French at Ellistown

A high-quality languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world whilst also equipping them with the skills and confidence to interact within it. At Ellistown Primary School our intent is to provide all of our children with a high-quality education in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL). In our regular MFL lessons we teach French, however, we strive to provide children with opportunities to experience a range of other languages and cultures. We aim that by the end of our children’s primary education they will have acquired the foundations for further language learning both at secondary school and in their later life. We will do this through  developing an understanding of both spoken and written French, confidence to speak in French and an appreciation of how important other languages can be in their future.​​  

All children in KS2 will have regular language lessons with their class teacher. Our interactive and lively lessons promote the enjoyment of, and enthusiasm for, language-learning. Within lessons, outcomes are achieved through children completing tasks and activities in the four main skills of language learning: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Lessons are planned and structured to ensure that key skills are covered throughout the year. Units are structured strategically to progressively develops language skills, through regularly taught lessons. This allows the children to acquire new language then use and apply it in a range of different scenarios and topics.  However, we do not give equal weighting to each of these skills in each unit taught. For example, in the initial stages of our teaching we place particular emphasis on speaking and listening. ​

Children are encouraged and supported to develop their speaking and listening skills through conversational work, singing activities and games. As their confidence and skill grows, children record their work through pictures, captions and sentences.  Annually we celebrate European Day of Languages in September and follow a theme for that day. We also take opportunities where beneficial for our children to engage with language learning in different ways. We are looking to build further upon this in the near future.

Our French Curriculum