Cultural Capital
Across MFL studies, students will explore different countries and different cultures. This is done mainly through the topics of school, media, festivals and food. Students will compare British schools to schools in other countries and look at the differences in timetables and subjects studied. Topics progress to further study and employment and different sectors of working life. The benefits of school exchanges are also discussed and how this would be advantageous in future careers. Students will also have the opportunity to explore the country that the language they are learning comes from, and also which other countries in the world use that language. Festivals and celebrations are key to allowing discussions about different cultures and traditions, and the different food and ingredients used. Film and television also broaden students’ knowledge, as well as a look into daily life and holiday destinations. In Year 11, environmental protection is the main focus and the measures taken to help protect the world in which we live.
Curriculum Journey
This is a map to show the learning journey in MFL from year 6 through to further education and possible careers.
MFL Curriculum Journey.pdfOverview of the learning journey in French
Year 7 French
The Building Blocks of the French Language
At the beginning of Year 7, students are exposed to basic grammar of key irregular verbs, adjective agreement and present tense, through the All About Me topic. They then expand their vocabulary and develop their grammatical knowledge in the School topic, where they also learn to express and
justify opinions, tell the time and talk about food. In the Free Time Activities topic, we revisit the present tense of key regular and irregular verbs through the context of technology, sport and hobbies. Students then learn to describe where they live, and use a wide range of irregular verbs to talk about where they go in their town, what they want to do at the weekend and what they can do in their local area. By the end of Year 7, students have built on prior knowledge from previous topics, learnt to develop their basic sentences into extended sentences, and laid the foundation for Year 8.
Year 8 French
Developing Key Language Skills
At the beginning of Year 8, the present tense is revisited through the topics of television, cinema, reading and internet. This lays the foundation for students to be able to use the past tense. This begins with a description of what they did last night, and is developed through an imaginary trip to Paris, where the students will describe what they saw and did, giving and justifying opinions in the past. The Year 7 All About Me topic is extended with an introduction to describing relationships, talking about music tastes and clothes, which includes an introduction to the near future tense. Towards the end of the year, a variety of grammatical structures are introduced, which will be developed further during the transitional Year 9.
Year 9 French
The Consolidation Year
Year 9 begins with consolidation of previously learned tenses; students revisit the present tense to describe physical appearance and personality, which is then extended to talk about family relationships. They practise the near future and past tenses in different contexts, before using the past to describe what their life used to be like when they were younger.
Language skills are developed through a range of interesting topics such as sport, your life online, reading, television programmes and cinema, where students increase their cultural capital and knowledge of complex grammar structures.
Year 10 French
GCSE Study - Year 1
Students embark on their GCSE studies and build upon previously learned Key Stage 3 knowledge. Through the topic of holidays, students describe what they would do on an ideal holiday, learn to book and review hotel accommodation, learn to deal with a range of transactional scenarios, including how to order a meal in a restaurant, complain about problems and purchase souvenirs. Students then study school subjects, school rules and are given the opportunity to compare UK and French-speaking schools, which increases their cultural awareness. Learning about lifestyle choices then leads students towards thinking about their personal future plans, such as career choices, job applications and interviews. Across all these topics, students become more confident with a range of more complex grammatical structures and a wider vocabulary.
Year 11 French
GCSE Study - Year 2
Students complete their GCSE studies by looking at global issues, environmental problems and potential solutions to these. Previously learned vocabulary and grammar are revisited, consolidated and practised through a range of activities that prepare students for their final examinations. Lessons are structured around revision workbooks, past papers and online resources. This provides students with the regular and continual practice of the four GCSE disciplines: listening, speaking, reading and writing.