MFL
INTENT:
French is a much-loved subject at St. Joseph’s and is greeted with enthusiasm and energy both by staff and learners. Exploration and enjoyment are the two words that underpin this subject, and lessons are highly interactive. We aim to ensure the learning is accessible to all students by structuring our topics to allow a lot of repetition, but in a variety of different formats (e.g the colours in a painting, the colour of a pet animal, the colours of clothing etc), which allows for better understanding and progression with language skills. Although we learn French at St. Josephs, we also understand that some of our children speak different languages at home and that in the future our children may need to learn other languages. As well as focussing on French vocabulary, we also learn how to follow grammar rules to manipulate words and sentences, so that these skills can then be applied to any other language they encounter. We are endeavouring to create language learners as opposed to just French learners. French is an established subject at St. Joseph’s, being taught by Ms. Bennaceur since 2017, but we still have plans to see the subject grow. Over the next academic year we hope to create a small French resource library to allow students to explore the language independently.
Intent
We intend that pupils at St. Lawrence’s will grow to love learning a language and will be very confident in their ability. The teaching of French is underpinned by positivity and praise, completely focusing on what the pupil can do and how far they have come. They will practise all four skills, speaking, listening, reading and writing on a regular basis, and as they progress through the year groups they will move on from recognising individual words to speaking in full sentences. To help the children learn: we ensure there are many opportunities for repetition within the subject.
IMPLEMENTATION:
French is taught throughout Key Stage 2. We have French lessons on Thursdays, a part of the timetable pupils greatly look forward to. Pupils build on their prior knowledge each year, continuously revising previous topics, and adding new, more complex vocabulary and grammar. The subject matter is closely linked with what the children are studying in a cross curricular sense to give greater context and meaning to the children’s learning.
IMPACT:
Pupils really enjoy their language lessons, which are often started with a chorus of “YES! It’s time for French”. By the time pupils leave St. Joseph’s they will have acquired a solid range of vocabulary in the French language as well as an understanding of basic grammar. They can carry out a conversation in French where they both ask and answer a series of questions. They have a number of strategies for learning new vocabulary, understanding structure and working out meaning that can be applied to most of the languages they may choose to learn in their secondary education and future careers.