Introduction

At the Gateway we recognise that learning a foreign language, ‘provides an opening to other cultures’ and can ‘deepen (pupils) understanding of the world’ (National Curriculum 2014). We recognise that it provides our pupils with the skills that are essential for the twenty-first century. As well as giving them the opportunity to learn a second language, an increasingly important skill in our globalised society, it also helps to promote and develop a broader intercultural understanding. The study of a second language also supports children’s literacy and oracy in school, by raising awareness of aspects of their own language(s), thereby enriching their understanding of both.

National Curriculum

Our French curriculum fulfils the following aims from the National Curriculum:

• 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 authentic writing in the language studied.

By the end of key stage 2, our French curriculum enables pupils to be able to:

• 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; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help. 
• 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. 
• Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language. 
• Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary.
• 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, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.