MFL – French

At Torridon Primary School, we teach French across Key Stage 2. All children in key stage 2 are taught by our specialist teacher Kathryn once a week. 

The National Curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages aims to ensure that all children:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.

• Are able to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and that they are continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.

• Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.

• Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

A high-quality languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. At Torridon, we are committed to ensuring that teaching enables pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both by speaking and writing. We recognise that competence in another language enables children to interpret, create and exchange meaning both within and across cultures.

Children are exposed to an ambitious and progressive Modern Foreign Languages curriculum – one that is rich in skills and knowledge, and develops self-efficacy in French and beyond; one that kindles curiosity and also promotes diversity and tolerance of other cultures via Global and Language Competence (PISA, 2018.)

The curriculum is designed to progressively develop pupils’ language skills through regular, taught lessons while encouraging children to foster a sense of enjoyment in their learning in line with SMSC. We believe that the main priority should be to focus on spoken language (both speaking and listening), although we do also support some basic reading and written recording of vocabulary to consolidate learning. The curriculum gives children the opportunity to:

• use language skills, receptively (Listening and Reading) and productively (Speaking and Writing), for: communication in the real world; practical purposes; for their social needs and interests and… for imaginative and fun ends;
• immerse themselves in the Francophone world in order to develop their Global and Language Competence;
• develop their confidence and autonomy to access new and unfamiliar language in French (and other languages) and through the use of decoding skills brought about by the explicit teaching of phonics and sound patterns, alongside language learning strategies;
• work towards becoming a confident and spontaneous user of French, appropriate to Key Stage 2 and beyond