French (Modern Foreign Languages)

Index

Intent

At Saint James Primary School, we believe that the French curriculum offers students the opportunity to cultivate their confidence in speaking a modern foreign language while gaining a deeper appreciation of the world around them. Through language, we can describe, understand and evaluate our world and its wonders. We use language to praise God and to help us to love and respect the wider community and other cultures so that we gain insights into God himself. Through language, we nurture a learning environment that fosters curiosity, emotional resilience, and a spirit of exploration. Mistakes are embraced as part of the learning journey, encouraging students to take risks and grow.

Through purposeful lessons, students are encouraged to practice and apply their language skills in speaking, reading, and writing French, while also instilling effective learning behaviours that extend beyond language acquisition. This empowers students to communicate effectively for practical purposes and fosters their independence.

We firmly believe that our French curriculum equips students with the knowledge and skills essential for becoming proficient linguists.

I embody the spirit of a linguist, I...

• Listen attentively

• Communicate fluently with accurate pronunciation

• Express thoughts through writing

• Read and comprehend simple words and phrases

• Embrace and appreciate the rich culture and language being taught

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Implementation

• French is not included in the curriculum for Early Years and Key Stage One at Saint James School, however, children in these stages start to develop an awareness of different languages through their respective curriculums, such as Understanding the World, geography projects, and understanding differences in PSHE.

• French is introduced in Year 3 when children enter Key Stage Two.

• French lessons are conducted weekly for 60 minutes throughout the academic year.

• The curriculum aligns with the objectives of the National Curriculum and follows the PlanIt scheme of work for planning support.

• French is taught by a class teachers and HLTAs.

• The linguistic skills acquired in French lessons contribute to fostering positive learning behaviours across all subjects, particularly in listening and communication.

• All French lessons are documented in French books, with practical activities and experiences captured through photographs.

• French lessons at Saint James emphasize the development of speaking and listening skills through consistent partner work and practice.

• Each French unit is planned with clear vocabulary, ensuring that children are explicitly taught the language needed for each lesson and provided with opportunities for practical application through group and partner activities.

• All teachers have access to the PlanIt French online resources, and the French subject leader has additional resources to support the effective teaching of French.

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Impact

Identification of key skills:

We have a clear progression of skills document that helps us identify French language skills. Our teachers assess students' progress both at the point and after the point of teaching against these skills as part of their projects. These documents are a part of the PlanIt scheme of work.

Curriculum Monitoring:

Our French subject leader actively monitors curriculum provision through various methods such as lesson observations, learning walks, planning scrutiny, work sampling and pupil conferencing. They also review outcomes for children through work sampling and pupil conferencing. Assessment outcomes are regularly reviewed to evaluate the impact of the French curriculum and ensure the highest possible outcomes for children. Our language and cultural knowledge instils love and respect in our children and an appreciation for the world God has created for us.

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Curriculum overview

A summary of the French curriculum can be downloaded, or found in the accordian container below:

• Download French Curriculum overview (PDF)

Warning For additional information regarding the curriculum please email our Curriculum Leader

Year 3 curriculum

French greetings with puppets

Pupils learn how to introduce themselves, to ask how someone is feeling and to say how they are feeling.

French adjectives of colour, size and shape

Peoples learn to say the names of colours, describe shapes using the adjectives of colour and size, create an animal from 2D shapes, and works of art inspired by French artist Matisse.

Topic: Food Glorious Food

Key Skills and Vocab:

•food;

•‘please’ and ‘thank you’;

•colours and sizes

•asking for food, including

•likes and dislikes;

•using ‘le/la/les’ to mean ‘the’;

•using adjectives in the correct place in a sentence;

•spelling adjectives correctly according to number and gender of the nouns.

Topic: Family and Friends

Key Skills and Vocab:

• introducing family members;

• pets;

• the alphabet;

• asking how words are spelt;

• rooms of the house;

• using possessive adjectives ‘ma/mon/mes’;

• using ‘tu’ to ask my partner questions;

• using ‘il/elle’.

Topic: Our School

Key Skills and Vocab:

• classroom objects;

• asking where things are;

• subjects;

• likes and dislikes;

• PE verbs and giving/following commands;

• places around school;

• school activities;

• using ‘il/elle est là’ or ‘ils/elles sont là’;

• converting ‘le’ and ‘la’ to ‘un’ and ‘une’

Topic: Time

Key Skills and Vocab:

• counting from 11-31;

• days;

• months;

• birthdays;

• dates and using a calendar;

• turning sentences into questions or statements by rearranging vocabulary order;

• changing questions or answers to talk about past or future tenses.

Year 4 curriculum

Portraits

Inspired by works from the Louvre, children describe facial expressions, build their descriptive vocabulary and develop an understanding of adjectival agreements and sentence structure.

Clothes

Children name items of clothing and the different forms of the indefinite article and possessive adjective and practise using the correct adjectival agreement.

Topic: Gone Shopping

Key Skills and Vocab:

• fruit and vegetables;

• likes and dislikes;

• clothes;

• adjectives of colour;

• shops and shopping;

• money – asking how much;

• numbers to 100;

• changing 'le/la/l'/les' (the) to 'du/de la/de l'/des' (some);

• using adjectives in the correct place in a sentence;

• spelling adjectives correctly according to number and gender of the nouns;

• using the appropriate form of ‘at’ (au or à la).

Topic: Where in the world?

