Languages

French

What do we want to achieve for our children?
In a multi –cultural society, learning a foreign language provides an opportunity to understand and show respect towards other cultures, fostering children’s curiosity and their understanding of the world.  We will enable the children to learn basic skills in both oral and written French with the intention that this will provide the foundation for learning further languages in the future, enabling them to work and interact across the world.
How will we achieve this?
Children have weekly lessons in French from Year 3 onwards using the Catherine Cheater programme of study. Areas covered include: numbers, colours, days of the week, animals, food, classroom instructions and equipment.
The children will be taught to listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding.  They will explore the sounds and patterns of language through rhymes, songs and story books.  Using a growing bank of familiar vocabulary, the children will learn to speak in sentences using basic language structures and developing accurate pronunciation and intonation. 
The children will begin to read carefully and show an understanding of words, phrases and simple writing. They will learn to use a bi lingual dictionary to broaden their vocabulary and develop their understanding of new words. 
The children will find success in writing phrases from memory and adapt these to create sentences of their own.  They will have an understanding of basic grammar, including feminine and masculine forms and use adjectives and adverbs to describe people, places, things and actions. They will know how these key features of language differ from or are similar to English.
How will this support the children and in the future?
The children will have developed a basic understanding of spoken and written French.  They will be able to speak and understand French phrases and respond appropriately to questions asked in French.  Our children will be well prepared to continue to learn French and/or other languages at secondary school.