St Mary's C of E School Truro

St Mary's C of E School

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young. Be an example to all believers, in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith and your purity."1 Timothy 4:12

MFL-French

Sunrise Curriculum Intent

Our unique Sunrise curriculum is research informed to build children's interests in powerful knowledge and skills, supported by long term memory pedagogy to create life long aspirations. This is underpinned by the school vision 'You are never too young to make a difference.'

 
French Curriculum Intent
 
As a school, we considered which language to offer to our children based on the language they will commonly encounter at their secondary schools. In addition, we surveyed parents to discover their skills and even their holiday destinations. Finally, we surveyed staff to gauge their confidence and subject knowledge. As a result of this initial consultation, St Mary's made the decision to teach French to all children in Year 3 to 6.

Supported by the PlanIt scheme, St Mary's offers a carefully planned sequence of lessons, ensuring progressive coverage of the skills required by the national curriculum. The themes 'Time Travelling, Let's Visit a French Town' and 'This Is France', provide an introduction to the culture of French-speaking countries and communities. It aims to foster children’s curiosity and help deepen their understanding of the world. A linear curriculum has been chosen to allow opportunity for children to gradually build on their skills. St Mary's French lessons enable children to express their ideas and thoughts in French and provides opportunities to interact and communicate with others both in speech and in writing. At the heart of our French curriculum is the desire to expose children to authentic French, so the scheme offers regular opportunities to listen to native speakers.

In Year 3 and 4, children acquire basic skills and understanding of French with a strong emphasis placed on developing their Speaking and Listening skills. These will be embedded and further developed in Year 5 and 6, alongside Reading and Writing, gradually progressing onto more complex language concepts. 

Through our French curriculum, we intend to inspire pupils to develop a love of languages and to expand their horizons to other countries, cultures and people. We aim to help children grow into curious, confident and reflective language learners and to provide them with a foundation that will equip them for further language studies at secondary school and beyond.

A note from Mrs Read:
I have always loved learning languages. My parents were both French/German teachers, so I was fortunate to be able to go on lots of their school trips when I was growing up. I studied 3 languages and have some teaching experience in France and Spain! Now, it is important to me that children at St Mary's enjoy learning a new language, just as I did.