MFL Intent

At East Boldon Junior School, the Modern Foreign Languages curriculum aims to inspire a love of learning, broaden pupils’ understanding of the world, and prepare them to become confident global citizens. In French, we want pupils to experience the joy of discovering a new language and to understand its value in communication, culture, and future opportunities. Our intent is to: Develop pupils’ independence and resilience, encouraging them to persevere when faced with new vocabulary, unfamiliar pronunciation, or challenging grammatical structures. Ensure all children strive to “Be the best that we can be,” aligning the MFL curriculum with our whole-school ethos of ambition, self-belief, and personal growth. Build secure foundations in listening, speaking, reading, and writing French, enabling pupils to communicate with increasing accuracy and confidence. Provide rich opportunities for pupils to explore French culture, traditions, and daily life, helping them appreciate diversity and develop curiosity about the world. Prepare pupils for future learning by establishing strong core knowledge of phonics, vocabulary, and sentence structure that will support transition into KS3.

MFL Implementation

To achieve our intent, French is taught through a structured, progressive curriculum that builds systematically from Year 3 to Year 6. Our approach is: Interactive and Engaging Lessons include songs, stories, games, role-play, and practical speaking activities. Pupils are encouraged to use French actively and purposefully in real-life contexts. Phonics-Led Key French phonemes are explicitly taught to develop confident and accurate pronunciation. Regular revisiting of sounds supports long-term retention. Progressive and Structured Vocabulary, grammar, and language skills build year-on-year, allowing pupils to deepen knowledge progressively. Repetition and retrieval practice are embedded across lessons. Supportive of Independence Pupils learn to use bilingual dictionaries, vocabulary banks, sentence starters, and model texts to help them work independently. Tasks are scaffolded with opportunities to stretch pupils as confidence grows. Culturally Rich Each unit includes cultural elements such as French festivals, daily routines, traditional foods, famous landmarks, and francophone stories. Pupils compare aspects of life in France with their own experiences. Celebratory and Collaborative Pupils share learning through assemblies, performances, class displays, and mini-conversations. Success is celebrated, reinforcing confidence and motivation.

MFL Impact

By the time pupils leave Year 6, they will: Demonstrate enthusiasm, confidence, and curiosity about learning French. Show resilience by attempting new language with increasing independence and without fear of making mistakes. Understand and respond to simple spoken and written French across a range of familiar topics. Speak French with growing accuracy, especially in pronunciation and intonation. Write short phrases and sentences using taught vocabulary and grammatical structures. Exhibit knowledge of key grammar features such as gender, simple verb forms, adjectives and cognates. Have a secure awareness of French culture and an appreciation for the value of multilingualism. Be well-prepared for KS3 language learning, equipped with strong foundations and a positive mindset towards becoming successful linguists.

MFL Intent

MFL Implementation

MFL Impact

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.” - Nelson Mandela

“To have another language is to possess a second soul.” - Charlemagne

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Modern Foreign Languages (French)