Children in Key Stage 2 learn French as a foreign language.

Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.

The national curriculum for languages 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 of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation

• can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt

• discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

Teachers currently use the Rigolo scheme and units of work, which combine traditional methods of language learning alongside the use of multimedia materials. Rigolo is closely matched to the National Curriculum framework in its selection of teaching and learning activities and by its promotion of language learning strategies and development of knowledge about how the language works.

Alongside Rigolo, teachers use songs and stories to promote the learning of French. Children are encouraged to learn and use everyday French vocabulary in their classroom routines. French vocabulary is displayed in communal areas of the school and the children’s French work is displayed in corridors.