French
The French department at SGS aims to develop a lifelong love of French, an understanding of different cultures, and the confidence to communicate with purpose in order to become resilient, open-minded, and independent world citizens.
Whilst consolidating all four skills, we emphasise the importance of cultural insight, always reinforcing a positive attitude to language learning and to other cultural perspectives.
As a Department, we encourage students to use French creatively (through competitions and challenges), as well as for real purposes (developing their use of the language in class and with their penpals in Year 7 and during our visit to a French school during the Year 10 trip to Normandy), whilst ensuring that every student understands that abilities can be developed through effort, persistence, trying different strategies and learning from mistakes.
The French Curriculum
From the outset we teach grammar, phonics and vocabulary; using the correct terminology and making explicit links to English and
other foreign languages’ grammatical structures, pronunciation and cognates. We also teach the language contextually within topic areas and using the target language to model and encourage students to communicate in French. We use authentic resources to offer relevance to French and every Year 7 students studying French has a French penpal to correspond with. Study of foreign language films, music, celebrities, YouTube videos and texts are all commonplace in the French classroom.
Further rationale behind our curriculum design includes the revisiting and building on existing knowledge. The topic areas and grammatical structures which are introduced at KS3, are seen as building blocks for more in-depth learning at KS4, and potentially KS5, and the use of IT programmes such as SentenceBuilders are well-established for acquiring or reinforcing newly acquired knowledge for example.
Extra-Curriculum
- French cooking club (Years 7 and 8)
- French film club
- A-Level MFL debating competition
- Anthea Bell prize – translation competition
- UK Linguistics Olympiad
- GCHQ Year 9 competition
- Year 9 Manie Musicale competition
- Mother Tongue Other Tongue
- Trip to Normandy (Year 10)
- Trip to MMU for a screening of a French film and Q&A (A-Level)
Key Stage 3
Year 7 French
| Module |
Vocabulary |
Grammar |
|
1 - Moi |
Greetings How you are feeling Introducing yourself Alphabet Age Number to 31 Months Birthdays |
Some key verbs with "l" (Je) and "you" (Tu) |
|
2 - Les descriptions |
Physical descriptions Pets Colours Describing animals |
Present tense: avoir Adjectives Negatives |
|
3 - Ma Famille et moi |
Family members Personality description Opinions Reasons |
Present tense: être |
|
4 - Au collège |
School subjects Time Describing your timetable Describing a day at school |
Present tense: ER verbs |
|
5 - Mes hobbies |
Sports and hobbies TV programmes Weather |
Prepositions Near future |
Year 8 French
| 6 - Chez moi |
Countries Places to live Types of housing Rooms in the house Describing a house Breakfast Helping at home |
Prepositions BANGS adjectives Comparisons Present tense - IR and RE verbs |
|
7 - En ville |
Places in town Directions Invitations Accepting / Refusing an invitation At the restaurant |
Prepositions Infinitive structures |
|
8 - Les vacances |
Holiday destinations Holiday activities Transport Memorable holidays |
Perfect tense |
| 9- Ma vie saine |
Food and drinks Good and bad habits Advice |
Modal verbs Infinitive structures Negatives |
Key Stage 4
Year 9 French
|
Module |
Context |
Knowledge & Skills |
|
1 - Tu as du temps à perdre ? |
Online activites TV programmes Weekend activities |
Present tense: irregular verbs Infinitive structures Perfect tense |
|
2 - Mon clan, ma tribu |
Physical descriptions Personality descriptions Relationships with family and friends Role models Celebrations Marriage |
Imperfect tense Direct object pronouns |
|
3 - Ma vie scolaire |
School subjects School facilities Rules Uniform Primary school Importance of learning a language Future plans |
Comparisons Imperfect tense Near future |
|
4 - En pleine forme
|
Meals and mealtimes Giving advice Healthy/ Unhealthy lifestyle choices Advice |
Modal verbs perfect tense: reflexive verbs Simple future |
Year 10
|
Module |
Context |
Knowledge & Skills |
|
4 - En pleine forme |
Meals and mealtimes Giving advice Healthy/ unhealthy lifestyle choices Advice Booking holidays Accommodation Staycation activities |
Modal verbs Perfect tense: reflexive verbs Simple future Si clauses |
| 6 - Notre planète |
Numbers and percentages Geography and climate Environmental problems Solutions Day-to day actions to protect the environment New technologies |
Comparatives and superlatives Passive: present tense Imperative: nous- forms En + present participle En train de / venir de |
Year 11
|
Module |
Context |
Knowledge & Skills |
|
7 - Mon petit monde à moi |
Understanding adverts Describing where you live Directions Shopping for clothes Describing your ideal home |
Demonstrative adjectives Y Depuis Si clauses |
|
8 - Mes projets d’avenir |
Summer plans Future plans and hopes Reality TV and influencers Possible suture career paths Jobs |
Perfect infinitive Future plans structures Infinitives as nouns |
Key Stage 5
KS5 outcomes
Year 12:
- The changing nature of family
- The “cyber-society”
- The place of voluntary work
- A culture proud of its heritage
- Contemporary francophone music
- Cinema: the 7th art form
- FILM: Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles from Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Year 13:
- Positive features of a diverse society
- Life for the marginalised
- How criminals are treated
- Teenagers, the right to vote and political commitment
- Demonstrations, strikes – who holds the power?
- Politics and immigration
- BOOK: Un Sac de Billes from Joseph Joffo