French

Vision for the Department

Our mission statement is simple: for every pupil in the school to love languages. 

Through our own passion for our subject, we want to spark pupils’ interest in linguistics, food, travel, literature and film, other languages and cultures, art and music, communication and finding commonality with people around the world.

Above all we seek to provide pupils with an understanding of the French language, culture, and society, as well as teaching them to become proficient in spoken and written French.

French is offered as an additional language in Year 8 and Year 9.

KS3 Curriculum

YEAR 8

Topic 1: My Life and Family

• Introduce myself 

• Describe family using avoir

• Describe the room using il y a

• Give opinions using j’aime / je n’aime pas

• Describe myself using je suis

Topic 2: My School

• Tell the time

• Give opinions about school subjects

• Describe my clothes with agreeing adjectives

• Describe my day with present tense -ER verbs

• Describe my school with c’est and il y a

Topic 3: Free Time

• Describe the weather and seasons

• Describe what sports I play using jouer

• Describe what sports I play using faire

• Give opinions using j’aime / je n’aime pas + infinitive

• Use questions words and structures

 

German Taster Course: Pupils spend 1-2 weeks learning German to develop their wider language experience as they progress through Key Stage 3. By the end of Year 9 they will have experienced up to five different languages on top of the core languages of Spanish and French.

Topic 4: My Town

• Describe places in my town using il y a

• Describe where I go using aller

• Describe my plans and react to invitations

• Order food in a café

• Use the near future tense with aller + infinitive

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YEAR 9

Topic 1: Holidays

• Say where I go on holiday

• Describe past holidays using perfect tense (regular avoir verbs)

• Conjugate irregular perfect tense

• Say where I went using perfect tense (regular etre verbs)

• Use present/past tense time connectives

• Compare past and present holidays

Topic 2: Free Time

• Give opinions about free time activities

• Describe my weekly activities using time phrases

• Use complex negatives including ne…pas, ne…jamais and ne…rien

• Describe birthday celebrations using perfect tense

• Describe physical appearances

• Describe what I’m going to wear with near future tense

Topic 3: Work

• Describe what I do to earn money using je peux and je dois

• Describe what I want to do in the future using je veux

• Describe what I want to do in the future using future tense

• Describe what I want to do in the future using a range of future verbs

• Describe what I would change and what I would like using conditional tense

 

Russian Taster Course: Pupils spend 1-2 weeks learning Russian to develop their wider language experience as they progress through Key Stage 3. By the end of Year 9 they will have experienced up to five different languages on top of the core languages of Spanish and French.

Topic 4: When I was little / Bridging to GCSE

• Describe what I used to do when I was little  using imperfect tense

• Compare primary and secondary school using imperfect and present tenses

• Compare myself now and in the past using imperfect and present tenses

• Use perfect and imperfect tenses together

• Use a range of question words and structures

Going beyond the National Curriculum through:

• Annual French exchange to Brittany (Year 9)

• Quizlet Live Competition

• DuoLingo Leaderboard

• MFL Christmas Cafe

• Languages Festival

• Cinema visits

• French cultural school trips and visits

• Cultural exploration and discussion

 

For more information on the curriculum beyond KS3 please refer to the Guided Choices and Sixth Form Brochures which can be found on the:

Curriculum Page