French 3Is

Throckley Primary School French – Intent, Implementation and Impact Intent At Throckley Primary School, we know that the study of a modern foreign language enhances children’s literacy, self-confidence and broader cultural understanding. Our ambition to embed language learning within our curriculum is born of the statutory commitment in the National Curriculum to give every child between the ages of 7 and 11 the opportunity to learn a new language. With over 220 million speakers internationally, French is the second most widely learnt language after English. French is also the second most widely taught language after English- the only two languages spoken on every continent. The importance of outstanding modern foreign language provision is embodied in our curriculum drivers: Understanding our place in the world Given that 60-70% of the world’s population is bilingual, acquiring another language is a crucial asset in the global economy, an advantage for finding a job with the many multinational companies, in a wide range of sectors: retailing, automotive, luxury goods, aeronautics, etc.

Simultaneously, children gain a better perspective of their own country and locality, making comparisons and contrasts.

Aspiring to achieve Learning French provides a satisfying, enjoyable and intellectually challenging experience for children in coping with a different linguistic medium. The study of a language involves the practice of observational and study skills, and committing to memory useful material for subsequent recall: essential skills for higher education.

Broadening horizons Thanks to the development of computing and the Internet, we can improve and deepen our connections with the world, celebrate languages and the diversity of cultures and promote international and intercultural experiences. By taking children out of a pervasively English context, we ensure they can explore the life-style and culture of another land through the medium of its language.

Throughout their work in French, children encounter key concepts as they appreciate the work of significant people -artists, musicians, chefs- and learn their rich stories. Our key concepts at Throckley underpin and illustrate the purpose of studying French as teaching throughout the school draws upon an ever-evolving real-world context for its content. Children explore: Belonging By valuing their place in a global community, children develop an international outlook and ambition for the future. The prospect of forging relations with Francophone economies such as Ivory Coast, Senegal, Rwanda, Benin, Burkina Faso, (growth above 5% GDP: IMF-2019) promotes prosperity. Just as important are the bonds we form via reading, travel, recreation and personal contacts.

Choice Besides teaching the meaning of words and sentences (an awareness of language), learning a language promotes social interaction and fosters empathy towards the culture and people of a foreign country, by adjusting our thinking to different social conventions. This outlook champions goodwill and counters insularity and prejudice.

Influence Learning a language enables us to forge positive change with the most powerful tool: communication between people. Success in industry and commerce depends increasingly on our willingness and ability to communicate with potential customers in their own language.

More importantly, we ensure children become confident, global citizens, avert conflict and promote multilateral harmony.

The curriculum at Throckley aims to found progress throughout a child’s school career by developing a secure understanding of grammar, vocabulary and culture at the relevant stage.

Insecure, superficial understanding prevents genuine progression: pupils may struggle at key stage transitions, amass damaging misconceptions, or have significant difficulties in understanding higher-order content.

In French, children will learn to: -

read fluently; write imaginatively; speak confidently; and understand the culture of the countries in which the language is spoken.

We aim to ensure that children: -

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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; and discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the French language.

Implementation By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study. At Throckley, we use the Catherine Cheater scheme of work, which emphasises the following principles: •

ensure every child succeeds;

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build on what the learners already know;

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make learning vivid and real;

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make learning an enjoyable and challenging experience.

The scheme implements a threefold curriculum structure developed from the (2005) The Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages: Oracy Oracy (listening, speaking and spoken interaction) has a more prominent place in language learning than in other subjects. All learners acquire language through exposure, enabling them to assimilate and re-use it. From an early age, children should be given regular and frequent opportunities to listen to the new language enabling them to identify and distinguish new sounds, reproduce and re-use them and make links between the sounds and written forms.

Literacy Literacy (reading and writing) is supported by, and reinforces, the development of oracy. Whilst overwhelming if incorrectly implemented, the measured introduction of literacy skills as part of a rich learning environment, stimulates communication and understanding in speech and writing.

