French
“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” Frank Smith (psycholinguist)
At Buckingham Primary School we believe that learning a second language is invaluable for many reasons, including making links with other areas of learning, future language learning and communication, and the cultural capital and global awareness that it offers – not to mention future career opportunities in a rapidly-changing world.
Intent
Our intent is to instil a joy of and confidence in learning languages – we aim to provide building blocks for a sound foundation in language-speaking, empowering children to become confident and fluent language speakers, as well as making connections between all their learning. This enhances their sense of achievement and a belief in themselves as effective learners, no matter what barriers to learning they may experience – it also provides a perfect forum for challenging pupils to take their learning further, and build their awareness and knowledge of other cultures.
Implementation
We implement our French curriculum through the use of Kapow, a lively and engaging scheme of work. It follows a cyclical structure, building on previous knowledge in order to provide clear progression. This allows children to build their knowledge and skills incrementally so that they know more and remember more. All achievement is celebrated, and children receive appropriate support/challenge, including strategies from our SEND policy and ambition from our school values. We ensure NC coverage, and also provide effective preparation for the transition to KS3 through liaising with secondary schools. We are currently working on further embedding and enriching our French curriculum to include more visitors, events and parental engagement.
Impact
The outcomes we strive for are that through empowering teachers, children will be engaged and inspired by high quality and enthusiastic teaching. As a result of sequenced and progressive teaching, they will know more and remember more and consequently be able to do more in terms of speaking French (and other languages), identifying the progress they are making. They will have a passion for and an interest in engaging with other cultures in order to develop their world-view as global citizens, and to facilitate their future participation in languages through work or leisure.
