South Hill Primary School
Building Character, Learning Together
Modern Foreign Language - French
“Languages are an essential part of a broad, balanced curriculum. Not only do they provide an opportunity to communicate more effectively with others, they also help children to understand what it is to be a global citizen. This includes the importance of tolerance and understanding, which is crucial knowledge in today’s world.”
At South Hill, French is taught as a Modern Foreign Language (MFL) in Key stage two. Pupils in Early Years and Key Stage One learn and develop skills, which will support and benefit their future language learning. These include:
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Communication and language
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Phonics
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Reading
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Grammar
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Vocabulary
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Knowledge of different cultures and societies
Our Curriculum
In KS2, French is taught using the ‘Language Angels’ scheme of work. Teaching units have been selected in order to build a wide range of vocabulary and enable progression in our ‘Golden Threads’, which are:
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LISTENING
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SPEAKING
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READING
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WRITING
In the Autumn term, each year group starts with phonetics and pronunciation lessons which teach some of the key sounds in French. Pupils also spend time learning and using some ‘essential vocabulary’ including greetings, numbers and days of the week etc. Pupils then continue developing their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills through a variety of topics throughout the year.
To ensure learning is enjoyable and memorable, lessons often use stories, songs, role play and a variety of other activities to support pupils to learn, remember and apply French vocabulary.
Celebrating languages
Within our school, we have pupils that speak many different languages. We aim to celebrate this through whole school events such as ‘International Day’ and ‘International Languages Day’ where each year group selects a country to learn about and to take part in a dance as well as many other activities. We also celebrate languages that are in school by dressing in colours of a chosen nationality and sharing languages, customs and traditions with our friends.
