French
Subject leader
Mr Mitton is responsible for French. This means ensuring there is an ambitious curriculum set, supporting teachers to implement it through high-quality lessons and checking that everything is helping children to know more, remember more and do more.
If you would like more information in addition to that published on this page, please email:
Purpose of Study
Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.
Aims
The National Curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:
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.
Oakfield's Approach
Intent
We are setting out to help our pupils be ...
Curious - Through learning a language pupils can deepen their understanding of the world around them.
Expressive - By enabling them to express themselves in a different language both in writing and speech.
Confident - In their ability to communicate using a different language.
Implementation
We will do this by ensuring ...
Children are given meaningful opportunities to apply the skills they are taught.
Content is taught progressively to acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge.
Lessons offer appropriate levels of challenge and stretch, to ensure pupils learn effectively, continuously building their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the language they are learning.
Impact
We will have made a difference when ...
Children will enrich their language learning by developing an understanding of the French culture.
All value and enjoy the curriculum we offer - by sharing their thoughts through discussion and engagement with the curriculum.
All children will develop their language through development of the four key skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.
Progression on a Page ...
We are in the process of developing our Languages curriculum and so some elements are not ready to share, yet!
Here is an overview of what we expect children to be taught, know and do by the end of each year group.
Year 3
In Year 3, pupils become confident in their speaking and listening skills and start to develop their reading and writing skills.
They learn about musical instruments and ancient Britain, as well as how to talk about their family and describe their weekend activities.
They also learn about French customs and traditions and how to celebrate French events.
Year 4
In Year 4, pupils continue to expand their vocabulary and develop their reading and writing skills.
They learn about more complex topics such as describing their home, talking about their clothes and learning about the Vikings.
Pupils are encouraged to express themselves more fully and develop their own writing style, whilst also improving their understanding of French grammar.
Year 5
In Year 5, pupils build on their previous knowledge and start to explore more sophisticated topics such as the environment, food and drink, holidays and sports and hobbies.
They learn to use more complex sentence structures and gain an understanding of French grammar rules such as verb tenses and adjective agreement.
Year 6
In Year 6, pupils continue to develop their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, whilst also gaining a deeper understanding of French culture.
They learn to describe people, talk about their town and local area, describe travel and talk about celebrations.
Pupils are encouraged to develop their own writing style and to use more sophisticated vocabulary and grammar.
Throughout their time in our school, pupils will also be introduced to French phonetics and pronunciation lessons, which are designed to help them master the sounds of the French language and to improve their listening and speaking skills. By the time they leave our school, pupils will have developed a love of French language and culture, as well as having acquired the skills and knowledge to enable them to continue their language learning journey with confidence.
Units of Learning...
NB: Our offer includes French as a subject and sets out the progression for year groups moving forward. However, it's important to note that children in Years 4 - 6 may be experiencing a different curriculum model due to the disruption caused by the pandemic. During this time, French was temporarily removed to prioritise COVID catch-up initiatives. Nevertheless, French has since been reintroduced and will be taught to all year groups as per the curriculum offer.
Phonics 1
Know how to pronounce every letter of the alphabet.
Learn the pronunciation for the 'special friends' CH, OU, ON, OI.
I'm Learning French
Locate France, Paris, and a few key cities on a map.
Understand the Francophone world better.
Ask somebody how they are feeling and what their name is.
Say how we are feeling and our names.
Count to 10.
Read, write, say, and recall ten different colours.
Seasons
Name, recognise and remember all four seasons in French.
Say which is our favourite season in French.
Say why it is our favourite season in French.
Start to recognise and use the conjunctions ‘et’ (and) & ‘car’ (because) in our spoken and written responses.
Instruments
Recognise, recall and spell up to ten instruments in French with the correct definite article/determiner.
Start to understand articles/determiners better in French.
Learn to say and write ‘I play an instrument’ in French using the high frequency 1st person regular verb ‘je joue’ (I play) with up to ten different instruments.
Fruits
Name, recognise and remember up to 10 fruits in French.
Attempt to spell some of these nouns with their correct article/determiner.
Ask somebody in French if they like a particular fruit.
Say what fruits we like and dislike in French.
Ancient Britain
Name in French, the six key periods of ancient Britain, introduced in chronological order.
Say in French three of the types of people who lived in ancient Britain, where they lived and what their hunting tool was.
Remember accurately from memory and use the French for ‘I am’ (je suis),
‘I have’ (j’ai) and ‘I live’ (j’habite).
Phonics 2
Know how to pronounce every letter of the alphabet.
Learn the pronunciation for the 'special friends' CH, OU, ON, OI.
Presenting Myself
Count to 20.
Ask somebody how they are feeling, their age, name and where they live.
