Pittington Primary School | Hallgarth Lane, Durham, County Durham DH6 1AF

0191 3720314

Pittington Primary School

Welcome to our school

National Curriculum

Curriculum Statement
Languages
"The more languages you know, the more you are human"
Tomas Garrigue Masaryk


Content Languages Curriculum – French
The Languages Curriculum at Pittington Primary School supports and supplements the National Curriculum by reflecting the needs of our children and the context of the school.
The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
  • Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation
  • Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
  • Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied


During French lessons, pupils at Pittington Primary School will be taught to:

  • listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
  • explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
  • engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help*
  • speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
  • develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases*
  • present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences*
  • read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
  • appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
  • broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary
  • write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly
  • describe people, places, things and actions orally* and in writing
  • understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build
    sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English


Assessment of French
At Pittington Primary it is our intention that all children will at least reach their age related expectations as described in the National Curriculum. However through a curriculum that is challenging and relevant to the children we expect children to achieve greater than age related expectations.
 

Children who are not meeting age related expectations will be supported by staff through differentiated tasks and targeted small group work. The direct use of key questions and targeted support will be offered to ensure that any gaps between groups of children are closed.
 

Assessment of the children’s French language skills will be assessed by the class teacher. There will be a range of evidence to support teacher judgement including French books, photographs, audio clips and assessed pieces of work.
 

Monitoring of Languages - French
The quality of the learning across the school is monitored by the Languages Subject Link Teacher.
 

Training is offered to all Subject Link Teachers to ensure that their knowledge and skills are up to date and accurate.
 

The Subject Link Teacher meets with the Special Interest Governor for French to share school improvement plan initiatives with them and ensure that governors are aware of standards across the school.

If you would like more information about our Languages Curriculum please contact Miss Wigham, Headteacher by clicking here