Primary Curriculum
French
At Starbank we believe that the learning of a foreign language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for all pupils. Our French curriculum has been designed with the intent to develop our children’s communication and literacy skills in order to lay the foundation for their future language learning. Through planned topics, pupils develop linguistic competence, extend their knowledge of how language works and explore differences and similarities between a foreign language and English.
Through engaging, pupil-friendly and relevant topics such as ‘animals’, ‘the family’ and ‘my home’, our children will systematically develop these essential modalities, including a focus on basic grammar and core vocabulary. We will methodically introduce, frequently practice and continually revisit important vocabulary, spellings and pronunciation principles, so that our children will learn more and remember more. By the time our children leave us, our French curriculum will have laid the foundations for further language learning in Key Stage 3 and beyond.
We will deliver a knowledge-rich French curriculum that:
- Has speaking and listening at its heart, so that children can engage in and understand simple conversations, as well as present to an audience;
- Supports children to read with expression and understand relevant points in simple texts;
- Develops children’s abilities to write longer sentences and shorter paragraphs, using basic grammar correctly;
- Systematically builds a useful and practical French vocabulary;
- Adapts the Language Angels scheme of work and its vast bank of interactive resources to support teachers to provide high-quality weekly lessons.
Our French curriculum is taught according to the following whole school long term plan:
| Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | Year 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autumn 1 | I’m learning French | Presenting myself | Do you have a Pet? | World War 2 |
| Autumn 2 | Animals | My family | What is the Date? | At school |
| Spring 1 | Musical instruments | My Home | The weather | The weekend |
| Spring 2 | Little Red Riding Hood | At the Cafe | Habitats | Me in the World |
| Summer 1 | I can.. | The classroom | Clothes | Healthy lifestyles |
| Summer 2 | Vegetables | Goldilocks | The Olympics | The Planets |
The detailed, sequential development of French knowledge, skills and understanding is carefully mapped out in our progression map, accessible below. This progression map ensures that teachers are supported to plan lessons that include all learners, of all abilities, allowing skill progression within a particular strand of French to be fully understood by teachers.
Our children are given motivating cross-curricular opportunities and special experiences to embed essential learning in French. This enrichment is an essential element of our curriculum offer.