Our French curriculum lays the foundation for future foreign language learning at KS3. The content of the curriculum has been sequenced in a meaningful way that enables children to make connections and progress from unit to unit, term to term and year to year.

Lessons provide a balance of spoken and written language. This allows pupils to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings as well as developing their knowledge of the patterns and sounds of French.

Children have opportunities to listen and understand spoken French; ask and answer questions; create role-play conversations; read and write simple phrases and discuss French culture.

The French curriculum also enables children to build interesting and meaningful connections across other subjects such as English spelling, RE, geography, as well as celebrating the many other languages spoken at our school.

So that all children have the opportunity to fulfil their potential, the curriculum is ambitious, yet achievable to all, with carefully produced scaffolding and support in place where necessary. 

Although MFL is a KS2 subject, we begin the journey in Reception and throughout KS1 by building

an awareness and familiarity of languages in general.

In Nursery, children explore the similarities and differences in families and languages spoken at home. They begin to explore different ways of saying ‘hello’. In Reception, pupils explore similarities and differences between people, communities and places, whilst exploring different ways of saying ‘hello’. In Y1 children develop their phonological and cultural awareness through listening to and singing French songs; in Y2 the children continue this and begin to learn French phonics in the summer term, using the Kapow Mouth Mechanics.

In KS2, pupils follow the Kapow scheme of work. They develop their understanding of French phonemes, listening skills, reading and writing, grammatical differences, as well as spoken French. They cover topics such as greetings, shopping, numbers, the French classroom, food and months

and birthdays.