Modern Foreign Languages

French Subject Leader: Lucy Park

Learning languages plays a vital role within the curriculum at Wilbarston and is one of many subject areas that will help to fulfil our wider trust mission of creating a curriculum that is broadening the horizons of young people within our school. Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity, provides an opening to other cultures and also provides a deeper understanding of the English language through etymology and study of grammar.

Our language curriculum promotes pupils’ curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world around them both now and in the past. It will enable pupils to express their thoughts and ideas in another language and communicate these in both speech and in writing. We strive to embed the skills of listening, speaking and reading skills necessary to enable children to use and apply their learning in a variety of contexts and lay the foundations for future language learning. Our Foreign Language curriculum is designed to progressively develop children’s skills in languages. We have chosen to teach French.

Our French scheme of work aims to instil a love of language learning and an awareness of other cultures. We want pupils to develop the confidence to communicate in French for practical purposes, using both written and spoken French. Through our scheme of work, we aim to give pupils a foundation for language learning that encourages and enables them to apply their skills to learning further languages, developing a strong understanding of the English language, facilitating future study and opening opportunities to study and work in other countries in the future. The French scheme of work supports pupils to meet the National curriculum end of Key stage 2 attainment targets (there are no Key stage 1 attainment targets for Languages).