Cultural Understanding A language and its culture are inextricably linked. Children value cultural variety: through traditional songs, stories and rhymes; through contact with native speakers; and through the language itself. By learning a new language, children are compelled to take an interest in the lives of others and to develop a sensitivity to the similarities and differences between peoples, their daily lives, their beliefs and values. In this way, children can appreciate the customs and traditions of another culture, as they appreciate its language.

The scheme is designed to introduce discreet pockets of vocabulary in each unit of six lessons.

This is the revisited continually in aural, written and oral form using a full gamut of classroom strategies suggested by the scheme and subject leader. Class teachers can employ additional vocabulary, with immediate translation as required, to support children in listening to the rhythm and cadence of a modern foreign language and to stretch and challenge those who would like to adopt further lexis. This will be delivered according to the needs of the individual cohort.

Oracy and Literacy Skills Development The emphasis in Year 3 is very much on developing listening skills, closely followed by speaking skills; this is why there is a clear focus on storytelling, finger rhymes and singing traditional songs. Through immersion, there is a strong emphasis on text level work, together with developing strategies of learning vocabulary at word level.

In Year 4, the emphasis shifts to developing an understanding of basic French grammar such as knowledge of word classes, agreements and some verb forms. The children learn to construct sentences and to understand the implications of sentence building in French in terms of pronunciation, liaison and elision.

In Year 5, there is a strong emphasis on the development of fundamental reading and writing skills rooted in phonics and training in how to use a bilingual dictionary. Teaching uses story books, modern and traditional songs and non-fiction texts to sustain the development of oracy and literacy skills. The children create complex spoken sentences and write using writing frames, creating sentences with nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions.

In Year 6, the children’s performance skills are developed. They are able to construct spoken and written sentences that involve a wide range of word class and to use a dictionary in order

to find the vocabulary that they need. They are able to engage with a wide variety of text types and develop strategies to assist with understanding.

In Lower Key Stage 2, children are exposed to simple phrases, clauses and sentences, with guidance to help them identify nouns, adjectives and verbs. By Year 5, each lesson develops reading skills via a structured scheme. Throughout Years 5 and 6, the structured reading scheme introduces all the phonemes together with all the spelling patterns. This aims to help the children to read all kinds of texts with accurate pronunciation and a degree of fluency.

In order to develop good intonation and enunciation, the children continue to listen to story books and start to read story books to others. Age-appropriate texts build word, phrase and sentence recognition to develop fluency. Texts range from traditional tales, songs, stories, plays and non-fiction texts across a wide range of genres: comedy, drama, horror and science.

Developing Intercultural Understanding Throughout Key Stage 2, children are provided with rich, cross-curricular opportunities to discover aspects of French and international Francophone cultures via the study of rich stories and significant figures. They will encounter and compare diverse social customs and traditions; look at everyday life from a different perspective; study the history of France from pre-historic times to the present day; appreciate the lives and work of great figures and significant poeple such as Monet, Cézanne, Degas, Matisse, Renoir, Magritte, Seurat, Manet and Pissaro; and listen to and discuss the music of Debussy, Ravel and Chopin and ask how the émigré status of the latter affected his composition.

What will I see if I visit a French lesson in Throckley Primary School?

Creative, dynamic and passionate teachers: individual class teachers decide which games, activities and tasks will best engage children and secure learning. The scheme and subject documentation contains a wealth of tried and tested ideas.

Clear, detailed explanations and modelling: teaching is explicitly clear, and tailored to individual need. Children repeat, rehearse and revisit language orally and in written form according to teacher modelling. The scheme provides resources to support non-French speaking staff with accurate pronunciation and ensure they secure key subject knowledge.

Class teachers’ acute understanding of assessment allows them to know each child as an individual and know when the time is right to remove support, guiding the child to independence at the pace that is right for them.

