Please take a look at our French topics and resources (including lists of words in the Word Mats section) here : Primary French Resources (lightbulblanguages.co.uk)

To enjoy French at home, please look here : Topics – KS2 French – BBC Bitesize

To sing along to some of the many songs we sing in French lessons, go here :Mosborough Primary School – Singing French audio tracks

Here are examples of what our children do in French lessons:

  

Year 4 draft, improve and perform a weather forecast for different parts of France

Year 5 describe planets

MFL Policy

1. Intent

At Carrington we understand that at the heart of MFL is the ability to express ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to speakers of that language. In  French lessons, our pupils are encouraged to explore their relationship with language and are taught to reflect on their physical location in the world.

Through learning about French life and culture, and that of other French-speaking countries, we want our pupils to develop an international outlook and an enhanced understanding of the world and their place within it. We intend that through teaching French, we can instil in our pupils an awareness of cultural differences and an understanding of diversity in society.

We want to give our pupils the tools to live and work in Modern Britain, where many languages are used, not solely English. By helping our pupils to be brave enough to use a foreign language and by praising every effort and progress, we are helping them to feel empowered and preparing them for wider opportunities to travel or even to live and work abroad one day when they are older. Linguistic fluency takes years to achieve and so we acknowledge that these first steps need to be exciting, fun and rewarding so that we inspire pupils to engage, to persevere and to be resilient.

2. Aims and objectives

The aims and objectives of learning a modern foreign language in primary school are:

• to foster an interest in learning other languages
• to introduce young children to another language in a way that is enjoyable and fun
• to make young children aware that language has structure, and that structures differ from one language to another
• to help children develop their awareness of cultural differences in other countries
• to develop their speaking and listening, reading and writing skills
• to lay the foundations for future study

To achieve this aim, we will follow the 2014 National Curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages which aims to ensure that by the end of Key Stage 2 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

3. Modern Foreign Languages Implementation – organisation and technique

At Carrington Primary School we teach French to children in Key Stage 2 weekly, for up to one hour. The coordinator is a qualified French Teacher and in normal circumstances delivers the lessons.

There is currently no formal MFL provision lower down the school but steps are being taken to introduce French from EYFS in the form of songs.

The emphasis in our MFL teaching is on fun and enjoyment, with songs, games, stories and roleplay being at the heart of our technique and activities.  At Carrington we recognise that praise is vital to develop confidence and so teaching the vocabulary used for praise is key. At Carrington we also acknowledge that a kinaesthetic, multi-sensory approach reinforces pupils’ learning.  This is particularly prevalent in MFL teaching, where the use of actions / mime is essential to support comprehension as well as memory.  Teachers accept that writing in a foreign language will be daunting to many pupils and therefore written tasks are mostly short, always realistic and tightly scaffolded, so are wholly accessible.

With that in mind, and with the focus on enjoyment and fulfilment, listening and speaking is at the heart of language learning in Years 3 & 4. The confidence to express oneself more independently in writing develops gradually and is particularly encouraged in years 5 and 6, when dictionary skills, word mats and a closer look at grammatical structures provide the support needed to read and write at greater length.

Resources include audio files to ensure good models of pronunciation and intonation are being given, however the specialist teacher has lived and worked in France. Songs and videos are selected from the internet to allow pupils to experience native speaker fluency. At Carrington we use Physical French Phonics resources to enable pupils to pronounce new words accurately.

4.Modern Foreign Languages Curriculum

We follow the guidance given in the new revised National Curriculum, the QCA Scheme of Work for French at Key Stage 2 and the ‘Lightbulb Languages’ Scheme of work, with these key objectives in mind:

• to speak competently and creatively for different purposes
• to understand, recall and respond to speech
• to participate in conversation
• to explore ideas through role play
• to understand basic grammar
• to use dictionaries
• to work in pairs and groups and communicate in French
• to look at life in other cultures

5. Inclusion

At Carrington we teach a modern foreign language to all children, whatever their ability, as this is their entitlement.  We respond to each individual child’s needs, matching our teaching style accordingly and setting suitable learning goals. This is in line with our professional responsibility to differentiate as teachers.

We assess using the Key Stage 2 Framework for languages, considering each child’s attainment and progress against expected levels.  Through differentiating our teaching style we may enable the child to learn more effectively : in languages this is often achieved by amending the set task and ensuring that each small step of progress is recognised and celebrated, no matter how tentative the pupil engagement.

6. Assessment and recording

We assess the children in order to ensure that they make good progress in this subject. We currently do this informally during the lessons through observation and questioning.   All assessment informs the teacher’s planning and the setting of relevant future learning objectives.  We evaluate the progress of each child in:

• word recollection as demonstrated in speaking
• listening and responding, eg in role play
• pronunciation and intonation
• writing from memory with approximate spelling
• adapting texts to write expressively, using dictionaries and word mats

A tracking system is used to record and monitor pupil achievement according to the Attainment Targets of speaking and listening, songs, stories and rhymes, reading and writing and grammar.

French Progression Map 2021

(our progression map is being revised in 2022-23 following changes to the Lightbulb Languages Scheme of Work)

French Progression Map – 2022 onwards