Modern Foreign Languages

Intent

In the teaching of MFL at Stanford Junior and Infant School we believe that the learning of a language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our pupils. It helps them to develop communication skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing, with an aim of making substantial progress in one language. In addition, children’s knowledge of how language works will be developed to lay the foundations for further language learning in future. We believe that learning another language gives children a new and broader perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures and those of others, which feeds into our whole school ethos where many religions and cultures are represented.

Implementation

Children develop their love of language learning and develop skills throughout their time in school.

In KS2, children are taught in weekly sessions by their class teacher. Details of topics covered in each year group can be found on the MFL curriculum area of our school website. Our children learn through active participation in actions, rhymes, stories, song, grammar focus, video clips, sentence structure, dictionary work, and many more creative ways to extend, embed and combine language skills.

Impact

Our French curriculum will ensure all pupils develop key language learning skills, as set out by the national curriculum, as well as a love of languages and learning about other cultures. These are as follows:

  • to understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
  • to 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
  • to write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
  • to discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied

Useful Resources

Why not try some of the following link to order to improve your French at home!

http://www.french-games.net/ - a wonderful site with plenty of interactive resources, games and activities for every level of French speaker
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2french.html - loads of interactive resources to help you get to grips with basic vocab.
Mamalisa - poetry, songs and links from around the world
BBC - Primary French
Primary Resources - French: numbers, colours, animals, time, weather, food & drink, the body, clothing, friends & family, hobbies & sport, school, around town, seasonal
Momes.net - a fabulous French site, always up to the minute news, good for inter-cultural development

A series of Powerpoint documents todownload that build into a French language course.

Unit 1: Je parle français!

Unit 2: Je me presente

Unit 3: En famille

Unit 4: Les Animaux

Unit 5: Quelle heure est il? (Part 1)

Unit 7: Quelle heure est il? (Part 2)

Unit 8: Qu’est-ce que tu veux?

Unit 9: Les sports

Unit 10: Les vetements

Year 6 French- Let’s go shopping 🛍️

Year 6 pupils were learning the names of the different types of shops and where they were located. We consolidated our knowledge with an activity and then started to write where the shops were in French- well done Year 6!

Year 3 - Being a linguist

In year 3 the children start to learn French. We try to do this in fun ways playing games and singing songs. The children have learnt different ways to say hello. We hope you enjoy this short clip.

Y5 - French - Classroom items

Y5 enjoy their French lessons. Today we looked at classroom items. It was quite tricky as the children had to remember whether the items were feminine or masculine. Well done Year 5!

Bonjour!

In our MFL lessons this term, Miss Perrin has been leading fabulous online workshops!

We have been collaborating across Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 to participate in fun games and activities and share our love of learning a different language.

Merci, Mademoiselle Perrin!

Comment dit-on…? (How do you say....?)

In French the children were given French dictionaries to look for the meaning of words. We had a little competition to see who could find the meaning of words the quickest. It got very competitive!!

French – Classroom Items

We have been learning the names of classroom items. After that we had lots of fun playing a matching game where we had to match the French words with the pictures.

Voici ma famille!

We have been learning the names for members of our family. The children then used this information to create a family tree and say who each member was. Can you figure out who is in their families?

As-tu un animal?

We have been learning some of the names for the different types of pets we may have.

We had lots of fun learning the names with actions to help us remember them.

The children then played a matching game where they had to match the pictures with the correct words in French.

Les Vetements - Clothes

In French we have been learning about the names of pieces of clothing. We then drew pictures of ourselves and wrote about what we were wearing in French. Tres bien!!

Singing in French

The children have been learning about different types of fruit in French. To learn this is a fun way we have learnt a song “I like fruit”

The children did this without any backing tracks but we did leave the video in the background so you can guess what they are singing about.

I like fruit

I like fruit
I like bananas
I like fruit
And apples as well

I like fruit
I like oranges
I like fruit
And pears as well

I like bananas
Beautiful bananas
And I like apples
And apples too

I like oranges
Beautiful oranges
And I like pears
And pears too……..

And the song repeats with new fruit.

French Cafe Experience

As the Year 4 children have loved learning to speak French so much, we decided to have a chance to practise our skills and open a French Café for the KS2 children to enjoy.

First we had to create a menu and add some useful phrases which would help the children to order food.

We had some French foods for the children to try – Brioche, Croissant and Baguettes with butter, cheese or jam and orange or blackcurrant to drink. Then we got our classroom ready for our clients by arranging the tables, putting on table cloths and decorating the tables with candles and decorative stones. With a bit of French music to create a cosmopolitan atmosphere we were ready for business!!

Each client was served by their own personal waiter who greeted them, guided them to their table and took their orders.

The Year 4 children were very busy taking orders, serving food and then washing up afterwards. The atmosphere was great, the children had fun practising their French and it allowed the children a chance to try different foods.

Our clients gave us lots of positive comments:-

“I thought it was lots of fun”
“I thought it was exciting to have my own personal waiter”
“The waiters were lovely and the food was great”
“I likes the restaurant because it had table cloths and decorations”
“I loved trying new foods and the role play”
“The menus were very helpful as they had pictures to help”
“Great service and loved the atmosphere”
“Year 4 tried really hard with speaking French. It was lots of fun”
“I liked having the chance to speak French and I was praised for speaking back to the waiters in French”

The Year 4 children enjoyed the experience too:-

“I felt like an actual waiter”
“I liked having more experience speaking French”
“I liked serving people”
“I liked eating the food at the end”

By the time the children had served the other Key Stage 2 classes, done 3 lots of washing up and cleared away they were exhausted…….but they weren’t so tired that they couldn’t finish off the rest of the food!! It was a lovely morning.


Can I learn basic greetings in French?

This afternoon Juniper class loved practising their French greetings outdoors.

All About Me - French

The children in Poppy Class have enjoyed learning French and have learnt a lot in a very short time. Here they are showing off their linguistic skills