‘‘To learn a language is to have one more window from which to look at the world.’’

                                                                                                                                                         Chinese proverb

French at Washingborough Academy

Intent

At Washingborough Academy we endorse the Government’s commitment to increasing the nation’s languages capability, set out under the guidelines of the New National Curriculum. The basis of the Languages Curriculum is to enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and writing. Teaching a Modern Foreign Language also provides opportunities for pupils to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and to also open up different paths to learn a multitude of languages. We want to develop their love of learning other languages and cultures and allow them to understand how important other languages can be in their future. We intend that by the end of our children’s primary education, they have acquired an understanding of both spoken and written French and feel confident doing so.

Implementation

For our French curriculum we use La Jolie Ronde and this is taught across the whole of KS2. The curriculum ensures that children can:

• 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
• Can 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.
• The content is taught over a 2-year cycle due to having split year groups but ensures that the content for each year group is covered and previous knowledge is built upon

Impact

The impact of our French curriculum is measured in a variety of ways:

• Assessment through learning
• Verbal discussions
• Informal judgements as they observe them during lessons

By the time children leave Washingborough Academy they will:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language
• Speak with confidence and fluency
• Find ways to communicate what they want to say
• Ask simple questions
• Write for different purposes and audiences using the structures they have learnt
• Develop an appreciation of the language studied
• Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
• Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
• Engage in conversations
• Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
• Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases
• Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences
• Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
• Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material
• Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly
• Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
• Understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied

‘‘A different language is a different vision of life.’’

                                                                                                                                              Federico Fellini