MFL - French

Mrs Levey leads the teaching of French in school. We also offer children the exciting opportunity to take part in a French residential in Years 5 or 6.   

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. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.” 

-The National Curriculum in England: Key stages 1 and 2 Framework Document. September 2013

Our intent for our MFL (French) Curriculum

At Frodsham Manor House we believe that the learning of a language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our pupils.  It helps them to develop communication skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing, with an aim of making substantial progress in one language (French). In addition, children’s knowledge of how language works will be developed to lay the foundations for further language learning in future. We believe that learning another language gives children a new and broader perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures and those of others, which feeds into our focus on global learning with an International Schools Award. Our aim is for children to be both prepared and enthusiastic about continuing their language learning at secondary school.

The Implementation for our MFL (French) Curriculum

Children develop their love of language learning and develop skills throughout their time in school.  From Reception upwards, children begin their language learning journey. Whole school assemblies, which all children participate in, celebrate language learning and our wider position in the world through song and international stories. KS1 children also begin to learning language incidentally through seeing signs around school in French and by hearing songs in class for example mindfulness clips or yoga poses in with a French language speaker video.

In KS2, children are taught in regular lessons through participating in songs, stories, actions, rhymes and games as well as written and oral activities. Activities are often multisensory to meet the needs of different learning styles and SEND children. We believe it is important for children to practice writing, as well as speaking, in French as they progress through school. Children have a French book to record their work which they keep from Year 3 to Year 6. Our school follows the Primary Languages Network scheme of work, which is adapted to meet the needs of our own children and the curriculum they will embrace at KS3. We also try to look for short opportunities throughout the week for children to practice language they have learnt in lessons to aid them to retain language learnt in lessons.

Our languages curriculum is reinforced by our residential trips to France. Pupils in Year 5 and 6 have the opportunity to participate in a residential trip, during which they are able to put into practise their language learning and develop a wider cultural appreciation of the language they are studying. We believe this acts as a great motivation for language learning and develops historical and intercultural understanding. We have also run competitions for language learning at home and had clubs to promote the importance of language learning. KS2 children learn a new ‘word of the week’ in French too to build their vocabulary. We are also looking to build everyday classroom language such as ‘sit down’ into our daily routines in French. Children are also celebrated for their hard work by special French certificate awards.

In Year 3, children learn to use simple greetings, numbers to 10, colours, days of the week, months and animals. Children at this stage mostly respond orally and by writing words.  In Year 4, children progress their learning through recapping introductions, numbers to 20, descriptions, family, body parts and explaining how they feel in more detail. Children begin to write more at sentence level in Year 4. In Year 5, children begin to be able to give opinions about school and learn numbers to 100, weather phrases and places around town. Children begin to write and adapt their own sentences more at this level. In Year 6, children recap learning from previous years as well as learning about hobbies, basic verb forms, opinions and café culture in France.

The Impact of our MFL (French) Curriculum

Our French curriculum will ensure all pupils develop their French vocabulary and a love of languages and learning about other cultures as well as key language learning skills, as set out by the national curriculum. Our curriculum has been developed in conjunction with our main local high school in order to ensure pupils can make a smooth transition and continue to progress as soon as they reach high school. The key skills as set out by the national curriculum are as follows:

• 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

-The National Curriculum in England: Key stages 1 and 2 Framework Document. September 2013

We measure the progress of children in French by using ‘Puzzle it out’ assessments from the Primary Languages Scheme of work. These allow teachers to measure progress in the three pillars of language learning (vocabulary, grammar and phonics) and adapt teaching as necessary to meet the needs of children. Children also receive verbal formative feedback on their work in lessons.

The subject is managed by the Languages Co-ordinator, Mrs Levey, who uses the Primary Languages Network scheme of work to inform planning and ensure progression in language learning, as set out by the DfE framework of study.  Please see separate documents detailing the attainment targets and progression of skills we look for in each year group.

Below you can find documents relating to the teaching of French at Frodsham Manor House. 

On the Core Skills document, Stage 1 refers to Year 3, Stage 2 is Year 4 and onwards.