The French Department is led by the Head of French Ms Izza Binnie along with French teacher Madame Sonia Shaw, who is responsible for KS1, and one French teaching assistant Mrs Alex McCrum. In KS1 children have one 20 minute lesson a week and in KS2 children have one 40 minute lesson a week which is taught in their own classrooms.

 

 

The children begin by learning greetings, then colours, days of the week and animals. They progress by learning months of the year, being able to say their birthdays, parts of the body, family, time, the town; both shopping and asking directions, food and meals, hobbies and sports then by Year 6 the children learn about school including classroom objects and uniform, and then all about their house.

 

 

 

 

The children progress from being able to use simple phrases to constructing full sentences including the correct use of adjectives, connectives and prepositions.

 

At all times the teaching staff endeavour to support the needs of all students, by providing more challenging work where required, as well as extra support where needed. This is achieved through the use of small groups and differentiated worksheets.

 

 

We use a variety of methods and resources to stimulate and encourage the children’s learning of French. These include songs and rhymes, stories, classroom and online games, fun activities such as interviewing, conducting surveys and making diaries, as well as role-playing and recording the children.

 

 

We motivate the children through the use of reward tokens; Ratatouille for the younger children and Christophe le Croissant for the older year groups. These are awarded for demonstrating excellence during the class in terms of participation, effort or attainment.

 

Different year groups each term have the opportunity to come to our fun After School French Club, where the children can extend their learning by performing plays and puppet shows, as well as making booklets and posters.