“Les limites de ma langue sont les limites de mon monde.” (The limits of my language are the limits of my world) Ludwig Wittgenstein.
What is French?
In French we learn a language that is used in other countries. We learn to speak, read, listen and write in this language.
French at Cockton Hill Junior School:
Learning a foreign language is a lifelong skill that promotes and encourages broader cultural understanding and can lead to a huge range of opportunities as children grow up. Throughout school, children will study oracy, literacy and intercultural understanding in a wide variety of ways. A focus of this learning is phonics where pupils learn how phonemes are pronounced differently in another language.
Here you will find our French curriculum overview as well as unit overviews. These show the key knowledge and skills for each unit as well as vocabulary learnt in each topic.
Our curriculum in action
Year 3 - Greetings
In this unit of work, Year 3 pupils have been introduced to French at CHJS. They began to introduce themselves in another language and ask and answer questions. During this unit there was a strong focus on speaking and listening skills. Using finger puppets, they completed a role play activity. They were also introduced to the term ‘cognates’. These are words in one language which look or sound like the word in English. This unit gives the children a good base for the rest of their learning in this subject.
Year 3 - Adjectives
In this topic, children were introduced to shapes and colours. They played games to remember this new vocabulary. They also heard 'Henri’s Scissors' which tells the life story of the famous French artist Henri Matisse. They made their own collage pictures, just like Matisse, then described them in French.
Year 3 - Playground games
In this topic, children learnt numbers 1 to 12. They learnt a French nursery rhyme and spotted some cognates and near cognates in French words. They played a French board game in French to practise their skills! At the end of the topic they played 'La Marelle', which is very similar to Hopsotch. They enjoyed counting and turn taking in another language!
Year 3 - In a French classroom
In this topic, children learnt about the differences between school in France and England. They learnt the names of items that are found in a pencil case and were introduced to masculine and feminine words. They were also introduced to classroom instructions in French.
Year 4 - Portraits
This unit of work builds on work which children completed in Year 3 on adjectives and their position in a sentence. They learned that they must agree with the noun they are describing. The topic also focused on finding out about the famous French art museum – Le Louvre. Children practiced reading and writing skills by playing ‘Jacques a dit’. Using a writing frame, they wrote sentences describing people.
Year 4 - Clothes
In this unit of work, children began to remember and pronounce some of the new words, recognising that some are masculine and take un, some feminine and take une and some plural and take des. They understand how to convert the indefinite article to a possessive adjective. Children can correctly identify items of clothing based on the written word. They can say the words for items of clothing with accurate pronunciation. They worked hard to compose sentences using j’aime or je n’aime pas.
Year 4 - Numbers, calendars and birthdays
In this unit of work, children have learnt the numbers to 31 in French. Using this knowledge of number, they have been able to read and calculate Maths calculations correctly in French. Children can recall the days of the week, working out the words for the days that are yesterday and today. They can also match most of the French months to their English equivalents. Children can ask when someone’s birthday is and give the number and month of their own birthday. They have also identified similarities and differences between birthdays in the UK and France.
Year 4 - Weather
In this unit, children learned weather phrases in French and started to repeat these using increasingly accurate pronunciation. They learned to say the points on a compass in French and played games to help them to remember these. They could match temperature numerals and words correctly. They used this to create their own weather forecast.
Year 5 - Monsters
During this unit, children worked up to completing their own piece of writing titled ‘Fantastic French Beasts’. They looked again at adjectives, building on work completed in Year 3 and 4 and were introduced to singular and plural. They used language detective skills and their knowledge of cognates and near cognates to work out meaning of a paragraph of text in French. Using their growing knowledge of French, they unscrambled sentences so that they made sense.
Year 5 - Space Exploration
In this unit, children used their prior knowledge of cognates in French to notice differences with spelling and pronunciation for planet names. They used a model to write their own metaphors. They built on what they have learnt in Year 3 and 4 and correctly chose un/une for gender and added adjectives for extra detail. They used this to describe a planet.
Year 5 - Shopping
In this topic children learned and practiced vocabulary to help them to ‘go shopping’ in French. They built on prior knowledge of numbers to be able to recognise number words in written form. They listened and joined in with a story, using gestures and key vocabulary. They became language detectives by working together to explore and understand an unfamiliar text, identifying cognates first and then using a dictionary.
Year 6 - Sport and Olympics
During this unit, children learned French vocabulary for the names of some different Olympic sports and countries. They revisited how to talk about likes and dislikes and were introduced to the verb ‘aller’. Conjugating the verb, they could then say what sport they were going to do. The children again used their knowledge of cognates to become language detectives and work out the meaning of new vocabulary. At the end of the unit, they created a longer piece of writing about the Olympics.
Year 6 - French football champions
In this topic, children learnt about France’s reputation as a great footballing nation, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 2018. They were given a vocabulary list and needed to be language detectives to work out the meaning of unfamiliar words. They translated some player profiles then used this knowledge to create part of their own. They also had a go at answering some comprehension style questions in French!
Year 6 - In my French house
In this unit, children learnt the names for different types of houses and their rooms. They used a writing frame to create a written description of their home. They could label items in a bedroom and use the related vocabulary in sentences. They also started to use prepositions accurately.
