Curriculum Purpose

Our curriculum advances children’s knowledge of the world by embracing the rich diversity of our school community to prepare them for the challenges and opportunities of modern life.

Curriculum Rationale

Learning a foreign language is a powerful way to break down cultural barriers and broaden pupils’ understanding of the world around them. It opens doors to new cultures and perspectives, fostering global awareness and intercultural understanding.

At Sudbury Primary School, the French curriculum is designed to ignite pupils’ curiosity and deepen their appreciation of other cultures. It supports them in expressing their ideas and thoughts in a new language, and in understanding and responding to speakers both in speech and in writing. Learning French also lays the foundation for the acquisition of additional languages, preparing pupils for future opportunities to study and work in diverse international contexts.

Our French Curriculum Overview has been carefully developed using pupil feedback and is rooted in the statutory guidance set out in the National Curriculum Languages Programme of Study. A broad range of topics is covered to introduce a wide vocabulary, enhance communication skills in everyday contexts, and ensure a smooth transition to language learning at secondary school.

We aim for all pupils to develop an understanding of basic grammar appropriate to the language studied, including key features and patterns, how to apply these (for instance to build sentences), and how these differ from or are similar to English.

Our teaching of French is aligned with the National Curriculum and 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 to communicate effectively, including through discussion and questioning, while continually improving pronunciation and intonation
• Write at varying length for different purposes and audiences, using a range of grammatical structures they have learned
• Discover and develop an appreciation of a variety of writing in the language studied