Subject Lead: Miss Emily Bickerstaffe 

                                                                 Intent, Implementation & Impact Statement 

At Weeton St Michael’s C of E Primary School, our vision is to provide our children with a high-quality, inclusive education inspired by Christian values. Excellent teaching and learning form the basis of all our work, delivered through a caring, creative ethos.

Our children are encouraged to have a positive attitude, develop resilience in their approach to learning, become confident in their own ability, be independent and motivated to achieve their full potential.

We believe that it is our duty to make learning fun, engaging, memorable, accessible and ambitious for all children, instilling in them a love of learning.

We take seriously our duty to teach children about the fundamental British values of mutual respect and tolerance, democracy, the rule of law and individual liberty. These values are woven through our curriculum so that our learners leave us prepared for life in modern Britain.

French: Our Intent

Our French curriculum aims to instil in our children a love for language learning, an appreciation for different cultures and knowledge of the wider world. We aim for our children to develop confidence in French communication for practical purposes, using both written and spoken French. Our curriculum aims to develop children’s understanding of French grammar and its phonics system. Most children will continue to learn French in secondary school.

At Weeton St Michael’s, our French curriculum is based on the Language Angels scheme of work in which we aim to give pupils a foundation for language learning that encourages and enables them to apply their skills to learning further languages, developing a strong understanding of the English language, facilitating future study and opening opportunities to study and work in other countries in the future.

Language Angels cater for the three pillars of learning, ensuring substantial progress in the foreign language by the end of primary phase. The three pillars of language are: Phonics, Vocabulary and Grammar. These pillars are woven into all lessons and ensure substantial progress and build solid foundations in language learning before leaving primary school.

In addition, our curriculum ensures that all pupils:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
• Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation
• Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
• Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

Our French curriculum supports pupils to meet the National curriculum end of Key stage 2 attainment targets (there are no Key stage 1 attainment targets for Languages).

By the end of Key Stage Two, children will be able 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; 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
•  Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences
• Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
• Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
• Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary.
• Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly.
• Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
• Understanding basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.

Our curriculum aims to equip all pupils with broad and balanced learning opportunities that deepen knowledge but also provides the cultural experiences they need to flourish throughout the primary phase and beyond. The curriculum drivers Language Angels support with foreign language learning are: Oracy, Diversity, Creativity and independence.

Our French Curriculum Topic Overview

Our progression document (appendix 1) details the precise knowledge taught in each unit of work.

Implementation

From year three onwards, French is taught as a discrete subject discipline for approximately thirty minutes per week. Teachers follow the progression document above and use the lesson plans and resources from Language Angels.

Our French curriculum has been designed to ensure that essential grammatical concepts and vocabulary are revisited in new contexts with a higher degree of complexity, allowing pupils to revise and add to their existing knowledge. Teachers are familiar with the whole school progression document and revisit prior learning at the beginning of, and regularly throughout, units of work.

Knowledge organisers and vocabulary are provided for children for each unit of work. These include key grammatical knowledge and vocabulary, as well as guidance around phonetic pronunciation.

Each unit of work provides children with an opportunity to develop their skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing, although the focus in year three is largely on spoken French, with written French incorporated in year four and beyond.

French lessons focus heavily on achieving correct pronunciation; non-specialist teachers are able to use PowerPoint schemes to support them and the children with pronunciation.

French lessons begin with a recap of prior learning, from prior year groups, terms or lessons. Key vocabulary is included in lesson starters, modelled by adults within lessons and displayed on classroom displays. Lessons incorporate various learning strategies, including independent work, paired or team work, role-play, song and rhyme and language games. Teachers adapt lessons to best meet the needs of their class. Written work is completed in French exercise books.

Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

Our French curriculum is inclusive and ambitious for all learners, and we expect that all children should be successful, regardless of any special educational need. All learners are given full access to the French curriculum. Class teachers will adapt teaching inputs and provide additional support through scaffolding for any child who requires support. Language Angels includes adapted resources where appropriate. Class teachers are supported by our SENDCo, in meeting the needs of all learners and pupil passports will provide teachers with learning strategies for specific pupils.

More Able Children

Teachers may identify children as more able in French, either through end of unit summative assessments or through observation in lessons and formative assessments. In French, we may identify a child as more able if they:

• Have a strong desire to put languages together by themselves

• Show creativity and imagination when using language

• Have a natural feel for languages

• Pick up new language and structures quickly

• Make connections and classify words and structures to help them learn more efficiently

Children will be challenged in their learning through challenges provided by Language Angels that aim to deepen their fluency and understanding of the language.

Impact

The expected impact of our curriculum is that children will:

• Be able to engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations (e.g., ordering in a cafe, following directions) and express an opinion
•  Make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases, and short texts.
• Speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation.
• Demonstrate understanding of spoken language by listening and responding appropriately.
• Be able to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt.
• Have developed an awareness of cognates and near-cognates and be able to use them to tackle unfamiliar words in French, English, and other languages.
• Be able to construct short texts on familiar topics.
• Meet the end of Key Stage 2 stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Languages.

The impact of our curriculum is constantly monitored by class teachers through formative and summative assessments. Our scheme of work includes guidance for teachers in assessing pupils against learning objectives. Teachers use lesson starters (recaps) to identify gaps in children’s knowledge and subsequently plan opportunities to close any identified gaps.

At the end of each unit of work, assessments are undertaken to establish the knowledge of pupils. These assessments consist of written and oral activities. Assessments are moderated in staff teams annually.

Standards of teaching and learning in French are monitored by the subject leader and the headteacher.

Monitoring may include:

• Pupil interviews
• Work scrutiny
• Learning walks

We will review and develop the curriculum on an annual basis.