French

Stowmarket High School MFL Department Intent Statement 

Our MFL curriculum aims to encourage and challenge our pupils to use and understand another language, by equipping them with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed and feel successful. We as a department strive to inspire the richness and diversity of different countries and cultures to develop curiosity and promote diversity and tolerance.  

Our Modern Languages curriculum will give pupils the opportunity to:  

• use language skills for communication in the real world, for practical purposes, for their immediate needs, interests and beyond and to express and justify opinions  

• develop their confidence and autonomy to access new and unfamiliar language through the use of decoding skills brought about by the explicit teaching of phonics and sound patterns  

• work towards becoming a fluent and spontaneous speaker of the foreign language. French is predominately taught at KS3, to boost student’s prospects for success and provide them with a solid understanding of the language. 

 
Our current model has year 7 and year 9 studying French and Year 8 studying German and these years groups will continue with these languages throughout Key Stage 3. In year 10 students will then continue learning their chosen language if this is decided at option stage.   

KS3 students gain a broad understanding of the language. They build on writing sentences to be able to write short paragraphs on familiar topics. They will learn how to give opinions and develop these with reasons across many topics. As the students move through KS3 they will learn how to refer to different time phrases using the past and future tense.  

In KS4 students develop the four skills further: listening, reading, writing and speaking. Students are expected to understand and use language across a range of contexts and develop their knowledge across topics already studied at KS3. They will develop their ability to communicate confidently and deepen their knowledge of how the language works. 

We intend for all pupils to be inspired by the language(s) they learn and see the benefits that learning a language can bring them to help them be even more successful in the future.