French

INTENT

At Christ Church, it is our intent that the teaching of French will foster pupils who are highly motivated to learn about a language and culture other than their own.  Language teaching will enable children to develop personal qualities, skills, knowledge and understanding, make a major contribution to their communication and literacy skills and raise awareness of other cultures through intercultural understanding. The predominant language taught at Christ Church is French.

French is taught by a specialist teacher on a weekly basis to all children in KS1 and 2. French is taught in topic blocks throughout the year. The intention at Christ Church is that our curriculum should reinforce long term memory and aid retrieval. French topics will be revisited as part of a spiral curriculum so that the vocabulary and grammatical features which have been learnt become stored in the long term memory.

IMPLEMENTATION

The aims of French teaching at Christ Church include developing children’s speaking, listening and written skills. 

  • Pupils will be taught to use foreign languages for communication in real life situations. 
  • French teaching will make pupils aware of language structure and allow them to identify similarities and differences between languages. 
  • It will expose children to the sound patterns of foreign languages and allow them time to expand their knowledge of their own language or languages.
  •  Children will develop an awareness of language processes and purposes (in English as well as in the other language). 

By the end of KS2, pupils should have the necessary tools and language strategies to be successful language learners; laying the foundations for future study.

The National Curriculum for KS2 Languages puts an emphasis on practical communication in a foreign language. French teaching at Christ Church goes beyond this to develop intercultural understanding.  Pupils are given opportunities to compare cultural practices and beliefs with their own.  Children are encouraged to recognise and accept cultural differences between themself and others. This is vital to equip the children to live in multicultural Croydon. 

The phonemes above are introduced in each teaching type via a dedicated phonics lesson. We teach these lessons at the start of each appropriate year. The phonemes are then revisited numerous times in each of the units within the various teaching types. As pupils move through the teaching types, the previous phonemes are consolidated and revised. As well as a yearly phonics focus, pupils will also encounter other French phonetic concepts as they progress through the curriculum, including: liaison; the effect of accents Guttural ‘R’ sound; Silent letters; ‘H’ aspiré; and ‘H’ muet.