At St Gregory’s School we have chosen French as our language to learn across KS2. France is our closest foreign country and many local secondary schools progress within their language.

All our learning ambition for St Gregory’s pupils stems from our Curriculum Drivers and learning in French is no exception to this. Our school motto: For Every Child, For Every Future, dictates that we must never accept limitations to the learning of our children and offer than every possible support to fulfil their potential. Our Curriculum Drivers are: 

• Opportunity: The opportunity to learn a new language, to develop cultural capital, and widen horizons
• Diversity: To see that the world around them in incredibly diverse and to appreciate diversity we show tolerance and understanding
• Community: That language unites a community. The ability to communicate is at the heart of all relationships.
• Robust preparation for the next stages of education and life: children will engage with languages in KS3 and it is important that we robustly prepare them for this. The school link to our local secondary provision to ensure transition aspects are considered in all subjects .
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At St Gregory’s School we follow the National Curriculum. We believe these end goals are ambitious and promote key learning outcomes

National Curriculum : Languages

Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.

Aims: 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.

Attainment targets by end of KS2: 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.

 The teaching should provide an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and should lay the foundations for further foreign language teaching at key stage 3. It should enable 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. The focus of study in modern languages will be on practical communication

By the end of KS2 our pupils should be able 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 (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter 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.

Intent

At St Gregory’s, we aim to offer a relevant, broad, vibrant and ambitious foreign languages curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety of topics and themes. All pupils will be expected to achieve their full potential by encouraging high expectations and excellent standards in their foreign language learning - the ultimate aim being that pupils will feel willing and able to continue studying languages beyond key stage 2.

We intend to focus our teaching through the’3 Pillars’ of phonics, vocabulary and grammar ' and through the four key language learning skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing. This will enable pupils to use and apply their learning in a variety of contexts, laying down solid foundations for future language learning and also helping the children improve overall attainment in other subject areas.

The intent is that all pupils will develop a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages, finding them enjoyable and stimulating. Learning a second language will also offer pupils the opportunity to explore relationships between language and identity, develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and the world around them with a better awareness of self, others and cultural differences. The intention is that they will be working towards becoming life-long language learners and reday to transition to their secondary school and continue their languages education.

Implementation

We recognise that not every teacher is a languages specialist and so purchase planning and teaching support with high quality resources to help us cover the National Curriculum.

We believe that Progress in curricular terms means knowing more and remembering more and so we aim to follow a curriculum that understands that short-term memory can become overloaded. This is especially important to understand within teaching French because children are not immersed in the language daily and so will become overloaded earlier.

We know that information is stored in long-term memory, which consists of structures (schemata), where knowledge is linked or embedded with what is already known. These are built over time, meaning that proficient learners have more detailed schemata than novice learners

using spaced or distributed practice, where knowledge is rehearsed for short periods over a longer period of time, is more effective than so-called massed practice

retrieval practice for effective retention of knowledge in the long-term memory. Retrieval practice involves recalling something you have learned in the past and bringing it back to mind

As our pupils are novice learners, expertise reversal effect shows that explicit teaching will work best and we use this model.

Children will progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge organised around age-appropriate topics and themes - building blocks of language into more complex, fluent and authentic language.

Lessons offering appropriate levels of challenge and stretch will be taught at all times to ensure pupils learn effectively, continuously building their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the language(s) they are learning

Early Language units are entry level units and are most appropriate for KS1 and Year 3 pupils or pupils with little or no previous foreign language learning. Intermediate units increase the level of challenge by increasing the amount and complexity (including foreign language grammar concepts) of the foreign language presented to pupils. Intermediate units are suitable for Year 4-5 pupils or pupils with embedded basic knowledge of the foreign language.

Grammar rules and patterns will be taught by level of challenge:

• We start with nouns and articles and 1st person singular of high frequency verbs in Early Learning units.
• We move on to the use of the possessive, the concept of adjectives, use of the negative form, conjunctions/connectives and introduce the concept of whole regular verb conjugation in Intermediate units.

Grammar is integrated and taught discreetly throughout all appropriate units. The Progression Map shows precisely how pupil foreign language learning across the key skills of speaking, listening, reading, writing and grammar progresses. It is a visual demonstration of the progression that takes place WITHIN a ‘Teaching Type’ and also ACROSS each ‘Teaching Type’.  

The school has a unit planner in place which will serve as an overall ‘teaching map’ outlining for all teachers within the school what each class in each year group will be taught and when it will be taught. Each class in each year group will have an overview of units to be taught during the academic year to ensure substantial progress and learning is achieved and built upon what has gone before.

• Each unit and lesson will have clearly defined objectives and aims.
• Each lesson will incorporate interactive whiteboard materials to include ample speaking and listening tasks within a lesson.
• Lessons will incorporate challenge sections and desk-based activities that will be offered will three levels of stretch and differentiation. These may be sent home as homework if not completed in class.
• Reading and writing activities will be offered in all units.
• Every unit will include a grammar concept which will increase in complexity as pupils move from Early Language units, through Intermediate units and into Progressive units.
• Extending writing activities are provided to ensure that pupils are recalling previously learnt language and, by reusing it, will be able to recall it and use it with greater ease and accuracy. These tasks will help to link units together and show that pupils are retaining and recalling the language taught with increased fluency and ease.
• Units are progressive within themselves as subsequent lessons within a unit build on the language and knowledge taught in previous lessons.

Impact:

The impact of our teaching will be that pupils are ready for the next stages of learning in KS3 and have achieved the end points below: 

By the end of KS2 our pupils should be able 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 (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter 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.