Modern Foreign Languages at Park

At Park, we have designed our French curriculum to:

• Meet the requirements of the National Curriculum and Early Years Framework

• Be rich in knowledge that is meaningfully connected to what children already know

• Build a strong understanding of big ideas such as grammatical structures over their time at Park

• Develop empathetic citizens of now and the future, equipped and empowered to make a difference in an ever-changing world

• Build a bank of familiar words and phrases in French

• Develop skills of using what you do know to make meaning in another language even if you don’t know it all yet

We have chosen to teach children French as our modern foreign language because it is widely spoken in the world and it is taught in all the local secondary schools where your child is likely to go on to after Park. It is also the language that most of our teaching staff have a GCSE in, so have strong subject knowledge in this area. To achieve our aims in the French curriculum, our subject leader has planned what will be taught in each year group and set this out in a long-term plan. Our French long-term plan at Park is below.

Our MFL subject leader has carefully selected the key language concepts that we develop through your child’s French curriculum. These concepts are:

• Grammar: masculine and feminine

• Grammar: sentence structure

• Grammar: verbs

• Cultural understanding

Units of work have been selected to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum and to progressively return to these ideas, broadening and deepening children’s understanding each time.  This is mapped out in documents like those below.

In addition to this, our MFL subject leader has planned out when your child will be introduced to new vocabulary in French and when this will be returned to.

French is taught to children in Y3-Y6. In Y3 and Y4, we focus on developing children ability to listen and say words and phrases in French. In Y5 and Y6, we focus on reading and writing longer passages in French.

We use the Primary Languages Network resources to support the teaching of French at Park because it incudes videos of native French speakers as well as hearing your child’s own class teacher speaking French. Lessons are adapted for individual pupil needs so that all children are able to access the same content. We teach our lessons in interactive ways with plenty of opportunity for rehearsal and repitition to help you child remember words with the correct pronunciation.

To be sure that our curriculum is working for your child, we regularly check whether they have gained the knowledge set out in our French curriculum.  Within lessons, we set up short activities to check what they have understood and remembered.  Where children show they have not understood or remembered some key learning, we will make adaptations for them within the lesson and change our planning for future lessons to address this and help them remember more.

At the end of the unit, we check whether children have remembered all of the key learning for the unit.  We make a summary judgement as to whether they have met Park’s expectations and learned what we expect them to.  If your child is in Y3-Y6, we will inform you of your child’s French attainment in their end of year report as well as regular chances to see what they have learned in school throughout the year.  We will also let their next teacher know, so that they can plan to meet your child’s needs in the next class.

Our MFL subject leader and senior leadership team regularly review the assessments made in French, look at your child’s books and visit their lessons and end of theme celebrations to check whether our curriculum is working to help your child master key understanding in French.  We use this to reflect on what has been taught, how it has been taught and make further improvements to our curriculum.