Welcome to French

Speaking and understanding a new language is an important skill which drives our outlook of the world around us. Learning new skills and words are not always easy and we encourage our students to be resilient and driven in their learning.

Our curriculum is such that all students (with or without much experience of French) are able to access new learning. In year 7, we learn about key aspects of pronunciation, adjectives, opinions and also some elemental time phrases and working in different time frames (past, present and future). These are the foundations for learning French and taking it in any direction later on. Cultural understanding is crucial when learning a new language and we start to look at new aspects of French culture over the year.

We are a small department of 2 teachers who teach exclusively French, although we can speak other languages too! We teach French for the main reason that this is a language on our doorstep but it also has lots of links to English. Furthermore, it is a language which will allow students to pick up other languages (Spanish, Italian) more easily later on. Mr Matthews and Mrs Nanyonjo teach together in the department and both have experience of using languages outside of the classroom. We both understand the importance of learning a language and how it can play an important role in the development of students but also in providing job opportunities linked to all fields of work. We have interactive screens which make teaching and learning more intuitive.

Over the past few years, we have been involved in trips abroad (Paris, Cologne, Madrid) for Years 8 and 9. These trips really demonstrate language learning in action.

In Year 7, the learning is sequenced by term, across a broad topic “area” but mainly by grammar, so that students have language which is useful and important for communication. The broad topic areas have been chosen to give students language that they need to communicate in both spoken and written forms. The Core Knowledge and Grammar are carefully planned through an ambitious intent. Phonics will be promoted throughout. The nature of the curriculum is that it is cyclical, and that phonics, grammar and vocabulary will always thread through the topic blocks and be revisited (and deepened) at appropriate stages, as students progress throughout their study of French.   

Year 7​
​	Autumn​	Spring ​	Summer​
Theme / Topic​	Introductions (transition from Y6)​	Life at school​	My hobbies​
Grammar​	Introducing adjectives​	Developing opinions​	Introducing tenses / time frames​
Culture​	Emmanuel Macron / Christmas in France​	Jacques Prévert / Schools in France​	Jeannie Longo/ Tour de France​