Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. Our modern foreign language of choice is French. We use iLanguages as a scheme to support our teaching of French which predominantly focuses on practical communication

The teaching should enable children to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping children to study and work in other countries.

Our intention is to develop children's ability to speak French with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions. We aim to lay foundations for further language teaching at Key Stage 3. 

The progression of skill and knowledge within languages, throughout the half termly topic, throughout each year group and throughout the primary phase as a whole, is detailed in the ‘Modern Foreign Language Progression Document’. In order for children to receive a high-quality MfL education, it is essential that teachers build on previous curriculum content to ensure the skills and knowledge being taught are progressive and based on a secure foundation where acquisition of new content can be formed.

We take our children overseas to France in Year 6 for a 1 week residential. This gives the children the opportunity to apply their knowledge of our languages curriculum, practice their communication skills and learn about the country itself.