Modern Foreign Languages – our statement of teaching and learning

Modern Foreign Languages – our statement of teaching and learning

At Bedfield/Wetheirngsett C of E Primary School we teach children to start and
develop their ability to speak, read and write French under our Three Big Ideas
– Culture, Understanding and Fluency. The children are taught to appreciate
some cultural aspects of living in France as a child, in a family and in the
context of pursuing leisure activities, rooted in some locational understanding
of place and in contrast to comparative aspects of life in Britain.
Our teaching scheme has been written by T Davies from our MAT on a four-
year rolling programme which is contemporary and fit for purpose. All children
regularly rehearse French words for weather, numbers, days of the week,
seasons, months and weather, whilst they progress into learning vocabulary in
the context of short, longer and more complex sentences. Grammatical
structures of the French language are progressively built across year groups in
stages, moving on when children have secured a particular stage and are ready
to apply their understanding to speaking, reading and writing in French on
particular themes. In this way, opportunities for repetition gradually build
understanding of the structure and sound of a language new to the majority of
our pupils. Our intention is to make the learning of a new language fun whilst
at the same time appreciating some cultural aspects of another country and
growing understanding of the wider world.