Our vision

At Henleaze Junior School, we aim that all children will be able to respond to those speaking in basic  French and develop confidence in reading and writing in this language. The children will be able to apply the language in a meaningful way whilst having an awareness and appreciation of  French culture. The skills and knowledge that children develop from learning these languages will equip the children to become global citizens and offer a multicultural educational experience.

Our Curriculum

At Henleaze Junior School we use the CUSP French curriculum. The subject leader has ensured that the MFL curriculum is cumulative, coherent and connected and the curriculum is carefully mapped what the students will know and be able to do in French. This ensures that learning builds cumulatively and helps students to make connections between concepts that they have learned. Prior learning has been identified and mapped to the curriculum so that teachers can build new knowledge. All children participate in one MFL lesson per week. 

In CUSP Primary French, careful thought has been given to how content has been sequenced to ensure that there is a focus on high-quality development of children as linguists. CUSP French is taught from Years 3-6.

The Programme of Study outlines the totality of knowledge and skills that will be taught across Key Stage 2 Each block includes study of key MFL linguistic concepts and previously learnt language concepts to enable pupils to build on known themes and vocabulary. The core content overview outlines the substantive and disciplinary knowledge and key vocabulary that pupils will learn throughout each block of study. This includes the vocabulary, phonics and grammatical constructs that pupils will learn, as well as the opportunities to develop their reading, writing and oracy skills. This ensures that teachers are clear about what pupils should know and be able to do at the end of each unit of study.

Explicit Vocabulary Instruction is built into every lesson. Threshold words are taught and applied – audio clips provide pupils opportunities to listen and attended to an authentic native French speaking expert pronouncing and using the words in context. Oracy opportunities are built into the six phases of a lesson. Linguistic fluency, dialogue, discussion and rehearsal is a key element of thinking hard.

Revisiting is coherently built into the architecture of the CUSP French curriculum. This can be seen in many places, such as: • between individual blocks in each year group on the long-term sequence • within blocks in the Remember part of each lesson • in the quizzing that can be used throughout, at the end of and after a block of study

Impact

Each year group has clear cumulative end goals – these are identified for teachers. Formative assessment is embedded, including: questioning, observation, discussion and peer interaction, lesson pauses and use of success criteria, enabling pupils to consolidate learning and teachers to gauge understanding. 

Subject overview