French

At Lanfranc we encourage our pupils to embrace the opportunity to learn another language and to broaden their horizons, inspiring them to step beyond familiar cultural boundaries and fostering their curiosity to develop new ways of seeing the world. Our aim is to develop passionate, confident and successful language learners who also appreciate the target culture of Francophone countries.

Our teaching enables pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It also provides opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking, and develop an appreciation of a range of topics in the language studied.

Lessons are structured to incorporate all skills required of the modern linguist in terms of Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing and Translating, as well as supporting the development of a broad range of Vocabulary and Grammatical structures. Students are further immersed in Francophone and Hispanic culture through the use of authentic resources and cultural studies, including critiquing music, reviewing films and delving into great works of literature.

Our curriculum design is underpinned by interleaving and retrieval practice so that our linguists are able to revisit and build upon 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 as a solid foundation for further study at KS5).

There are several benefits to learning a new language, including developing communication skills and improving problem-solving skills, as well as gaining knowledge of different cultures. In our fast-paced globalised word, being able to speak a foreign language can also boost pupils' chances of landing jobs amongst a group of other candidates with similar abilities, but who are monolingual.

We aim to build passion and enthusiasm for language learning so that pupils use their knowledge and skills in their everyday lives and future careers, taking every opportunity to progress independently.