Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement: French

Intent

At William Bellamy Primary School, we intend for all children to develop positive attitudes towards other languages and cultures. This interest is encouraged by delivering regular, stimulating and enjoyable lessons which build confidence and promote the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. It is our intention to ensure that by the end of our pupil’s primary education, they have acquired an understanding of both spoken and written French, confidence to speak in French with others and know how important other languages can be in their future.

The school’s overarching intent, based in nurture and diversity, is embedded into the curriculum to ensure that the curriculum is reflective of our school community and all teaching is delivered using a nurturing approach.

Implementation

The implementation of French teaching is organised by the Kapow scheme of work which is in line with the National Curriculum. The Kapow Scheme of learning is a spiral curriculum with key skills and vocabulary revisited repeatedly with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build their previous learning. Cross Curricular links are included throughout the units, allowing children to make connections and apply their language skills to other areas of their learning. It aims to give children a foundation for language learning that encourages and enables them to apply their skills to learning further languages, developing a strong understanding of the English language, facilitating future study and opening opportunities to study and work in other countries in the future. French is taught by a Specialist French Teacher and pupils are encouraged to develop their speaking and listening skills in every lesson through conversational work, songs, rhymes and stories. Grammar and sentence structure are also taught specifically. As knowledge and confidence grows, pupils record their learning through pictures and written recording. Opportunities are taken to supplement these lessons by using French at other times during the school day, for example when greeting children, taking the register, giving instructions and playing games. French is monitored by the subject leader a number of strategies including recorded learning monitoring, pupil voice, lesson observations and discussions with staff, alongside the Kapow assessment proformas.

Impact

Pupils across the school are interested and excited by the diversity of language and cultures; this supports the development of many of our British values including individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance. Pupils learn to be able to engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations and express an opinion, make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases and short texts. They are given opportunities to speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation but to also listen and respond appropriately. They are taught to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt. They increasingly notice and understand basic grammar including feminine, masculine and plural forms and key features and patterns of French including accents and word order. They are beginning to conjugate and learn the key verbs which will help them progress their learning. They can discuss some similarities and differences between French and English and talk about aspects of French traditions and culture promoting an interest in and respect of differing cultures. There is clear progression within the French curriculum. The pupils will develop a range of vocabulary and during subsequent years this vocabulary will be built upon and used within a wider range of conversational and written contexts. Learning is pitch to be inclusive of all learners for example SEND pupils may be given less vocabulary to learn or additional support from adults within class. Challenge tasks are also given to those pupils who require additional challenge; these may include using new vocabulary in conjunction with pre-existing knowledge or independent vocabulary investigations.