Progression in grammar is planned alongside plentiful opportunities to embed learning.
The French Curriculum at Stanton Road has been sequenced to ensure knowledge of the basics of the language are revisited regularly in order to help the children to recall language with increased fluency and ease. Through our curriculum, children will progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge, organised around topics and themes, learning to speak, listen, read and write in French. Songs, poems, stories and rhymes are used to support children’s learning in French.
Speaking - engage in conversations using basic French language structures; ask and answer questions; express and respond to opinions
Listening - listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
Reading - broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material
Writing - write phrases from memory and adapt these to create new sentences in French, using knowledge of basic French grammar
The French curriculum is taught through units of work, sequenced and designed to allow children to make links within their learning. Texts that are familiar to the children will be studied in the French language to support unit learning.
At Stanton Road, children have the opportunity to record their learning in a variety of ways, which is recorded within their French books. Evidence of the learning is dependent on the lesson outcome, year group and the knowledge and skills being developed. This can be in the form of writing, photographs of practical activities, videos and speech bubble comments relating to the learning.
Assessment
Teachers assess children’s learning throughout each lesson to ensure understanding of skills and knowledge before building on in future learning. Teachers use a range of questioning and retrieval practice to assess children against the aims of the lesson. In addition, children will also complete end point assessments at the end of each unit to assess their substantive and disciplinary knowledge.
Curriculum Champions
The MFL curriculum champion will conduct regular evaluations of our MFL Curriculum, which include lesson drop ins, pupil panels and book looks to measure the impact of our teaching, by assessing whether our children know more and can remember more.