Languages Curriculum Intent
At Dean Field Primary School, we believe that learning a modern foreign language provides a rich educational, social, and cultural experience for our pupils. French is our core language, and it is taught progressively from Nursery through to Year 6. By introducing language learning early, pupils have more time to develop secure foundations and confidence with the basics before meeting the more challenging content in Key Stage 2.
Our curriculum is carefully structured using the Language Angels scheme, which fully supports the National Curriculum Programme of Study. Lessons are taught weekly to promote regular practice, recall, and long-term retention of vocabulary and key skills. This ensures that all pupils benefit from high-quality, sequenced language teaching that prepares them for future learning in Key Stage 3 and beyond.
We aim to foster a genuine enthusiasm and curiosity for language learning. Through engaging and stimulating experiences, pupils develop not only their speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, but also their confidence, creativity, and resilience as learners.
We strongly believe that learning another language broadens pupils’ perspectives and supports their understanding of the wider world. It encourages them to reflect on their own culture and appreciate the similarities and differences within other cultures — an important element of our commitment to developing pupils’ cultural capital across the school.
Aims for pupils
Through our teaching of French we aim to:
- stimulate children’s interest, enjoyment, and curiosity in learning another language and developing their awareness of how languages work
- enable children to develop secure knowledge and understanding of French vocabulary, pronunciation, phonics, and grammatical structures, building confidence in speaking, listening, reading and writing
- help pupils gain a broader understanding of life in French-speaking countries, encouraging respect for other cultures and supporting pupils in making connections between their own experiences and those of others around the world
- develop pupils’ competence in essential language-learning skills, including recalling and applying vocabulary, engaging in conversation, reading and listening for meaning, and structuring simple written sentences with increasing accuracy and independence
- provide opportunities for pupils to develop the language knowledge and vocabulary needed to ask questions, express opinions, and experiment with language, building resilience, creativity, and confidence as learners
How our French Curriculum Is Constructed
In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), French is introduced through play-based and interactive experiences that focus on developing children’s listening and speaking skills. Learning is delivered through songs, stories, actions, games and short practical activities that encourage children to join in, repeat key words and develop early awareness of sounds in another language. Evidence of learning in EYFS is captured through video, photographs and observations rather than written outcomes, allowing children to fully engage and respond in a meaningful and age-appropriate way. This approach builds early confidence, curiosity and enjoyment, and prepares pupils for a smoother transition into more structured language learning as they move into Key Stage 1.
From Year 1 to Year 6, French is taught weekly using the Language Angels scheme of work, which provides a carefully sequenced and progressive curriculum aligned with National Curriculum expectations. The scheme operates as a three-year rolling programme, specifically designed to address gaps in prior learning while ensuring that pupils revisit and build upon key knowledge over time. As pupils move through school, units become increasingly comprehensive and challenging, reflecting the growing level of prior knowledge and confidence pupils have already developed.
Each unit contains a clear body of key vocabulary and core knowledge drawn from the Language Angels programme. These ‘Must Know Facts’ are explicitly introduced, revisited and built upon across the curriculum to support recall and long-term retention. Learning is planned against a progressive set of language skills and knowledge expectations, ensuring that pupils develop increasing independence, confidence and accuracy as French learners. We have also created ‘Let’s Talk About France’ year group Must Knows, which give context to what they are learning, it teaches them about France and other French speaking nations to build their cultural capital and allows the concept of learning another language to become less abstract.
Through this structured and carefully planned approach, pupils at Dean Field develop secure foundations in French, benefiting from a curriculum that is engaging, inclusive and continually responsive to their needs.
Long Term Planning
French Must Knows
Below are our ‘Let’s Talk About France’ Must Knows that we provide for each year group, to promote cultural capital and an understanding about the country the language they are learning originates. We use these alongside Language Angels must knows for each topic, they are designed to be used at home by parents as part of homework and revision, in school to supplement work in lessons and to recap previous learning. We want every pupil to be able to recall the facts given on the sheet but also to research further into the information provided. These are carefully structured so that knowledge and vocabulary are sequenced and built upon over time. We are confident that these Must Knows will help our children to develop and retain key knowledge within French.
Lets talk about France! Must Knows