French

Intent

At Bishop Wilson we have adopted the French scheme of work from Kapow.

Our intent as Bishop Wilson is to instil a love of languages amongst our students and broaden their horizons for later on in life to allow them to travel, study and work in a variety of careers all over the world. Through the year groups we aim to give pupils a foundation for language learning that encourages and enables them to apply their skills to learn further languages, develop a strong understanding of the language, facilitating future study and giving them the foundations to build on so pupils will have opportunities to study and work in other countries in the future. The foundation of this love of language will be started in KS2 where teachers will be using Kapow scheme of work that covers all components of the Programme of Study.

This scheme of work will enable teachers to deliver good quality teaching giving them foundations of learning a modern foreign language which will continue into secondary school. Learning another language in Bishop Wilson School, will be bringing an awareness of other cultures showing cultural differences and diversity. As a school we aim to broaden the horizons for our pupils and equip them with the tools to go far. Pupils will further develop their knowledge of France and its cultures as well as looking at other French speaking countries and their cultures.

As a school we want pupils to develop the confidence to communicate in French for practical purposes, using both written and spoken French. The start of KS2 and across the school we aim for the pupils to acquire basic French language skills focusing on reading, writing, speaking and listening. Pupils will start by being able to use simple sentences including every day nouns, verbs and adjectives when conversing, reading and writing and progress into conversations with replies.

The Kapow French scheme of work is designed with six strands that run throughout. These are:

• Speaking and pronunciation
• Listening
• Reading and writing
• Grammar
• Intercultural understanding
• Language detective skills

Implementation

Through Kapow Primary’s French scheme, pupils are given opportunities to communicate for practical purposes around familiar subjects and routines. The scheme provides balanced opportunities for communication in both spoken and written French, although in Year 3 the focus is on developing oral skills, before incorporating written French in Year 4 and beyond.

The Kapow Primary scheme is a spiral curriculum, with key skills and vocabulary revisited repeatedly with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Cross-curricular links are included throughout our French units, allowing children to make connections and apply their language skills to other areas of their learning.

The Kapow French scheme of work was introduced to the school in September 2023 so in order to ensure children could build up their knowledge from a sound starting point, all year groups from Y3 to Y6 began with the units of work for Year 3. Each academic year, each Year group will move onto the next academic year’s units. 

Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including role-play, language games and language detective work. Our scheme of work focuses on developing what we term ‘language detective skills’ and developing an understanding of French grammar, rather than on committing to memory vast amounts of French vocabulary. Differentiated guidance is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed and enjoyed by all. In order to help pupils, retain their French learning, we provide information about how to incorporate French into the classroom environment every day in our ‘During the week’ sections.

Strong subject knowledge is vital for staff to be able to deliver a highly effective languages curriculum. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD. Kapow has been created with the understanding that many teachers do not feel confident delivering the full languages curriculum and every effort has been made to ensure that they feel supported to deliver lessons of a high standard that ensure pupil progression. Lessons include a section entitled, 'Teacher knowledge - language points' to explain key grammar and other details to the teacher before the lesson, together with a Key vocabulary and pronunciation presentation with sound files to demonstrate the correct pronunciation. Many of the other presentations included in the lessons also include sound files, supporting teachers who are less confident with their own pronunciation to deliver the lesson and support the children's learning.

Assessment

The impact of Kapow Primary’s scheme can be monitored continuously through both formative and summative assessment. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. An assessment spreadsheet is also available to record children’s progress in each lesson to enable you to build a picture of their learning through each unit.

The expected impact of following the Kapow Primary French scheme of work is that children will:

• Be able to engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations (e.g., ordering in a cafe, following directions) and express an opinion.
• Make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases, and short texts.
• Speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation.
• Demonstrate understanding of spoken language by listening and responding appropriately.
• Use a bilingual dictionary to support their language learning.
• Be able to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt.
• Have developed an awareness of cognates and near-cognates and be able to use them to tackle unfamiliar words in French, English, and other languages.
• Be able to construct short texts on familiar topics.
• Meet the end of Key Stage 2 stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for Languages.

For the school’s approach to the assessment of French, please see the school’s Marking, Feedback & Assessment Policy (2023).