French (MFL)

Modern Foreign Languages  (MFL) Curriculum- French

Intent

At Clerkenwell, we are committed to  clear progression in the understanding thoughout the school. We acknowledge that our pupil intake rarely have exposure to French outside of the school context, and we take this into account when planning our delivery of the French curriculum, using real life contextual experiences to bring the language to life. Key Stage Three requires children to have an understand of a Modern Foreign Language, and this is kept in mind when planning a hands on practical curriculum that supports pupil engagement to have fun while learning a new language. Alongside the consideration of lifelong learning and the demands of Key Stage Three, we are committed to developing practitioners knowledge and understanding is of a standard to deliver the requirement of the National Curriculum.

We are committed to an enriched multi-sensory approach to bring the learning of MFL to life.

Aims – pupils should be able to

• 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
• 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.

The iLanguage curriculum provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further foreign language teaching at key stage 3.  It enables pupils to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing, focused on familiar and routine matters, using their knowledge of phonology, grammatical structures and vocabulary. 

Implementation

Through the implementation of Clerkenwell’s Modern Foreign Language Curriculum, pupils will be taught to:

• listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
• explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
• engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help
• speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
• develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases
• present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences
• read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
• appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
• broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary
• write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly
• describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
• understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including: feminine, masculine forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.

Considerations following the lockdown of 2019-20 due to Coronavirus:

Pupils will be assessed using the Year Three program to assess vocabulary, sentence structure, phonics, reading and writing, particularly following the lockdown of 2019-20. The program delivery will be reviewed and differentiated depending on the needs of individual pupils.

We endeavour to use the French language in application, and model its use in other lessons such as PE, Maths and Music, Geography and DT.

We acknowledge the beginning of a new MFL journey as a school, applying a new program ILanguage for the delivery of progression and attainment in French throughout Key Stage Two. Through staff inset, short term planning support, non-negotiable language year group language acquisition, formative assessments through mini-plenaries and speaking opportunities, we are committed to developing pupil’s key MFL knowledge, skills and understanding.  Through training, we are committed to developing teacher confidence in delivering a subject that they may have limited prior exposure to, and wish to ensure that this lack of exposure does not act as a barrier for pupils in MFL lessons.

iLanguage are currently updating the following curriculum map to reflect our merged Year Three/Four class for 2020-21. On publication, this curriculum map will be updated.

HT1

HT2

HT3

HT4

HT5

HT6

Y3

Greetings and French culture

Classroom instructions

Animals vocabulary

Numbers and plurals

Connectives and simple sentences

Gender

Memorisation and storytelling

Saying my name

Christmas

French names

Colours

Opinions

Word order of adjectives

A traditional story: the Enormous turnip

Numbers 1-10

French maths:addition and subtraction

J’ai (I have)

Age

Easter

Definite (le,la,les) and indefinite (un, une, des) articles

Je voudrais (I would like)

Extending sentences with mais

C’est

Extending sentences with aussi

Numbers 1-15

Days of the week

Assessments

Paris project

Y4

Revision of animals and classroom instructions

A French poem

How to use a French bilingual dictionary

Parts of the body

Introduction to the negative

Colours

Adjectival agreements

Food

Opinions about food

Goldilocks story

Christmas: the snowman

Je voudrais with food

Phonemes e and an

Revise numbers 1-15

Months

Numbers 16-31

French maths:division and multiplication

April fool’s day (poisson d’avril)

Dates and birthdays

Personal descriptions (hair and eye colour)

The third person (verbs)

Phonemes r and ch

Family vocabulary

Possessive adjectives (mon,ma,mes)

Phoneme eu

Further dictionary skills

Clothing vocabulary

Revise adjectival agreements

Memorise a short text (Talk4writing)

Revise food, opinions, months, numbers and personal descriptions

Assessments

French food project

Y5

Revise opinions

Sports vocabulary

Sports clothing

Verb avoir

Phonemes a and ai

Masculine and feminine nouns

Dictionary skills

Weather vocabulary

Hobbies vocabulary

Pets

Phonemes qu and oi

Traditional tale: The fox and the crow

Christmas in France

Verb être

Dictionary skills

Revise dates

Numbers 32-60

School subjects

Words starting with h

Primary school in France

Subject preferences

Reasons

Verb aller

Transport vocabulary

Easter: Mardi gras

Items in a classroom

Possessive adjectives (revision and new)

Prepositions

Pronunciation: silent letters at the end of words

Revise aller

The simple future tense

Revision

Assessments

Project: West Africa where French is spoken

Y6

Revise avoir and être

Questions

Telling the time

Daily routine

Daily routine in other countries

Houses

Rooms in a house

Christmas: toys from around the world

Je peux + infinitive

Bedroom descriptions

Places in a town

Revise places in town

Revise aller

Directions

Revise food

Buying food

April fool’s day

Numbers 61-100

Ordering food in a café

Famous French food and menus

The perfect (past) tense

The perfect (past) tense

Revision

Assessments

The French alphabet