We aim to foster curiosity and a deeper understanding of the world, to provide pupils with an opportunity to communicate for practical reasons, learn new ways of thinking as well as lay the foundation for further foreign language teaching at key stage 3 and for learning further languages.

Pupils will have opportunities to study various aspects of French culture, grasp French grammatical concepts, increase their vocabulary and develop the four key skills of language learning: reading, writing, listening and speaking in equal measure for KS2 children.

We believe that learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity, provides an opening to other cultures and enables children to have a better understanding of their own language(s).

It is our aim that all children will:

• 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.

We also aim to further enrich pupils' learning by providing opportunities for pupils to celebrate their own cultures, learn about France and other countries through international activities. We encourage children to value language as part of culture and recognise and celebrate the languages within our own community. Children have opportunities to sing songs and count or answer the register in different languages from Reception to Y6. To enhance our pupils’ understanding of a different culture and ensure their study of French is purposeful, we have established links and correspondence with a French School in the Paris area.

At East Sheen Primary School, French is taught as a discrete subject in EYFS, KS1 and KS2, by a specialist teacher.  Children are taught French weekly for 25 minutes in EYFS and KS1.  In KS2, the lessons are 45 minutes weekly as this facilitates the implementation of writing at a greater length and reading longer texts. 

French is taught in a variety of methods including through whole class games, songs, interactive activities, and pair work and acting out a scene from a real life situation and physical co-ordination through miming. Thinking School strategies are used within French lessons. 

Speaking in the target language is encouraged outside the classroom and is practised by the French teacher informally in the playground and corridors. This reflects our focus on practical communication and ensures children are aware a language is an empowering tool to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings.

Enrichment activities further support pupils' understanding of the world in which we live, promote  respect for different cultures and beliefs and provide our pupils with opportunities to celebrate the different cultures we have within our own school community.  We have established links and a correspondence with two schools in the Paris area which give pupils in Year 4 the opportunity to write for a purpose. We have also established links and a correspondence with a primary school in Nancy, in France,  which give pupils in Year 6 the opportunity to write for a purpose

Planning is arranged into long, medium and short term units.  Planning is used to set clear learning objectives and achievable goals, work is matched to pupils’ abilities, experience and interests to ensure continuity, progression and subject coverage throughout the school. Pupils have home access to an interactive resource to support the teaching and learning of French.

Assessment and record keeping are integral parts of our teaching and learning.  Children’s written work provides records/evidence of pupils’ achievements and progress which is subsequently reported to parents.  At the end of the year pupils' attainment is reported to parents based on whether they are working towards criteria for the expected standard, working at the expected standard or working at a greater depth within the expected standard.  The French subject lead monitors the subject regularly through planning, book scrutiny and pupil discussion in order to ensure coverage and progression year on year.

We want all pupils to leave East Sheen Primary School having met the French aims outlined above; having reached age related expectations and having fostered a curiosity and interest in the subject as they move onto secondary school. Children in Y5 and Y6 work to gain the bronze and silver lingua badge awards. In addition we hope that effective French teaching will have contributed to our whole school vision that children become happy, curious, resilient and kind.

Our rich curriculum enables children to learn about a range of different cultures and associated language, from understanding the roots of many of our words e.g. the Ancient Greek influence on mathematical terminology, to observing different alphabets, e.g. in the Quran. As part of our English curriculum we consider the impact of use of language and how it affects communication. We encourage children to value language as part of culture and recognise and celebrate the languages within our own community. Children have opportunities to sing songs and count or answer the register in different languages from Reception to Y6.