Quality talk: classroom talk is explicitly taught and age-appropriate prompts in the classroom support children in dialogic talk by scaffolding and extending responses. Talk ‘norms’ are embedded with differentiated sentence stems displayed which support children in reciprocal talk. Children are taught talk moves, including how to agree, disagree, support, challenge, clarify and summarise.

Skilful teacher questioning: a commitment to staff training in this area has led to a teaching team that is skilled in using questioning to support learners in reaching their potential. A mix of strategies allow class teachers to direct questions to individuals where necessary, or use a ‘no hands up approach’ to allow children to contribute freely. To stretch children to the appropriate cognitive level, class teachers use prompts and cues to extend thinking.

Spaced retrieval of key learning: teachers employ a range of strategies (embedded across school), which support children in the recall and retention of key knowledge. These are drawn

upon during low-stakes assessments and prior to the teaching of new, related content and are exactly indicated on resources.

Clear learning intentions and tasks, which are appropriately challenging: each lesson has a clear goal shared with the children as a joint learning experience. The end result must be that new learning is thoroughly practised while all prior knowledge (in common with all language learning) is used as both the objective and the means to its completion. Children remember key knowledge, but also develop a full understanding of it in order to then apply this in context, creating authentic outcomes (written and spoken) which draw on their learning experience over time.

Authentic experience: all activities within and without school are fundamentally learning experiences chosen for the knowledge they secure in children. The “wonder” of the experience is in the learning and not the novelty of the event; thus, whole school events (such as Mardis Gras and Bastille Day) are carefully planned as such, supporting our key driver of ‘Broadening Horizons’.

Resilient, independent learners: children are taught metacognitive strategies, including how to plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning. Shared success criteria allow children to have ownership of their learning and support them to be able to monitor their progress. Shared and verbalised class teacher thinking also models the thinking process for children and this is evident across school.

Our Wonderful Learners (OWLs) have been created to support children’s metacognitive development. Our OWLs encapsulate six learning behaviours, which we believe are integral to success both in school and beyond.

Classroom scaffolds and displays allow children to see what each behaviour looks like in practice. As children move up the school, they are taught to independently identify the learning behaviour needed for a given task. OWLs support children’s self-regulation and also provide scaffolds for group and paired work.

Beautiful Work: driven by our value of ‘pride’, we teach children the importance of wellpresented, carefully planned work. Children are proud to display their outcomes; resilience, effort and progress are praised. Displays across school (such as L’Ecriture) celebrate this success for the whole school community: children, families, practitioners and other stakeholders.

Impact The success of French teaching at Throckley Primary School can be measured in the delight children take in expressing themselves in another language. By fostering a love for a place and culture beyond their immediate community serves to drive our belief in broadening the horizons of the children at Throckley. Our MFL curriculum ensures that children develop their knowledge of where different languages, including the range of home languages spoken by the families of the school, are spoken in the world.

A mixture of formative and summative assessment is employed to ensure progress throughout the Key Stage. The children are given regular opportunities throughout the year to showcase their learning in written form. The Seesaw app on iPads is used regularly to evidence progress and learning in French oracy. Child (self and peer) assessment is increasingly encouraged within lessons. Teacher assessments will be tracked on SIMS against year group criteria at each relevant entry point. Progress and outcomes are decided upon using a combination of summative assessments, formative evaluation and evidence over time in children’s books.

Children’s progress against statutory knowledge and skills objectives is closely tracked by teachers using SIMs assessment grids. Crucially, pupil-book study, founded on the delicately

structured evocation of the children’s learning in their own terms, forms the lynchpin of monitoring French learning. This ensures that the subject leader is confident of the success of the curriculum through the lens of those for whom it must be crafted.

The rich learning experiences in and out of class, guarantee that languages are celebrated and multiculturalism is championed throughout the school community whilst providing a context for language learning and developing the children’s understanding of different cultures. Language is not only the mechanism of their learning but the key to their ambition and a conduit to their future.

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