Modern Foreign Languages

Our curriculum provides students with opportunities to engage in conversations discuss and give their opinions about a wide range of issues such as the environment and global issues through their curriculum journey. Students will gain an understanding of, and the skills to manipulate, the language, based on a sound foundation of core grammar and vocabulary. 

At KS3, students gain essential skills to communicate with others in a foreign language. They learn the fundamental elements of the language and can explore diverse topics and key grammatical structures through a curriculum that provides the foundations of language early on and then builds both in complexity and range of vocabulary.  We interleave and revisit key grammar points and language structures so that students are able to apply the structures they learn to a range of different topics and contexts with increasing complexity.   

The Key Stage 3 content has been carefully selected to provide an introduction to and a basis for the themes and grammar knowledge required for further study. With the emphasis on the grammar and language structures, the plan provides opportunities for interleaving and revisiting previous topics in greater depth. The focus has shifted from vocabulary to proficiency and depth of understanding of the language itself.  Regular interleaving encourages automatisation of the language, promoting resilience and self-confidence.  

We wish to inspire our students to have a curiosity and fascination in discovering the world and its people, deepening their understanding of different cultures and societies. We aim to develop a student’s understanding of the ways in which languages are interconnected and how languages play a part in our daily lives. Students are encouraged to support and respect each other, especially when speaking in the target language.  

The curriculum is challenging, and students have regular opportunities to extend their skillset further through access to extension tasks and complex materials such as authentic resources and listening to native speakers. The curriculum continuously develops written, spoken and listening skills which are highly transferrable skills for all careers and other subjects. Students also have opportunities to develop their grammatical knowledge, broaden their vocabulary and deepen their cultural knowledge and understanding.  

Year 7

By the end of year 7 they will be able to:

• use cognates to help understand new words
• explain the concept of gender for French nouns
• seek and give personal information
• explain differences in French word order (e.g. adjectives)
• use a range of opinion words and phrases
• extend my sentences using conjunctions and clauses
• write a paragraph about themselves in French
• understand words in a literary text
• make comparisons
• write creatively using the target language
• ask and answer questions (using intonation)
• use techniques to translate well into French (e.g. check word order, agreements etc)
• can express ideas in more than one time frame.

To do this they will cover the following topics:

• Mon collège
• Ma famille et mes amis
• Mon temps libre

Year 8

By the end of year 8 they will be built on their prior knowledge and learn how to: 

• narrate events in the past
• write in 3-time frames
• justify opinions and giving opposing views.
• use the imperfect tense to task about that they used to do (implicitly)
• answer set questions with confidence (developing spontaneity)
• take part in a structured dialogue
• can use the conditional tense to talk about hopes and wishes
• use modal verbs in sentences

To do this they will cover the following topics:

• Ma ville
• Chez le médecin
• Mes vacances

Year 9

By the end of year 9 they will build on their prior knowledge and learn how to:

• Justify the advantages and disadvantages of being online and using social media – the core phrases they will then learn how to transfer and adapt to other topics.
• Talk about their future aspirations
• Have a working knowledge of 6 tenses and be able to use them in 3 different time frames.

To do this they will study the following topics:

• La technologie
• Le monde est petit
• Mes ambitions
• Le film et la musique