At St Joseph's, we believe that learning an Modern Foreign Language (French) in Key Stage Two is an essential life skill.  Whether or not our children visit France or learn French at high school, learning a foreign language teaches children about languages and about the world around them and prepares them for life in an ever changing world.   

Our progressive MFL curriculum is planned by specialist language teachers for non specialist teachers which means that our children are taught high quality French lessons by their own teachers.  Children are taught the Phonics, vocabulary and grammar skills which are needed for age appropriate language comprehension (listening and reading) and language production (speaking and writing).  Intercultural understanding is woven through our entire Key Stage Two curriculum so that children come to appreciate and respect cultural differences and similarities. 

Phonemes are explicity taught to allow pupils to pronounce French vocabulary accurately and confidently and links are made between sounds and spellings.  Commonly used vocabulary including simple and common verbs are systematically taught and revisited in different contexts to enable pupils to commit these to their long term memory. Topic words are introduced in meaningful contexts and each lesson allows pupils to practise both comprehending and producing new vocabulary. Grammar is explicitly and systematically taught to enable pupils to commit basic grammatical structures to memory and apply them to language comprehension and language production activities.  Phonics, vocabulary and grammar are taught through song, rhyme, activites and games to ensure that pupils enjoy their lessons and develop a love for language learning.  Children are taught to be language detectives, developing language learning skills that can be applied to any language in the future. 

We intend to deliver the National Curriculum in an engaging and exciting way which equips children with intercultural awareness, French Phonics, vocabulary and grammar knowledge and skills and, most importantly a love of learning languages.  Children are enthused and prepared to be linguists of the future, whatever their future may hold.