French

At the Cooperative Education East Trust, we value Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) as an important part of the children’s entitlement to a broad and balanced curriculum. MFL provides the children with the
opportunities to develop and extend skills and an opportunity to express their individual interests,thoughts and ideas.
At CEE we have developed opportunities for all pupils to develop an interest in learning another language and broaden their awareness of cultural differences in other countries. Our curriculum introduces children to another language in ways which are enjoyable and stimulating to encourage curiosity about language. Furthermore, the curriculum develops listening, speaking, reading and writing skills and lays the foundations for future language learning.
The national curriculum for MFL aims to ensure that all pupils:
1. understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
2. speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what
they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the
accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation
3. can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical
structures that they have learnt
4. discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.
The teaching and implementation of the MFL Curriculum at the Cooperative Education East Trust is based on the National Curriculum and utilises the schemes of work from Kapow.

At Thompson Primary School, we teach french from Reception – Year 6. Research suggests that learning languages at an early age does not only bring linguistic benefits. It can also enhance core cognitive skills, including reasoning, problem solving, and memory, along with improving communication and intercultural skills. Importantly, the songs and play that are a part of early language learning make classes fun, potentially cultivating a long-lasting interest for foreign languages, and motivating children to continue learning as they get older.