The Christian faith is at the heart of our school community.

At Christ Church we all care, learn and work together for God and others. 

‘For we are all God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do’. Ephesians 2:10 

Our Christian Values are

Creation, Community, Wisdom, Endurance, Thankfulness, Reconciliation

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Our Intent:

At Christ Church, we believe that the learning of a language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our pupils. It helps them to develop communication skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing, with an aim of making substantial progress in one language. In addition, children’s knowledge of how language works will be developed to lay the foundations for further language learning in future. We believe that learning another language gives children a new and broader perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures and those of others.

Intention 1:   To build a MFL curriculum, which develops learning and results in the acquisition of knowledge and skills which enables children to access the wider curriculum and to prepare children to be a global citizen now and in their future roles within a global community. Children will know more, remember more and understand more. To design a curriculum with appropriate subject knowledge, skills and understanding to fulfil the duties of the NC whereby schools must provide a ‘balanced and broadly-based curriculum which promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils and prepares them for the opportunities and responsibilities and experiences for later life.

Research Link:

The Teaching School Council (TSC) published the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Pedagogy Review suggested that:

• content should be stimulating and widen students’ knowledge of the culture and history of the new language, without compromising the sequencing of vocabulary and grammar

Intention 2: To build a MFL curriculum that incorporates the understanding of French so that children know more, remember more and understand more. As a result children will develop the knowledge to be able to communicate in another language other than English.  To design, and resource, a French programme of work within the MFL curriculum which enables pupils to explore the cultural capital of another country through its language and traditions.

Research Link:

2016, the Teaching Schools Council (TSC) published the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) Pedagogy Review suggested that:

• the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing should be taught together.

Implementation:

• Clear and comprehensive scheme of work in line with the National Curriculum.
• The MFL curriculum focuses on the statutory curriculum and enhances this by developing cultural capital.
• Wider Curriculum MFL will be reinforce through cultural capital activities and events (a French Christmas Event and a French summer picnic.)
• Assemblies: whole school, assemblies use French and will, when appropriate, make a link to French culture.

Children develop their love of language learning and developing skills throughout their time in school.

In KS2, children are taught in weekly sessions by our Link Teacher, once a week. KS2 class celebration assemblies, which all children in school participate in, also celebrate language learning through songs and stories. We aim for our children to develop an appreciation of songs and stories in French throughout their time at the school.

Our school follows the Primary Languages Scheme of Work, which is adapted to meet the needs of our own children. Details of topics covered in each year group can be found on the French curriculum area of our school website. Since primary languages became statutory in the primary curriculum recently, children at Christ Church have been advancing through this scheme of work. As we acknowledge children’s different learning styles, our children learn through active participation in actions, rhymes, stories, song, grammar focus, video clips, sentence structure, dictionary work, book making and many more creative ways to extend, embed and combine language skills.

In addition to this, we are in the process of developing links with a school in France as a part of our Erasmus + mobility project. In its initial stages, this is helping to create increased curiosity for language learning and provides further motivation to our pupils, providing a practical purpose for children’s learning.

Impact

• Remember more about MFL.
• Children will recognise and apply key French vocabulary verbally.
• Children will be able to write a limited amount in French.
• The large majority of children will achieve age related expectations by the end of the year.

 

Our French curriculum will ensure all pupils in KS2 develop key language learning skills, as set out by the national curriculum, as well as a love of languages and learning about other cultures. These are as follows:

• 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 (UKS2), 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 National Curriculum in England: Key stage 2 Framework Document (September 2013)L a breakdown of these attainment targets for each KS2 year group can be found here. We also use pupil voice to measure and monitor the impact of the French curriculum on pupils.

Key Stage 2

Key Stage 2 have weekly French lessons where we aim to develop a love of languages and an understanding of other cultures alongside language development. These lessons are taught and planned by Géraldine, our Link Native French Teacher from The Hall School.

Year 3

In Year 3, we focus on learning to introduce themselves, asking questions and responding appropriately. They listen and respond to French and learn the days of the week, colours, numbers to twenty and the French alphabet. Their focus is on aiming to have a short dialogue confidently in French with some opportunities to begin writing in French.

Year 4

Year 4 develop more skills in responding to classroom instructions and classroom objects. With a greater emphasis on beginning to write simple French sentences, they also begin to describe family members and places in a town. Children begin to develop dictionary skills in Year 4.

Years 5 and 6

With a focus on writing grammatically correct sentences, Year 5 and 6 will learn about saying how they feel, school subjects and giving opinions, foods, weather and clothing. Our older children will also begin to learn more about using verbs in French.