At Cavendish, we believe that learning another language opens children's eyes to the wider world and helps them to become confident, curious and respectful communicators.
French is taught throughout Key Stage 2, beginning in Year 3. Our curriculum is based on the Oak National Academy Primary French curriculum and has been carefully adapted into a two-year rolling programme for our mixed-age classes:
- Wrens – Years 3 and 4
- Owls – Years 5 and 6
Our programme provides full coverage of the National Curriculum for Languages at Key Stage 2 and is carefully sequenced so that pupils build their knowledge and confidence over time.
Our approach to French
At the heart of our French curriculum are three important building blocks: phonics, vocabulary and grammar.
Children learn how French sounds and how sounds relate to written language. They build a useful bank of high-frequency vocabulary and learn the grammatical structures that allow them to do more than simply repeat memorised phrases.
These elements are continually revisited and combined through listening, speaking, reading and writing, enabling pupils increasingly to understand and create language for themselves.
Oral language is particularly important. Children hear and rehearse new language before applying it through reading and writing, with frequent opportunities to ask and answer questions, take part in conversations, express opinions and present ideas.
French in our mixed-age classes
Our French curriculum has been designed specifically for our mixed-age structure.
Shared learning where it adds value. Distinct expectations where they matter.
Children within each class share the same language context, while expectations for recall, accuracy, fluency, independence and application increase as their knowledge develops.
Because pupils may enter a two-year cycle at different points, each cycle includes carefully planned retrieval and bridging. Teachers revisit essential phonics, vocabulary and grammar before building upon them so that pupils have the foundations they need to succeed.
The Cavendish 5 in French
As in every subject, our Cavendish 5 shape the way French is taught.
Retrieval helps pupils remember previously learned sounds, vocabulary and structures. I Do, We Do, You Do provides clear modelling before children practise together and move towards independence. Purposeful practice gives pupils repeated opportunities to hear, say, read, write and recombine language. High-quality questioning encourages children to retrieve, notice patterns, explain and respond. Feedback helps pupils improve pronunciation, accuracy and fluency.
Language and culture
Learning French is also an opportunity to discover more about the world.
Children encounter the language, lives and traditions of people in France and the wider Francophone world, including places such as Haiti and Canada. Through stories, songs, poetry, images, celebrations and authentic language, pupils develop cultural curiosity and an understanding that French is spoken by diverse communities around the world.
Inclusion
French is for every child.
We adapt access, not ambition, using modelling, visual support, gesture, repetition, vocabulary prompts, sentence structures and additional oral rehearsal where appropriate.
All pupils remain part of the same core language learning, while the level of support and expected independence is carefully adapted to individual need.
What we want our pupils to achieve
By the end of Year 6, we want pupils to be able to approach language learning with confidence, curiosity and resilience.
They should be able to understand and respond to familiar spoken and written French, communicate ideas and opinions, use increasingly accurate pronunciation and grammar, write phrases and sentences from memory and draw upon their existing knowledge to create new language.
Above all, we want our pupils to understand that learning a language is about communication, connection and understanding other people and cultures, leaving them with strong foundations for further language study at secondary school.
We Learn. We Love. We Belong.