It is our intent at St John Fisher to provide all of our pupils with a high-quality education in a 'Modern Foreign Language' (MFL). Our children are part of a multi-cultural society and by learning a foreign language it provides them with an opening to other cultures. Through our teaching, our children will have a deepened ability to show respect and play a valuable part in our global society. Our intent is to capture their curiosity for languages and deepen their understanding of the world around them. Our current MFL taught is French.

Our key stage 1 children have weekly French lessons. Our aim is for them to leave key stage 1 with a solid foundation in French that can then be built upon. Areas covered include: numbers 1-30, basic greetings, the French alphabet, colours and an ‘All about me’ topic where they learn to confidently introduce themselves, state their age and where they live.

As our children move into key stage 2 they continue to have weekly lessons in French, where our aim is to deepen their knowledge, improve their confidence and create curiosity for other languages and cultures. Areas covered in key stage 2 include: holidays and hobbies, time, around town and family.

They will be engaged and prepared to continue language learning at Secondary School. Most of our children enjoy a smooth transition to St Thomas Aquinas Catholic School who also teach French from Year 7.

Pupils are taught to:

1. listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding

2. explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words

3. engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help

4. speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures, develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases

5. present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences

6. read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing

7. appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language

8. broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary

9. write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clear

10. describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing

11. understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and high-frequency verbs

12. key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.