As part of our global vision, Walton on the Hill is committed to promoting French within our school by broadening pupils’ understanding of the world and developing strong, long-life linguistic skills. Along with learning new topics, reinforcing knowledge in every lesson is the key to learning a language. We focus on giving pupils plenty of opportunity to practice their language skills and to embed key vocabulary. This is the first step towards becoming independent as a language learner.

The French Curriculum is divided into four strands

1. Listening
2. Speaking
3. Reading
4. Writing

All children in Key Stage 2 to access French on a weekly basis. The aims are to;

• Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
• Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
• Engage in conversations, ask and answer questions, express opinions and respond to those of others, and seek clarification and help
• Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
• Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases
• Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
• Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences
• Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through a dictionary
• Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
• Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, expressing their ideas clearly
• Describe people, places, things and actions in speech and in writing
• Understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs

Provision

Each KS2 class is allocated 45-60 minutes for weekly timetabled French lessons. All teachers, even if they are not teaching the main language lesson, ensure that the foreign language is used where appropriate throughout the school day, providing further opportunities for language development and consolidation.

Languages are not a compulsory subject in Early Years or KS1. At our school we do, however, include French vocabulary, songs, rhymes and simple phrases as part of the children’s learning as we believe it encourages them to be enthusiastic and embed languages from the beginning of their school life.

The Future

We have lots of exiting plans to help develop French within our school this year. We have been fortunate to develop links with City of London Freemans School who have provided us with resources and expertise from specialist French teachers. We will have the opportunity later in the year to take children to use their language lab!

With the help of Friends, we are currently in the process of changing our Scheme of work to the Salut Programme which provides fantastic consolidation of knowledge throughout the years and helps to prepare the children for French in Key Stage 3.

As part of our plan to promote French in our school, we are looking to organise a ‘French Day’ in the coming months. We want to celebrate languages in our school and make French exciting and accessible for all!