French

We teach French as our chosen language. Many of our local secondary schools teach this language and we aim to build the foundation of the language here at Cockington, and prepare them for further successful learning.

Children are given opportunities to listen to the language through our language programme, Language Angels. This progresses into speaking the language, which is broken down into steps for a better understanding. This not only key for learning French, but for every lesson. At Cockington, pupils build on the prior learning of the language to be able to hold conversations in French and are given opportunities to have purposeful communication.

In addition to this, writing in French varies in lengths for different purposes and audiences depending on the year group. In their writing, the children use a variety of grammatical structures to demonstrate what that they have learnt during their lessons. Learning a second language provides a level of respect for different people’s faiths and cultures, as the children learn where French is spoken in the world. This helps the pupils to learn more about their own culture by reflecting and comparing. The topics that are covered create meaningful links which are relevant to the pupils and cover subjects that are taught in core lessons such as learning about the planets and the solar system.

Sequential curriculum

MFL strands with declarative and procedural knowledge that deepens and broadens progressively each year:

• Listening
• Speaking
• Reading 
• Writing
• Grammar

The understanding of these is deepened every time they are re-visited through links to prior learning.