French - KS2

Intent

We use the Kapow Primary French curriculum to provide a clear and progressive approach to language learning.

Our aim is for children to become increasingly confident communicators who are willing to have a go, make mistakes and use their growing knowledge to understand and express ideas in French. Children are given regular opportunities to listen and respond, take part in conversations, read increasingly complex language and develop their written French.

Our scheeme develops the following knowledge and skills throughout the teaching of our French curriculum:

• Language comprehension: Listening and reading

• Language production: Speaking and writing

• Pronunciation: Teacher videos and pupil phoneme videos

• Language-learning strategies

• Cultural awareness

Implementation

Through carefully sequenced lessons, children build their knowledge of French vocabulary, phonics and grammar while developing their skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing.

In order to meet the needs of the national curriculum, the scheme is taught with one 45-minute lesson a week.

The French scheme of work at Delta is designed with three knowledge strands that run throughout our units with knowledge building cumulatively.

These are:

• Phonics

• Vocabulary

• Grammar

This knowledge can then be applied within our skills strands, which also run throughout each unit in the scheme:

• Language comprehension (Listening and reading)

• Language production (Speaking and writing)

Our units cover each of the National curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the strands. Our Progression of skills and knowledge shows the skills and knowledge that are taught within each year group and how these skills develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of Key Stage 2. Through the French scheme, pupils are given opportunities to communicate for practical purposes around familiar subjects and routines. The scheme provides balanced opportunities for communication in both spoken and written French, although in Year 3 the focus is on developing oral skills, before incorporating written French in Year 4 and beyond.

The Kapow scheme at Delta is a spiral curriculum, with key skills and vocabulary revisited repeatedly with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Cross-curricular links are included throughout our French units, allowing children to make connections and apply their language skills to other areas of their learning. Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including role-play, language games and language detective work.

Impact

Formative assessment is embedded throughout Kapow Primary French lessons to ensure that teachers can gauge pupils’ understanding in real time and adapt their teaching accordingly.

Questioning – lesson plans include targeted and open-ended questions to check understanding, promote critical thinking and address misconceptions.

Observation – teachers are supported to observe pupils during tasks, noting how they approach activities, collaborate and apply language skills.

Discussion and peer interaction – pair and group discussions are built into lessons, providing opportunities for pupils to articulate their thinking and for teachers to assess understanding through dialogue.

The expected impact of our French curriculum is that children will:

• Be able to engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations (e.g., ordering in a cafe, following directions) and express an opinion.

• Make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases, and short texts.

• Speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation.

• Demonstrate understanding of spoken language by listening and responding appropriately.

• Use a bilingual dictionary to support their language learning.

• Be able to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt.

• Have developed an awareness of cognates and near-cognates and be able to use them to tackle unfamiliar words in French, English, and other languages.

• Be able to construct short texts on familiar topics.

• Meet the end of Key Stage 2 stage expectations outlined in the National curriculum for Languages.

Click here to access our knowledge organisers for each unit