French at Horton St Michael’s

Here at Horton St Michael’s, we aim for our children to develop an interest and thirst for learning another language, this comes from our Christian vision and our value of curiosity about the world that God has created. It incorporates our value of love as by learning the language that another person speaks we are practically showing our interest in their life and culture.

In KS1 French is taught in small chunks through the week.  The  register is taken in French, allowing the practice of greetings and expression of health, classroom commands are given in French to stand up, sit down, wash hands, line up, listen and so forth.  We learn the parts of the body through song and dance and we use finger rhymes to reinforce what we learn in a fun way.  We play Simon says in French, the class teacher reads children’s books in French, often using French translations of books the children know in English like the Little Princess books by Tony Ross, we sing Comptines ( nursery rhymes) and we learn the numbers to 20 through fun songs and videos. 

By the end of lower Key Stage 2, we want our children to have:

  • A positive start to language learning
  • Fun through engaging and relevant topics
  • A focus on speaking and listening activities with supportive reading and writing where appropriate
  • An acquisition of key and everyday vocabulary and language to support future learning
  • A model which re-visits and repeats key skills and vocabulary, considering the nature of a rolling programme. For example, Year 4’s will start the year with knowledge from the previous, whereas Year 3’s will begin with no previous knowledge.
  • Skills and progression are built into planning using Year 3 and 4 targets

IMPLEMENTATION

MFL lessons are delivered in  KS2. Our MFL curriculum focuses predominantly on the French language and culture.

Children will cover the 4 key skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.

In line with the National Curriculum, children are taught to:

  • Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation
  • Speak in sentences and engage in conversations to understand and respond in French using familiar vocabulary
  • Understand basic grammar and patterns and apply these to adapt and build their own phrases and sentences to express their ideas
  • Develop an understanding of the French culture and customs
  • Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
  • Read carefully and show understanding of words and phrases
  • Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in French
  • Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
  • Broaden their vocabulary based around the topics taught

Topics include:

(Y3/4) Greetings, numbers, classroom, days of the week, months, describing people, animals, hobbies and key buildings.

French two year rolling programme

Targets in French