Say how we are feeling, how old we are, what our name is and where we live.
Apply rules of adjectival agreement when saying our nationality.
Family
Name, recognise and remember up to 10 fruits in French.
Attempt to spell some of these nouns with their correct article/determiner.
Ask somebody in French if they like a particular fruit.
Say what fruits we like and dislike in French.
Habitats
Name in French, the six key periods of ancient Britain, introduced in chronological order.
Say in French three of the types of people who lived in ancient Britain, where they lived and what their hunting tool was.
Remember accurately from memory and use the French for ‘I am’ (je suis),
‘I have’ (j’ai) and ‘I live’ (j’habite).
Classroom
Recall from memory a selection of nouns and indefinite articles/ determiners for twelve common classroom objects.
Learn how to replace an indefinite article/ determiner with the appropriate possessive adjective.
Learn how to use the negative in French.
Describe what we have and do not have in our pencil case/rucksack.
My Home
Say and write in French whether we live in a house or an apartment.
Say what room we have and do not have at home using the key structure chez moi il y a… and chez moi in n’y a pas de/d’…
Use the connective/ conjunction et to link two sentences together.
Phonics 3
Know how to pronounce every letter of the alphabet
Learn the pronunciation for the 'special friends' CH, OU, ON, OI
Do you have a pet?
Know the nouns and indefinite articles for 8 common pets.
Ask somebody if they have a pet and give an answer back.
Say in French what pet we have/do not have and give our pet’s name.
Start to use the simple connectives et (and) and mais (but) to make more complex and interesting sentences.
What is the date?
Recall from memory the seven days of the week, the twelve months of the year and numbers 1-31 in French.
Ask and answer what the date is in French.
Ask and answer the question ‘when is your birthday?’ in French.
The Weather
Recognise and recall the 9 weather expressions in French from memory.
Ask what the weather is today and give a reply in French.
Describe the weather in France, in French using a weather map with symbols.
Olympics
Understand the key facts of the ancient and modern Olympics recounted in French.
Learn 10 nouns and articles for common Olympic sports.
Explore the full present tense conjugation of the high frequency verb FAIRE.
Look at the adjectival changes involved when you describe a male Olympian or female Olympian.
Clothes
Recognise and recall from memory 21 items of clothing.
Explore the regular ‘er’ whole verb present tense conjugation of the verb PORTER to describe what you and possibly somebody else is wearing.
Revisit the use of the possessive adjective ‘my’ in French and describe clothes in terms of colour.
Phonics 4
Know how to pronounce every letter of the alphabet.
Learn the pronunciation for the 'special friends' CH, OU, ON, OI.
At School
Name the subjects we study in school in French with the correct definite article/determiner.
Extend sentences by giving an opinion on the various school subjects and extend even further by giving a justification for that subject.
Start to tell the time by learning how to say time by the hour.
Say at what time we study certain subjects at school.
Regular Verbs
Understand better what personal/subject pronouns are.
Understand better the concept of verb stems and endings.
Conjugate easily and with clear understanding regular -er verbs like JOUER.
Conjugate easily and with clear understanding regular -ir verbs like FINIR.
Conjugate easily and with clear understanding regular -re verbs like VENDRE.
The Weekend
Tell the time in French using quarter past, half past and quarter to.
Say and write in French what we do at the weekend using two or more sentences.
Integrate conjunctions and opinions into written and spoken work to make more interesting and extended sentences.
World War II
Group and order words to decode unknown language.
Understand the key facts of history from WW2 when described in French.
Say and write in French the key countries and languages involved in WW2.
Write a letter in French home explaining what life is like as an evacuee living in the countryside.
Me in The World
Say and spell some of the different countries and the relative capital cities in the French-speaking world and find them on a map.
Say and write about some key celebrations in the French speaking world and some of the differences in terms of geography and historical sites between Paris and Port-au-Prince.
Say and write something we do to help the planet.
'Secondary Ready'
We have worked with our local secondary school to ensure children have 'essentials' in a second language which should help them to 'be ready' to make rapid progress. Children should have been given the opportunity to speak, listen, read and write as well as be able to...
...remember how to count from 1 to 100
…introduce myself and give basic personal details including: name, age, where I live, nationality and family members
…name at least five colours
…tell you the date (including day of the week and month of the year)
…tell you what the weather is
…tell you what I am wearing
…tell you the different words for our English word "a"
…tell you the different words for our English word "the"
…tell you the different words for our English word "some"
…name you at least 4 different personal pronouns (including the "I" form)
…say "I am", "I have", "I go" and "I do"
…tell you the different words for "my"
Detailed Progression in French
French 1e - Threshold Concepts final.pdf