Languages Curriculum

At St Johns, we realise that our children will be growing up in a diverse, multi-cultural society, and in order to help them fit in and function in such a world, it is essential that they have language skills beyond that of their main spoken tongue. Children in Key Stage 2 take part in weekly French lessons by a specialist language teacher to form a basis for Modern Foreign Language lessons at the main feeder schools.

Children will learn the following:

Listening           

• to listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding

• to explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words

Speaking

• to engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help

• to speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures

• to develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases

• to present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences

Reading

•  to carefully decode and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing

  appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language

• to broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary

Writing

• to be able to write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly

• to describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing

Grammar

• to understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, such as (where relevant) feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.