Our Intent

Our mission ‘Guided by God to be the best that we can be’ is at the core of everything we do. To enable our children to celebrate and welcome differences in our world, it is vital that they have an understanding of different languages and countries. Encouraging our children to learn about other countries and cultures will develop their respect for others and enable them to play a valuable role as a member of both national and global society, all contributing to the development of their cultural capital. With this end point in mind, we aim to inspire a love of language and of learning about other cultures through our MFL curriculum. Learning a language stimulates children’s curiosity, and helps to build their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. It is our intention that, by the end of our children’s primary education, they have an understanding of both spoken and written French, confidence to speak in French with others and recognise the importance of learning languages.

Implementation

Our MFL curriculum is designed to progressively develop skills in French. We use resources from the ‘Primary French Project’, designed by the Association for Language Learning, French Institute and the Network for Languages to deliver our lessons. Lessons ensure children acquire a wide range of vocabulary and develop an understanding of phonics and grammar within the French language, as well as gaining a good understanding of French culture. Children are taught to listen to, speak, read and write the language. Lessons build on prior learning as children progress through units, and prior learning is consistently reinforced to ensure that children retain the key knowledge required to make good progress. Lessons are active and engaging, with actions, songs and games which help children to apply the language skills and vocabulary learnt. As children progress through their French learning, we place an increased focus on sentence building, recognising word classes and grouping words according to their phonetic ‘family’. Classrooms have French displays, with a focus on key vocabulary. All children in Key Stage 2 are taught French in a weekly session, following which language is reinforced throughout the school day. Signage around school is in both French and English to further extend learning.