French @ St. Benedict's C oF E VA Junior School

Intent

Through the teaching of our chosen Modern Foreign Language, French, we aim to give the children an opportunity to express themselves and to seek to understand others. Cultural themes (similarities and differences) are explored in addition to the spoken language in order to broaden their horizons and prepare them for our global community.

Implementation

We are currently using the ‘Rigolo’ (OUP) scheme of work, which follows the National Curriculum guidance and supports French teaching with video and authentic pronunciation models. Tasks are primarily focused on speaking and listening, but pictures, labels, captions and sentences are used to record learning and show increasing proficiency in the language. Pair work maximises opportunities to produce target structures.

Impact

Pupils are encouraged to self-assess with can-do statements and also to reflect during lessons on which metacognitive skills are helping them learn (ELLI animals). Teachers periodically record formal judgements which indicate the attainment of children in relation to the age-related expectations of their year group, and these are reported to parents. Lesson visits, pupil interviews and ‘book looks’ are used to evaluate the impact of the French curriculum and to engage teachers in discussion about pedagogy and resources.