French

At Outwoods Primary School, we teach French with an aim to enable pupils to develop a sense of curiosity and open-mindedness to other cultures, deepening their understanding of the World, while enhancing the British values of mutual respect and tolerance. Beginning their learning journey in Year 3, by the time pupils leave Year 6, our aim is that they will be able to understand spoken and written French presented to them through a variety of authentic sources. They will develop the confidence to speak French with increasing fluency and will progress to using the French language to read and write for different purposes and audiences. 

In our school, we follow a broad and balanced Languages curriculum that builds on previous learning and provides both support and challenge for learners. We use an online scheme, Kapow, to deliver the language curriculum. We have chosen this scheme as it ensures the progression of skills and covers all aspects of the

Languages curriculum outlined in the programmes of study of the National Curriculum. In addition to this, the scheme supports teachers with the right level of subject knowledge to teach French with confidence. The Kapow documents, providing an overview of the curriculum and detailing the progression of skills are saved in the Outwoods Team Drive on Google Drive. Individual lessons can be downloaded from the Kapow website, for which each teacher has their own login.  

The Kapow scheme provides six units for each year group (five for Year 6) with five lessons in each unit.  All pupils in Key Stage 2 will be taught French by the class teacher for the equivalent of at least 30 minutes each week. Teachers will have the flexibility of teaching for half an hour each week, or an hour’s lesson once a fortnight. We want to ensure that French is embedded in our whole school curriculum and that opportunities for enhancing learning by using French are always taken. For example, pupils could be encouraged to use French for greeting friends in the morning, answering the register or practising times tables. Knowledge organisers will be provided to help children retain the vocabulary, language structures and facts they are taught each term.  

Each lesson within a unit is organised with an ‘attention grabber’, ‘main event’ and ‘wrapping up’ activities. Every lesson will involve practising and learning new vocabulary and using authentic sources to develop skills in listening, reading and writing. New vocabulary is taught using a ‘listen and repeat’ structure and to reinforce the learning, actions, rhymes and songs are used. Practical activities, such as matching and sorting activities are often included in lessons. In the Kapow lesson plans, links are provided to the resources needed for each lesson. As well as the downloadable resources, we have a good selection of physical resources (puppets, games, inflatable balls, CDs, word cards etc.), which are stored in the resources cupboard. Pupils will complete many of the activities with a partner or a group and will not need to record their work individually. However, there will be occasions when pupils are asked to complete a short written task or diagram independently and each child will have an exercise book in which to record their individual tasks. 

By the time pupils leave Outwoods, we aim for them to have developed a love of learning French and to be well-prepared to continue their journey of learning French at KS3. We intend that children should master language learning to such an extent that they can apply their skills to learning other languages, and go on to have careers within languages and make use of languages effectively in their everyday lives.