French Curriculum
What is our vision for French?
At WHPS, we provide a broad and balanced curriculum across all subjects, which develops the individual child according to their age and ability. We want all of our children to leave WHPS as:
- Fluent readers with a love of books and excellent comprehension.
- Fluent mathematicians, with a confidence in problem-solving and reasoning.
- Clear and engaging writers who can communicate their thoughts and feelings.
- Happy, healthy, interested children with a range of experiences, memories and knowledge of a broad and deep-rooted curriculum.
At WHPS, we believe that learning a new language is a powerful way to build confidence, resilience and a sense of community. Our French curriculum starts from a shared baseline for all learners and builds year on year to support long-term progress. We aim to foster a classroom environment where children feel comfortable practising aloud and learning collaboratively. Our curriculum is broad and deep rooted, exposing children to cultural differences and preparing them to learn modern languages at secondary school.
The curriculum in French supports this by:
- Developing confident speakers who can express themselves in a new language.
- Encouraging creativity through a range of spoken and written activities.
- Building resilience and independence through structured, stepby-step learning.
- Creating memorable lessons through games, music and songs that reinforce key vocabulary.
Intent
What are our aims in the teaching of French?
We believe that children learn best through a curriculum that has rigour, challenge, depth and breadth, and which connects all areas of learning. At WHPS, we intend our students to:
- Develop confidence and fluency in through regular opportunities for oracy.
- Build foundational reading and writing skills in French, supported by visual aids and scaffolded tasks.
- Become independent learners who can apply phonics, grammar and vocabulary with increasing confidence.
- Learn through a consistent, structured approach that supports working memory and longterm retention in French.
This links to the National Curriculum for French, which aims to ensure all children:
- Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
- Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and 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.
How have you designed the curriculum for French to ensure that it covers the National Curriculum?
The curriculum for French has been carefully planned using the Language Angels scheme, which ensures full coverage of National Curriculum aims. We have chosen Language Angels because it offers a clear progression in vocabulary, phonics, and grammar, as well as a wide range of interactive resources.
At WHPS, the scheme has been adapted to fit our school context by:
- Placing a strong emphasis on oracy in the early stages of each unit to build pupils’ confidence.
- Using whiteboards for wholeclass interaction and immediate feedback.
- Embedding interactive games, songs and visual presentations that make lessons engaging and memorable.
- Providing consistent access to word banks and sentence scaffolds for all learners.
- Carefully selecting topics that are ageappropriate, culturally relevant, and build sequentially from year to year.
- Structuring the curriculum into six 30minute lessons per term, allowing for regular bursts of new language without overwhelming pupils' working memory.
Implementation
What is the content of French at WHPS?
Our curriculum is designed to:
- Be clear about what knowledge children will learn, and in which order, throughout their time at our school.
- Provide regular opportunities for children to review and apply prior learning to interrupt forgetting.
- Provide enrichment opportunities that enhance and develop children’s learning.
The curriculum map provides further details on the objectives covered in French and the progression of knowledge and skills in each year group.
How is French taught at WHPS?
French lessons are taught by class teachers, using planning developed alongside subject leads. Children take part in regular lessons throughout each term.
At WHPS, we believe that high-quality teaching and learning in French includes:
- Repetition and oral rehearsal of key vocabulary and phrases.
- Visual aids to support understanding and memory.
- Scaffolded speaking and writing tasks with clear sentence structures.
- Opportunities for paired and group work to practise communication.
- Use of routine, structure and recall previous learning to support memory and progression.
- Celebration of native speakers who model pronunciation and support their peers.
We also recognise that there are many elements of excellent practice that are consistent across all subjects, which are included in our WHPS Teaching Standards for teachers to refer to and implement.
How are planning and resources for French organised?
Every year group has a Year on a Page Overview, which provides an overview of units covered throughout the year, and a Foundation Subject Overview, which includes all of the objectives covered in each subject each term. Planning for all subjects is saved in the WHPS Curriculum folder for teachers to access. All teachers have logins for the Language Angels website, which provides the resources, slides and activities they need.
How do we ensure that all children have access to the French curriculum?
At WHPS, we aim to provide equal access to the curriculum for all children. We believe that all children can achieve and we value and promote each child’s achievements across every subject. We give our children every opportunity to achieve their best by taking account of our children’s range of life experiences when planning for their learning. We regularly review our curriculum and the resources we use to ensure that our teaching reflects equality and respects diversity. All teachers will adapt lessons and resources to provide support for individuals with SEND or other needs.
In French this support may include:
- Images and visuals support understanding of vocabulary for children
- Interactive presentations, scaffolded tasks and word banks ensure access for all learners.
- A focus on communication and interaction, with reduced written demands and emphasis on participation.
How do we assess learning in French?
Assessment for learning is an important part of every lesson at WHPS in order to check children’s knowledge and understanding. Lessons are carefully planned to provide opportunities for teachers to assess children’s knowledge in a range of ways, which can then support them to adapt future lessons appropriately. Any written work is record in French books and is clearly marked with the subject name and learning objective. However, we also recognise that a more active or practical approach may be relevant for some objectives, which is detailed in the unit plans developed by teachers and the subject lead.
In French, assessment opportunities include:
- Listening and responding to spoken French.
- Speaking tasks using modelled structures and sentence starters.
- Matching or translating vocabulary into English.
- End of unit listening, reading or writing assessments.
What opportunities are there for enrichment in French?
Our aim at West Hampstead Primary School is to ensure that every child is able to take part in a range of inspiring and exciting opportunities during their time at school. Enrichment opportunities are carefully planned as part of the curriculum in order to:
- Bring children's learning to life in a new or different context
- Cover or revisit key knowledge and skills from across the National Curriculum
- Providing an inspiring or aspirational experience for children
- Develop children's confidence and self-esteem in a new environment
In French, we provide the following enrichment opportunities throughout children’s time at school.
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Year Group |
Enrichment Opportunities |
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Year 3 |
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Year 4 |
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Year 5 |
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Year 6 |
Impact
How do we monitor the impact of our teaching in French?
Leaders regularly monitor teaching and learning across the subject throughout the year. Monitoring takes place through:
- Planning scrutiny to ensure that planned lessons match the learning objectives and outcomes provided in unit plans
- Book looks to ensure that outcomes reflect those provided in unit plans and check that children are making good progress within the subject
- Pupil voice to understand children’s perspectives on their learning in the subject and explore whether they have remembered the knowledge identified in the curriculum maps
- Learning walks to see teaching and learning in action across the school and ensure high quality teaching is taking place
- Teacher surveys or informal conversations to ensure that teachers are confident in their subject knowledge and identify any support needed
Strengths and next steps identified during monitoring are recorded on our monitoring overview document and discussed with SLT.