Summary of Intent

At Casterton Primary Academy, our French curriculum is designed to develop a love of languages. By focussing on developing the skills, knowledge and understanding that children need, they can become confident in speaking, listening and understanding and writing in French. Through the use of KAPOW scheme of learning, we introduce children to French spoken by a range of native speakers to model pronunciation. We encourage our children to demonstrate and articulate an enthusiasm for French and French culture.

What French looks like at Casterton Primary Academy

French lessons at Casterton are planned and delivered in a way which encourages children to build on from prior learning. They incorporate vocabulary and language skills taught in previous lessons, units and years.

Children are introduced to new vocabulary through listening to native speakers (to develop effective pronunciation) as well as their class teacher/support staff. Children are provided with some instructions in French (where appropriate) to develop day-to-day French language. During the lessons, there is a heavy focus on speaking and listening, we believe that for children to be able to form and write sentences in French, they must first be able to say the French.

Key vocabulary

The main aims from the National Curriculum are coved within each French unit and are as follows:

The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

• 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
• discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

Planning Expectations

The Long Term Plans

These show the topics we have to cover, grouped into a 2-year cycle; Year A and Year B.

Using the KAPOW scheme of learning ensures that staff have a clear outcome and goal for their lessons and a clear focus for each half term.

Non-negotiables

• Children should complete a French lesson each week.
• Work is recorded either in books or using the OneDrive for practical applications of French and assessment purposes.
• All of the lessons and lesson outcomes link to the National Curriculum
• Children cover each of the strands of learning to ensure a full coverage of the curriculum is taught.

Adapting the Music curriculum for children with SEND

Children with SEND access the same strands of French and the curriculum as their peers. In many cases, the children can access the learning in the same way. Where they cannot, modifications and adjustments can be made. For example:

• help in managing the written communication aspects of French − such as the use of symbols − by using larger print, colour codes, multi-sensory reinforcement, and a greater emphasis on aural memory skills

• encouragement to use their voices expressively and to use different forms of communication − such as gesture − to compensate for difficulties.
• Children with hearing impairments can be linked up to the monitors and IPADS to be able to have a clearer link with their cochlear implants to hear French and videos without interference.
• Radio aids are used within lessons and these are moved around the classroom to support hearing impaired children. Staff are proficiently trained in using these effectively.
• Children with visual impairments are given adapted resources to support their specific needs to allow them to access the music curriculum such resources as: large print text, colour paper printed or the use of IPAD screen mirroring software.

For some activities, teachers provide a ‘parallel’ activity for pupils with SEN and/or disabilities, so that they can work towards the same lesson objectives as their peers, but in a different way – e.g. using ICT software to enable pupils to create compositions rather than relying on handwritten notation.

Assessment

Teachers will use both formative assessment and summative assessment to make their judgements as to their pupils’ progress throughout each half term. Using the learning objectives from lessons to monitor their learning they can provide ‘live’ ongoing feedback and this will inform the next steps of their learning.

Summative assessments are made at the end of each topic, using the assessment criteria for that topic.

Curriculum Enrichment

Our curriculum is an enriched curriculum across school and our aim as a school is to enable our students to be exposed to a rich variety of experiences to broaden their horizons and provide memorable learning experiences that they can use to broaden their understanding of the world. Children are exposed to aspects of French living and French traditions to give them an understanding of the culture as well as the language (Bastille Day 14^th July 2023).