French

French is taught weekly in Key Stage 2 and follows the scheme of work developed by Rachel Hawkes. The curriculum is built around phonics, pronunciation, high-frequency vocabulary and grammar, so that pupils learn how the language works rather than memorising isolated phrases. The same core units, such as describing people, saying what people have and do, and expressing likes, are revisited every year in new contexts and with more demanding language. Grammar shows how this builds. In Year 3, pupils learn gender (un and une) and ‘I am’ sentences. In Year 4 they add articles, adjective placement and the verbs j’ai and je suis. Year 5 introduces negatives, connectives such as et, mais and parce que, and an awareness of how verbs change. By Year 6, pupils use present tense verb patterns, agreement rules and extended sentences to write short structured texts.

Lessons develop all four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, using choral repetition, pronunciation practice, songs, rhymes, gesture and pair and group speaking. Sound–spelling correspondences are taught explicitly from Year 3, so that by Year 6 pupils can decode unfamiliar words with confidence. Retrieval practice and structured sentence-building tasks help pupils retain vocabulary and grammar over time. Cultural learning reaches across the French-speaking world as well as France, including the Menton and Nice carnivals, New Year in Haiti, La Fête des Rois, the Québec Winter Carnival, La Chandeleur and school life in Canada. By the end of Year 6, pupils can hold short conversations, read short paragraphs, write simple structured texts and express opinions, giving them a secure foundation for French at Key Stage 3.