What it's like to be a linguist at Excalibur

Year 3

Y3 pupils start with learning to count in French, to ask for and give basic information about themselves, such as their name and age and understanding classroom language. They move on to learn the words for colours and different foods. After also learning the days of the week they join in with telling the story of the Hungry caterpillar, "La Chenille qui fait des Trous". We also look at how Christmas and Easter are celebrated in France. In the summer term they work on a project and this year we've been studying the Olmpic Games in Paris, learning the French for the countries competing, the medals and the sports. 

Year 4

In Year 4 pupils build on their knowledge from Year 3 and start to increase the complexity of the language used. They start to write in sentences, including nouns, verbs and adjectives and include simple negatives. In terms of vocabulary they learn the parts of the body and create their own monsters, as well as talking and writing about a family and their pets. Pupils learn some hobbies and how to say what they like and don't like to do. They also learn the alphabet in French and start to use bilingual dictionaries to find the meaning of unknown nouns. 

Year 5

Pupils start Y5 learning about the buildings on a high street and continue to increase the complexity of their written and spoken French by including connectives and increasing their understanding of adjectives in French. They start to redraft and extend their written work. Vocabulary includes hobbies and activities and pupils learn to use the simple future tense to write an activity plan. Culturally we look at the diffrerences between French and English food and further develop dictionary skills. Pupils also use weather phrases to write their own weather reports and begin to include quantifiers and time phrases.

Year 6

Year 6 starts with the topic of school and pupils incresase their use of questions and negatives in French, and start to give and justify opinions. They continue to practice dictionary skillls and learn to use an online dictionary. We consider the differences between French and English schools and in our next topic between French and English homes. Pupils write a desription of an ideal house using all the grammar they have learnt previously to further increase the complexity of their written work. In the summer term they complete a bilingual project planning a trip to a French speaking country, which includes writing in the simple future tense as well as researching the climate, food and places of interest of their chosen country.