French

Curriculum Intent

Our aims, in the MFL department at Church Stretton School are: 

1. To develop competent linguists who, by the end of KS3, can use three tenses successfully and give a range of justified opinions. 
2. To develop students who enjoy and see the value in studying languages. 
3. To develop students’ cultural capital by exposing them to cultural experiences including visits abroad and enrichment activities. 
4. To increase the number of students studying GCSE MFL at Church Stretton School 
5. To develop students’ transferrable skills.  

The Church Stretton MFL curriculum gives students the opportunity to develop their knowledge of French vocabulary and grammar to an excellent standard and lays a solid foundation for the study of French at GCSE level in Year 10 and Year 11. Students also develop essential life skills such as curiosity, tolerance, resilience and enthusiasm for different cultures. Students’ listening, reading, writing and speaking skills are also greatly improved through the study of French and students’ spelling and understanding of English also improves. We are proud that the study of French during KS3 gives our students a much greater understanding of their own place in the world and a greater appreciation of the similarities and differences between life in Church Stretton and Francophone countries.   

Our French curriculum is an ambitious curriculum, aligned to the National Curriculum. We have mapped the requirements of the National Curriculum for MFL to the Pearson Dynamo (KS3) and Studio (KS4) schemes of work. We like using these schemes of work due to their logical progression of tenses and grammatical structures and because, especially the Dynamo scheme of work, exposes students to the culture of world-wide Francophone countries.  

We are also able, through these schemes of work, to expose students to authentic French through high-quality audio material and videos. We also include other authentic resources such as You Tube videos, language-learning apps and realia to support our teaching and learning in MFL on a daily basis. We have also incorporated the study of two French films in each year of KS3 which support the learning aims of the topics covered in these years.