At Our Lady of Grace Junior school, we aim to inspire a curiosity and love of language learning and an awareness of how our rich language capital equips us with language learning skills.   Our whole school commitment to developing a growth mindset sits particularly well with our language learning.  We aim to develop a “have a go” mindset, developing children’s confidence and a resilience for learning in order to lay the foundations for future language learning.  We believe that learning another language gives children a new and broader perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures and those of others.

We are committed to providing clear, quality first teaching where language leaning is accessible and attainable for all. We strive to embed the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing necessary to enable children to use and apply their French learning in a variety of contexts.

We aim to follow a clear pathway of progression as each child advances through the primary curriculum. 

Le Français

Children are taught French for one hour every two weeks.  Year 3 and 4 develop their French skills by speaking and listening.  They are slowly exposed to written words by means of class display and with guided practice in class.  In years 5 and 6 children continue to speak and listen and begin to develop reading and writing skills.  We use lots of resources to help our learning in French.  Lessons include learning in the four skills of language - speaking, listening, reading and writing at an appropriate level ie single word, phrase and later full and extended sentences.  A focus on French phonics is an important part of every lesson.   The children are supported by means of learning mats, classroom displays, dictionaries, and the use of technology.  We play games, listen to video and radio, learn songs and we can often be heard chanting with different emotions!  We are very proud of how able the children are in managing their own learning in Our Lady of Grace Juniors.   We are becoming very skilled at taking notes to use in our learning and in using memory techniques to make those notes more useful.  Children are in charge of their own learning in our language classes!

There are many sources of support for French available via the internet.  Please see the links below.

Memrise:  an app available for android, mac and computer.  Excellent and free!

Duolingo:  a free App for learning languages.  Excellent, Free!

Further support for learning is available through the London Grid for Learning. 

All children have access to the London Grid for Learning by logging into the site and entering their school login details at the login screen.  Simply type my.uso.im into your search bar, press enter and enter the login details at the appropriate screen.   Login details are normally pasted into homework diaries in year 3.  All other year groups should be very familiar with their own details.

Merci

Les Sons Français

Practice French phonics by listening to the following games.  Try over and over until you are sure of the sound you hear.  In the following game you must drag the icons from the area on the right and place them in the picture screen.  When you are ready to check, press Valider.  If some of the objects are wrong or missed then you must keep trying.

le son CH:  https://apprendrealire.net/son-ch/160-jeu

Jouez avec les sons et les lettres.  Listen to letters and sounds to support French reading.

This is a super free site.  http://petitabra.concordia.ca/

Radio Labo is a super resource for listening to French.  Print or follow the text using the pdfs.  Listen over an over to hear all those beautiful French sounds.  Follow the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04ts87g

Follow this web link to a site with lots of games to learn language.  Each topic starts by teaching you the vocabulary.  When you have listened a few times, you will be ready to play the games.  You can choose translation games like we use in school.  You hear the French, you answer the English, then hear the French but have a choice of two to answer in French.  You will know you are expert if you can answer the French when the question is in English!  Bonne chance!

Dictionnaire Larousse

It is a very useful skill to know how to use an  online dictionary.  Use this site to find your French vocabulary. Remember, when you are researching French nouns, make a note of the gender.  Use your colour strategy to make that note effective.    Challenge:  What does bonne chance mean?

Ecoutez une histoire ici

http://cf.tfo.org/emissions/carmen/  

Histoire de petit Poupouyaki

http://cf.tfo.org/jeux/poupouyaki/poupouyaki.html

http://www.lasouris-web.org/prescolaire/prescolaire_lecture.html

La Tour Eiffel

How well do you know the Eiffel Tower?   Where is it?  Who built it?  Is it the tallest building in the world?   Watch this video to learn the answers.   

Now learn to draw the Tower!

Use this site to practice your French

There are plenty games to help you learn on this site.  Listen over and over and soon you will be speaking like a Parisian!  When you know the vocabulary, challenge yourself to learn the gender.  Have fun!

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/french/french.htm