French
at Linthwaite Clough
Learning French opens up a whole new world of communication, culture and adventure – imagine your child chatting confidently with French speakers or exploring France with genuine language skills!
At Linthwaite Clough, we make language learning exciting and meaningful through songs, games, conversations and real-life scenarios that help children understand how French connects to everyday situations. Our practical approach focuses on speaking and listening first, building genuine communication skills before moving into reading and writing, so children develop authentic pronunciation and the courage to have a go. By Year 6, your child will have the vocabulary, confidence and cultural awareness to engage with French speakers and lay solid foundations for their language learning journey in secondary school and beyond.
Read about how our French curriculum is designed
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At Linthwaite Clough, we aim to instil a love of language and an awareness of other cultures and build a curriculum that incorporates the understanding of French so that children know more vocabulary around different topics, remember these words and phrases and use them in the correct context. As a result children will develop the knowledge to be able to communicate ideas across by reading, writing, speaking and listening
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Children are encouraged and supported to develop their speaking and listening skills through conversational work, singing activities and games. As confidence and skill grows, children record their work through pictures, captions and sentences.
French lessons are taught to children in KS2 each week following the Primary Languages Network scheme which uses the National Curriculum as a basis to progressively build on knowledge and language skills. The scheme is taught over a two-year cycle whereby the year 3 and 5 units are taught in cycle A and the year 4 and 6 units are taught in cycle B.
Lessons are as practical and verbal as possible to expose children to the language and there is no requirement to have written work in books each lesson. Chatterpix is used to record French speaking.
Children in the year 2/3 class are split so that only the year 3 children take part in the lessons.
Year 2 children are invited to French Club one lunchtime a week to lay the foundations and join in French word and number games.
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The impact of our MFL curriculum is that children are encouraged to understand the relevance of what they are learning in French and how it relates to everyday life and travel. Also how it could help them in another country or to talk to a French speaker. Teachers foster an enjoyment of languages through a variety of lessons including interactive activities that enable writing, listening, reading and singing in French.
Progression through a topic is evident in the development of key skills and acquisition of main vocabulary. Evidence is kept of children’s work in books, through iPad video recordings (for example Chatterpix) and photos. Children are encouraged to self evaluate, so they can see their progress and feel positive about languages.
Children will be able to:
Engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations and express an opinion.
Make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases and short texts.
Identify cognates and near-cognates to help determine the meaning of words.
Speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation.
Demonstrate understanding of spoken language by listening and responding appropriately.
Use a bilingual dictionary to support their language learning.