French

Statement of Intent

Children have weekly lessons in French throughout Key Stage 2, using the resources and units of work from Twinkl’s PlanIt French, in addition to other resources. In Lower KS2, children acquire basic skills and understanding of French with a strong emphasis placed on developing their Speaking and Listening skills. These will be embedded and further developed in Upper KS2, alongside Reading and Writing, gradually progressing onto more complex language concepts and greater learner autonomy.

It is intended that when children leave Heddington Primary School, they will have a natural curiosity and confidence to explore, other countries, cultures and languages, accepting that, in a multi-lingual society it is a valuable skill to be able to communicate effectively with others in another language.  They will be engaged and prepared to continue language learning at Secondary School.

What do we want Children to Gain from French?

We want children to…

  • 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
  • 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.

How we Assess Impact

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

  • Observing children speaking and listening in another language.
  • Marking of written work.
  • Images and videos of children completing speaking and listening activities.
  • Talking to the pupils about their learning (pupil voice).
  • Moderation staff meetings where pupil’s work is scrutinised and there is the opportunity for a dialogue between teachers to understand their class’s work.
  • Annual reporting of standards across the curriculum to parents.
  • Learning walks.

The language subject leader will continually monitor the impact French teaching is having on the children’s learning, through pupil discussions awork scrutinies, to ensure the progress of knowledge and skills is being taught.  They will also ensure the knowledge taught is retained by the children and continually revisited and that the learners are able to apply the skills they have been taught to a variety of different settings, showing independence with their learning. Impact will also be measured through key questioning skills built into lessons, child-led assessment such as success criteria grids, jigsaw targets and summative assessments aimed at targeting next steps in learning.

Our French Co-ordinator is Mr Martin