French
Learning French at Hart Primary School
Our French Vision:
To develop a range of vocabulary, a knowledge of French phonemes and an understanding of basic grammar in order to be able to communicate practically, and with enjoyment in French by reading, writing, listening and speaking.
“Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.” NC MFL
These are the first lines of the purpose of study for Modern Foreign Languages in the National Curriculum. This is particularly important in our school as most of our pupils live in a culturally non-diverse community. It is important for our pupils to see and hear “difference” and be excited and engaged with it. We see language learning as a vital skill in our globalised world and seek to equip our pupils to engage with it. An open and outward looking attitude enables communication and demonstrates our core British values of acceptance, respect and tolerance.
In our Key Stage 2 French lessons we use the Cave Languages scheme. This scheme teaches French phonics as well as French vocabulary and a working knowledge of simple French grammar in order to be able to communicate in French through reading, writing, speaking and listening. Our language teaching follows the National Curriculum closely and has at its core the three key pillars of learning for Modern Foreign Languages – phonics, vocabulary and grammar. It also provides the pupils many opportunities to engage with French culture through a range of French stories, song, rhymes and poems.
PHONICS
To be able to read, write and speak we need to recognise and understand the phonemes and graphemes of the language. We learn to read and write in English using our Little Wandle phonics scheme in Early Years and Year 1.
When we learn another language, such as French, it is equally as important to learn the new phonemes and graphemes of that language. For example, in French the grapheme “eu” makes a sound (phoneme) similar to the sound that in English we represent with the grapheme “er”. The grapheme “ch” makes the sound “sh”.
Our pupils have fun in their French lessons learning this new phoneme/grapheme correspondence.
VOCABULARY
Pupils learn a range of common vocabulary in order to be able to communicate effectively about a range of everyday topics. For example, to be about to describe people, places and things and to be able to ask and answer simple questions. Vocabulary, such as key verbs, size, colours and numbers is revisited throughout KS2 in different contexts in order to secure it in the long-term memory. They will also broaden their vocabulary by using a bi-lingual dictionary.
GRAMMAR
Pupils are taught to understand basic grammatical structures including feminine and masculine forms (la and le, une and un) and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs. They learn key features and patterns of the language and how to apply these. For instance, they learn that the position of the adjective in French is usually different to that of English (after the noun) and different ways to structure questions. They learn that some words that are capitalised in English are not capitalised in French such as the personal pronoun I (je) and days and months.
Photos of Displays
Displays will be good for the PHONICS pillar.
Examples of Y5/6 French projects:
French Ambassadors
Here are our French ambassadors. These are pupils who have demonstrated a real enthusiasm for French and their role is to promote it to their class and throughout school.
Here are our French Knowledge mats. They show the key knowledge taught in Years 3-4 and 5-6. These are designed to be used as a reference and learning tool in the classroom. Note that it will not be until the middle of each year or even second year of Years 3-4 and 5-6 that the knowledge will have been encountered for the most part. This could be a useful way of asking your child about their learning in French.
Here is a very useful overview of French learning in our school.
Overview of French Scheme of Work
Years 3 & 4
The content of this 2-year cycle prepares children to be able to:
- recognise the sounds of the French language as well as the sound of some letter strings
- speak, understand, read and write short sentences and questions
- understand simple grammatical concepts and recognise some language patterns
- join in with some familiar stories and recite some finger rhymes from memory
Cycle A
Cycle B
Years 5 & 6
The content of this 2-year cycle prepares children to be able to:
- recognise and produce the sound of many letter strings in words and sentences with confident pronunciation
- speak, understand, read and write a complex sentence by manipulating familiar language
- ask a variety of questions
- apply knowledge of basic grammatical concepts to speak and write
- follow a simple story or song and read aloud
Cycle A
Cycle B
Statement for SEND
Hart Primary School promotes a curriculum that puts all pupils, regardless of their needs, at the heart of what we do. By building mutual respect, we accept others for their differences believing that everyone is special and everyone has something to offer. Our inclusive and enriching curriculum, written for all children, provides pupils with meaningful and aspirational experiences as well as promoting personal growth for life-long learning. When the curriculum needs adapting, to suit the needs of individual children, appropriate modifications are made by the class teacher with support of the SENDCo and the Curriculum Subject Lead.
Awards and Events
Each year we celebrate French culture and give an opportunity for the children to show what they have learnt by having a French performance in front of the whole school. Y3/4 and Y5/6 sing and recite the poems and songs they learn in their lessons. This is a great experience for them and it inspires and engages the younger pupils. In addition, the older pupils are able to revisit literature they have learnt at a previous time.
We celebrate enthusiasm and a great attitude to learning in French with the Spontaneous Conversation Award.
Subject reading
French Language Books that are shared with the class include: Loup y es-tu , Toutes les couleurs, Silence Père Noël, Je m’habille et je te croque, Roule galette , Pourquoi , Va-t’en grand monstre vert , Bon appétit Monsieur Lapin, Qui conduit? Pouquoi.
Useful links for parents
Cave Language Youtube site https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRgXukuNPKcq0B9Ubjau9Og
Physical French Phonics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWeMnQVmxDY
BBC Bitesize https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/primary
Duolingo https://www.duolingo.com