Key Skills and Vocab:

• countries;

• continents;

• animals;

• identifying whether nouns are masculine or feminine;

• choosing the correct preposition ('en' for feminine countries, 'au' for masculine countries, 'à' for islands);

• using an English/French dictionary or online translator;

• using the past tense to say ‘J’ai vu...’;

• using the pronouns ‘il/elle’ correctly.

Topic: What’s the Time?

Key Skills and Vocab:

• o’clock and half past;

• daily routine;

• understanding a television schedule;

• quarter past and quarter to;

• the school day – times and subjects;

• counting in fives;

• starting a sentence with a time connective;

• choosing the correct word ('avant' or 'après') when comparing two subjects.

Topic: Holidays and Hobbies

Key Skills and Vocab:

• seasons;

• weather;

• countries;

• sports and hobbies;

• likes and dislikes;

• using the third person plural of ‘être’;

• choosing the correct preposition ('en' for feminine countries, 'au' for masculine countries, 'à' for islands);

• using possessive adjectives ‘ma/mon/mes’.

Year 5 curriculum

Monster Pets

Children use their detective skills to extract information, identify and sort nouns by their gender, develop their understanding of sentence structure and described their own monster pet in writing.

Space explorers

Children develop their scientific vocabulary as well as their grammar, write their own poems using figurative language and develop their sentence structure by adding adjectives, making comparisons and giving reasons using ‘because’.

Topic: That’s Tasty

Key Skills and Vocab:

• food and drink;

• days and time - half past and o’clock;

• likes and dislikes;

• using ‘Je voudrais...’;

• using ‘J’aime...’ and ‘Je n’aime pas...’;

• spelling adjectives correctly according to the number and gender of nouns;

• using the correct form of ‘some’ (du/de/la/de l’/des).

Topic: Family and Friends

Key Skills and Vocab:

• rhyming and singing;

• animals;

• houses and furniture;

• recognising and using possessive adjectives;

• knowing the difference between 1st and 3rd person;

• using a bi-lingual dictionary;

• spelling adjectives correctly according to the number and gender of nouns;

• using co-ordinating conjunctions;

• recognising and pronouncing phonemes accurately.

Topic: School Life

Key Skills and Vocab:

• furniture;

• pencil case items;

• school subjects;

• numbers 0-40;

• shapes;

• using ‘il’ and ‘elle’;

• comparing two things and saying which I like best;

• using ‘Excusez-moi, est-ce que je peux... ?’ to ask ‘Can I...?’;

• using ‘Où est ?’ and ‘Où sont ?’ to ask where things are.

Topic: Time Travelling

Key Skills and Vocab:

• counting above 1,000;

• reading and understanding dates;

• saying when you were born;

• using ‘avoir’ correctly;

• matching subject and verb;

• using past tense – identifying past participle verbs;

• identifying and conjugating auxiliary verbs;

• changing the past participle to agree with gender and number of the noun.

Year 6 curriculum

French sport and the Olympics

Pupils learn to conjugate the verb ‘aller’ - to go and which preposition to use to express going to a country. They learn sports vocabulary, how to express preferences and expand their knowledge of country names. They develop their cultural knowledge of Pétanque, the Tour de France and the Olympics and consolidate their learning by writing a magazine article about participating in the Olympic Games.

French football champions

Pupils learn strategies which they can use in their future learning of other languages and subjects as well as developing their speaking and listening skills, asking and responding to questions and adapting written football player profiles.

Topic: This is France

Key Skills and Vocab:

• countries;

• distances

• directions and compass points;

• what to do in Paris;

• famous French people;

• using the correct form of 'de';

• using the correct form of 'être';

• using the correct form of adjectives.

Topic: All in a Day

Key Skills and Vocab:

• time – o’clock, half past, quarter past, a.m. and p.m., quarter to, 5 minute intervals, 24 hour clock;

• reading and interpreting airport arrivals and departures boards;

• numbers 0-50;

• days;

• school subjects – reading and interpreting a timetable;

• conjugating regular verbs ending in '-ir', '-er' and '-re';

• translating simple sentences by conjugating verbs in the present tense.

Topic: Our Precious Planet

Key Skills and Vocab:

• identifying environmental challenges;

• identifying actions we could take to help the planet;

• using the correct form of the near future tense to match the subject of the sentence;

• using ‘Je pense que...’ and the near future to say what people might do;

• linking sentences with ‘et’, ‘aussi’, ‘mais’ and ‘en plus’

Topic: More to Explore

Key Skills and Vocab:

• countries;

• learning vocabulary;

• pronunciation;

• culture;

• reading/writing/speaking/listening skills;

• using a bilingual dictionary;

• using nouns, adjectives and adverbs correctly;

• using high-frequency verbs in French;

• using different verb forms to refer to past, present and future.

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Subject leader

Mrs Boyd
Teacher/Assistant Head

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Gallery

Year 3 have learnt how to introduce themselves, how to say how old they are and how to ask and say how they are feeling. They’ve enjoyed small group and paired discussion practising this vocabulary.

Year 3 have learnt to count up to 10 in French. They had fun using this vocabulary in a song, in a matching game and whilst jumping on the hopscotch!

Two little kittens visiting Paris. I am called François. I am called Marie. Hello François. Hello Marie. Goodbye François. Goodbye Marie.

Year 4 have been speaking and writing simple sentences to explain what they are wearing. Some of them were up for a challenge and used their memory of French numbers to express how many items of clothing they had.

Year 5 have learnt numbers up to 100 in a French shopping topic. We need to know what we want and how many we want! Looking at the names of fruit in French, the pupils were reminded that some words are feminine and some are masculine.

Year 6 learnt how to say and write sentences to describe activities in French. We could practise using our French verbs!