Snodland’s French curriculum implements key recommendations from the pedagogy review and the Ofsted languages research report, which highlight the three key knowledge strands phonics, vocabulary and grammar.

The lessons draw on the NCELP French team (led by Natalie Finlayson and Cath Salkeld) KS3 SOW and resources, which are in turn informed by the research work of Professor Emma Marsden and colleagues, including Dr Rowena Kaspr. 

Essential Knowledge 

At Snodland, we  teach three core strands of essential knowledge:   

1. Phonics – the key components of the sound-writing relationship 

2. Vocabulary – a set of the most frequently used words 

3. Grammar – the essential building blocks required to create simple sentences independently (including gender of nouns, singular and plural forms, adjectives (place and agreement), and the conjugation of key verbs) 

Our French curriculum is designed to enable our children to: 

· Develop linguistic and communicative competence 

· Extend their knowledge of how language works 

· Explore similarities and differences between French any heritage languages our children have, and English 

Time allocation (realistic yet optimal) 

· 60 minutes per week in total which include a 30-minute lesson and five mini follow ups (4 of 5 minutes, 1 of 10 minutes) 

The three strands  

· phonics and grammar repeat in Y3 & 4 and then again in Y5 & 6 

· vocabulary varies (so that lessons themselves are different)