French at St Thomas'
Intent - Our vision for French
Here at St. Thomas’, we learn French as our Modern Foreign Language. We aim to inspire in our pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and people within it as well as fostering an enthusiastic and positive attitude towards learning an additional language. We aim to provide our pupils with a multi-cultural richness and a deeper understanding of the world they live in and their place in it.
MFL is the development of pupils’ linguistic competence and at St Thomas’ we see it as a life-long skill. We aim to develop language skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing in order for pupils to be able to communicate effectively with others and we hope it provides them with a springboard to learning other modern foreign languages in the future.
Implementation - How we plan for, and teach French
During their time at St Thomas’, pupils in Key Stage 2 have the opportunity to learn French for 4 years. French is taught using the Primary Languages Network scheme. The resources aim to support not only our pupils, but also our staff who are not usually language specialists. The Primary Languages Network allows our teachers to teach interactively, have the opportunity to practice conversationally and make use of videos of native speakers to support pronunciation and accent. The topics are mapped out to ensure a progression of vocabulary and give pupils opportunities to build upon their grammatical knowledge. A wide range of teaching strategies are used to maximise pupils’ experiences and develop their linguistic skills including: songs/rhymes, role play, story-telling, games, dictionary work, grammar and creative tasks. Pupils are encouraged to be ‘language detectives’ to make links with the English language. The type of outcome varies from lesson to lesson, some of which are recorded in the pupil’s own French book.
Throughout our French lessons, teachers will incorporate St Thomas’ Be Statements: Be Curious, Be Knowledgeable, Be Creative, Be Compassionate, Be Reflective, Be Courageous.
Our Key Stage 2 classes follow the Primary Languages Network scheme of work as below:
Year 3 Stage 1
Year 4 Stage 2
Year 5 Stage 3
Year 6 Stage 4
At St Thomas’, we celebrate the European Day of Languages annually in September.
We also offer after-school clubs for Key Stage 1 pupils provided by Les Petits Pois and for Key Stage 2 pupils provided by Madame Durkin.
Impact - How we evaluating learning in French
By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils will have had the opportunity to develop key language learning skills set out by the National Curriculum. They will be able to read, write, listen and speak about a range of topics in French and show positive attitudes towards learning a language. We hope that pupils regard themselves as global citizens; showing an understanding, respect and tolerance for other countries and people and a desire to further explore languages and diversities of our world.