Languages

Dundry children in Key Stage 2 (Years 3-6) learn French as their foreign language.

Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.

At Dundry we have introduced La Jolie Ronde to support us in teaching French as our Modern Foreign Language. We start teaching French in Year 3 and continue teaching every other term into Year 6. We have chosen to teach French as this is the most common additional language taught in our feeder secondary schools and so children will move on from Dundry with a firm foundation in French ready to continue to progress in Key Stage 3 and beyond.

We have chosen La Jolie Ronde as it is a complete scheme that can be easily delivered in mixed-age classes, lower key stage 2 and upper key stage 2. The resource supports teachers who may be non-specialists to ensure our teaching and learning of French is high quality and children are exposed to correctly pronounced and articulated French whether from the teacher or from the CD resource, as well as a wide range of poetry, images and songs that reinforce the written and spoken language.

We aim that every child learns to be confident and enthused by our French lessons. We want children to be able to communicate in French both orally and in writing, understanding what they hear and read and being able to respond appropriately. Our intention is that lessons are practical and content is based on familiar routines such as counting, colours, days, pets, hobbies, food and family. We have built revision and recap into the 2-year rolling programme, believing that when children learn a new language this helps them remember and recall their learning. As children progress and revisit key vocabulary, they are also taught more complex grammar structures within which to use this vocabulary thereby building in new learning alongside revision.

As with our whole curriculum, we have identified ‘Big Ideas’ (or Threshold concepts) that help children to connect old learning to new learning. In French these Big Ideas are:

Oracy – to speak confidently
Literacy –
- Reading – to read fluently demonstrating knowledge of the language
- Writing – to use and apply knowledge of the language to write accurately
Intercultural Understanding – to gain a good understanding of the culture of the countries where the language is spoken, especially mainland France
Knowledge about language – building on their learning of English and applying this knowledge to learning a new language

Progression in French

To ensure children ‘catch up’ following the disruption of the Coronavirus pandemic our 2-year cycle has been revised to revisit any missed content. Units will start with recap and revision to ensure that children are secure in essential prior knowledge and skills before moving on.