French
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”
Nelson Mandela
Intent
“A different language is a different vision of life.”
Federico Fellini
Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) are an important part of our young people’s education. There are so many clear personal, cultural, social and career benefits in being able to communicate confidently in another language that every child in our school should have the chance from this young age to develop their own modern foreign language skills. We want our pupils to be enthusiastic, engaged and challenged and to develop their ability to use and understand another language. Our MFL curriculum also aims at encouraging the awareness of our pupils of what lies behind a different language, enhancing the richness and the diversity of different cultures by using authentic resources as well as making links with pupils from different countries.
All pupils in the school study French and in their lessons, our pupils will gain systematic knowledge of key vocabulary and structures, grammar and phonics of the new language and a better understanding of how these are used by French speakers. We want to develop confident and independent pupils who are not afraid to communicate in a different language.
Implementation
“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.”
Flora Lewis.
Pupils in all Year Groups benefit from the opportunity of learning French. Through this, we feel that it is important that our language teaching gives them explicit language knowledge and strategies which can help them with future study of other languages.
All pupils are taught all four skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing and each of these skill areas are practised, consolidated, reinforced and assessed on a regular basis. There is a positive and innovative approach to target language teaching and we encourage our pupils to use the language for their own purposes. At BHA, teachers of MFL want to promote a more spontaneous and accurate use of the target language.
- We want to develop our pupils’ independence and communication in languages by developing these core skills:
- Vocabulary and sequencing (including verbs)
- Knowledge of phonics
- Explicit use and understanding of grammar
- Use of enriching and stimulating material, including reading of authentic resources, films and French pen friends.
French
In Year Six, pupils have three lessons per fortnight where they are introduced to the language and develop and reinforce phonics, basic topics and language skills with key phrases and structures.
In Year Seven, pupils have four lessons a fortnight. Topics include sports and hobbies, places in town, school and food, whilst learning how to become more confident with the language, adapting and developing the language with use of opinions, connectives, time phrases, and the use of different tenses.
Year Eight pupils have three lessons a fortnight and cover various topics such as shopping, holidays and family topics, whilst developing a deeper understanding of grammar points, including all three different tenses.
All pupils in year 7 and 8 have a French pen friend from our partner school in France: le collège Mauboussin in Mamers. Every year, we aim at exchanging at least 3 letters where pupils introduce themselves, write about their hobbies and personal interests, describe their school day and their towns, share what they did or are planning to do in their next holidays. Our pupils love these opportunities and take a lot of pride in writing beautifully presented and detailed letters in the target language. They also really look forward to receiving letters and finding out more about the lives of their French peers.
Useful Website
Colourful, fun and great practice for Years 6, 7 and 8. Please ask your French teacher for our school login so that you can access these handy activities at home. Fancy a challenge? Have a go at the Spanish, German or Italian sections of the website!
Free and great to reinforce grammar points and verbs in the different tenses.
French Trip
Each year, we organise a 5 days Trip to Normandy for our Year 7. Typically, over 50 pupils take part, experiencing language activities, such as visiting a typical French market, following a town trail. We also spend a whole day in our partner school where pupils get to meet their pen friends and eat in the school canteen. We also explore places of cultural and historical interest: the Medieval castle in Fougères and the Mont-Saint-Michel. Our pupils’ favourite is also the visit to the goat cheese farm.
Impact
“One language sets you in a corridor for life.
Two languages open every door along the way.”Frank Smith
When our pupils leave BHA in Year 8, they should have become more independent in their use of core grammar and linguistics skills. As such, they will be able to adapt a variety of key phrases and express opinions with increasing spontaneity. Pupils across all year groups should be engaged and enjoying their lessons and feeling that they are progressing well. They respond especially keenly to finding out about pupils in France and Austria and are motivated to use their language skills to either meet or write to their penpals.
The formative assessment data from ongoing observation of in-class activities such as role-plays, listening and reading comprehension and written exercises help the MFL teachers monitor the pupils’ understanding, knowledge and skills and inform planning that is suitable for supporting and challenging the pupils at every stage of their progress. Summative assessment in listening, reading, writing and speaking also takes place at the end of each unit of work in order to track pupils’ performance against their end of year expectations, with interventions being implemented as necessary.
Finally, our International work both within the MFL curriculum and across the wider school environment has been recognised by the British Council through the International School Award, where they have especially commended our project work with our Erasmus partner school in Austria. We have also received two eTwinning Quality Labels and two European Labels for our last two projects, recognising our collaboration with different European schools, using French as language of communication.