Our Foreign Languages lead is Mrs Barrett.

At St Margaret’s C of E Junior School, the children learn French for four years.

We understand that learning languages are an essential part of a broad and balanced curriculum. We use the award-winning scheme ‘Language Angels’ to deliver fun and engaging lessons whilst equipping children with the four key skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking. The scheme is fully compliant with the National Curriculum and DfE Languages Programme of Study for Key Stage 2. In addition, dedicating thirty minutes a week to learning a language promotes our Christian vision, encouraging our pupils to be tolerant and understanding global citizens, who are aware of and celebrate linguistic and cultural diversity.

The circular curriculum encourages confident progression. Each lesson is built around specific goals and subject themes so that pupils can develop their language skills as a series of building blocks. Children learn new vocabulary in lower Key Stage Two and will revisit and build on this vocabulary in upper Key Stage Two. Units introduce key grammatical and phonetical rules for learning a new language. When the children leave for secondary school, they should have gained a sound understanding of the basics of the French language and a wider cultural and linguistic understanding.

Exciting units align themselves to cross-curricular learning. Some of these include L’ancienne Histoire de la Grande Bretagne (Ancient Britain), La maison Tudor (The Tudors), Les Jeux Olympiques (The Olympics) and La Seconde Guerre Mondiale (World War Two). 

If you child would like to continue practising their French outside of the classroom, they can access the Language Angels Home School site: https://www.languageangels.com/schools/index.php/homeschool

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Here, they can find the unit they are learning at school, click on the lessons and access a games arcade designed to support and consolidate their learning.

Other recommended websites for consolidating French include:

French in Action...

Year 5 used their French vocabulary to design Christmas jumpers and describe them. They wrote down the colour of their jumper 'e.g. Il est bleu = It is blue' plus the names of the objects on them 'Il y a une etoile et un renne - There is a star and a reindeer.' 

They also watched a short video with French children describing their traditions and compared the similarities and differences. For example, in the UK, we put up stockings on Christmas Eve but in France, they traditionally put shoes under the Christmas tree ready to be filled with sweets. Both countries open advent calendars on the lead up to Christmas and enjoy a turkey in their Christmas meals.