At Beckfoot Allerton, we have selected Early Start Languages as our scheme of work to support the teaching of French. We introduced this to all year groups in September 2023 with year groups starting at the beginning of the programme. Early Start has videos of native French speakers so children can listen to authentic accents. As the scheme becomes embedded, older year groups will start on the advanced programmes. Children in KS2 will have a French lesson each week and then practice elements of the language throughout the week.
Vocabulary
Children will learn basic vocabulary and sentence structures in order to be able to communicate in French. Children will echo the video and the teacher, have plenty of retrieval practice at the start of each French lesson and use the vocabulary throughout the week.
Listening and Reading
As novices, children will show they understand by responding with an action, or movement before beginning to use single words and phrases they have learnt in response. Written words will be shown alongside vocabulary. Novice French learners will not be expected to read words without a prompt.
Speaking and Writing
As novices, children will focus on speaking French before writing. Children will respond in an echo whilst securing their new vocabulary. As they build their bank of vocabulary, children will be introduced to simple sentence structures and then add extra information e.g colours and numbers to create more complex sentences. Authentic French speakers will model the vocabulary as well as the class teacher. As novices, children will have a go at French handwriting.
French culture
Each lesson will look at French culture and/or the design of French language.