Modern Foreign Language

At King William Street, we recognise the importance of learning a modern foreign language in our continually developing world. Learning a modern foreign language enables pupils to understand different ways of life outside of their school life and equips them with the skills to be able to immerse themselves in a different culture. French is taught on a weekly basis throughout KS2.

Our French curriculum has been designed to support and help students of all abilities to access languages and fulfil their potential in an engaging and fun way. We teach the contents outlined in the National Curriculum using French Sentence Builders – A Lexicogrammar approach and the website Language Gym for pronunciation. Within each unit, the children are given opportunities to practice new learning by:

listening: children are provided opportunities to listen to key phonics and vocabulary. They are encouraged to locate familiar words within spoken sentences to demonstrate their understanding.

speaking is modelled by both the teacher and through our digital learning platform Language Gym and children are given opportunities to speak in words phrases and full sentences.

reading: Children are exposed to a range of vocabulary, covering a range of topics. They are taught to recognise and read these key words in context and in the form of full sentences.

writing: after listening to vocabulary, repeating it and hearing it in sentences, children are given the opportunity to write words and phrases in context to demonstrate their understanding alongside their listening skills.

The units within the French Sentence Builders resource are carefully mapped out across Key Stage 2 to ensure progression and consolidation. At the beginning of every new unit, teachers revisit the key knowledge of previous units, before introducing new learning.

French learning is recorded in the children’s individual French book. Each lesson is identified with a WALT that is taken from the Sentence Builder document. These WALTs are then highlighted in the children’s books and the attainment is then recorded on the Modern Foreign language part of Target Tracker. Throughout each unit, children are asked to produce pieces of work which help them independently demonstrate the skills that they have been taught.

The monitoring of this subject takes various forms. A key component is pupil voice alongside their individual French book. School leaders use these to ensure children have the opportunity to develop their skills fully. Through these discussions, children are able to demonstrate how much they enjoy their French lessons and can demonstrate how they ‘know more and remember more’.