It is our intent at Ettington to provide all children with high quality education in Modern Foreign Languages. As a school, we aspire to live out God’s plan for all to flourish and believe in providing our children with varied opportunities to use and develop the gifts they have been blessed with, to ensure they embrace “Life in its fullness” (John 10:10). We encourage children to develop their love of learning languages and cultures through an interesting and varied programme, enabling children to have a better understanding of the world.

Learning a language is a life skill that provides clear benefits, including:

• increased employment prospects
• confidence to communicate when abroad

Research shows that learning a language at an early age can improve academic performance.

Learning a modern foreign language is a requirement in the national curriculum for Key Stage 2. It prepares pupils for further learning, both at secondary school and beyond. After speaking with local secondary schools, we chose to teach French throughout KS2. This will develop a broad range of skills for pupils to build on. The aim is to foster a passion for learning languages.

To ensure we provide the best possible education, we follow the National Curriculum for languages which aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language
• Speak with increasing confidence and fluency
• Write for different purposes and varying length

French teaching at Ettington is organised by a clear scheme of work which is in line with the National Curriculum and includes challenges for children working at age-related expectations. French is taught in years 3-6 by a professional language teacher who visits our school weekly.  Children are encouraged to develop their speaking and listening skills in every lesson through conversational work, songs and stories.

Children enjoy learning French and are interested and excited by the diversity of language culture. They learn to converse in French, saying several phrases with increasing confidence as they move through the years. They will also be able to understand basic grammar, including masculine and feminine and plural forms, as well as being able to attempt accents.

Within the French curriculum, children will develop a range of vocabulary and during subsequent years this vocabulary will be built upon. The foundations are laid for further foreign language study at KS3 and beyond.