French 

at Clyst Heath Nursery and Community Primary School 

Intent  

The learning of a foreign language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience. Pupils develop communication and literacy skills that lay the foundation for future language learning. They develop linguistic competence, extend their knowledge of how language works and explore differences and similarities between French and English. Learning another language raises awareness of the multilingual and multicultural world and introduces an international dimension to pupils’ learning, giving them an insight into their own culture and those of others. The learning of a foreign language provides a medium for cross-curricular links and for reinforcement of knowledge, skills and understanding developed in other subjects. 

We aim for all pupils to: 

• Understand and respond to written and spoken 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 
• 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 
• Develop their curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world 

Implementation 

We achieve this through a focus on: 

• A curriculum which progressively builds pupils’ language skills through weekly lessons 
• Actively engaging children through the use of games, role play and action songs 
• A multi-sensory and kinaesthetic approach to lessons 
• Ensuring all staff have good subject knowledge and can access support where necessary 
• Holding an annual French celebration day, in which pupils share performances of plays, poems and songs in the language 
• Holding French language events across the year to promote and explore language in a range of contexts 

Impact 

The impact of our curriculum is that pupils have an increased enjoyment and understanding of different cultures and languages, as well as gaining skills which are transferrable to the next stage of their education. Pupils will progress substantially in learning one language in primary education, laying the foundations for further foreign language teaching at Key Stage 3.