French Curriculum Overview
Welcome to French at Noel-Baker Academy
“You can never understand one language until you understand at least two”
Geoffrey Willans
At Noel Baker Academy, we ensure that all students experience a knowledge-rich MFL curriculum, which is thoughtfully sequenced by our subject specialists. Our Modern Languages team want to develop every student’s love for learning a new language which can help them communicate with others as well as learning about other cultures to enhance their understanding of the world. We want our students to have the opportunities to travel abroad and gain confidence by using a language. Becoming proficient in a language is a process which never ends; there is always more to learn and discover. We are also very proud to be the only state school in Derby to offer Latin which gives our students an insight to the ancient world and improves literacy by looking at etymology and word roots in Latin and English.
Year 7 Curriculum Overview
Unit 1: Introduction to French
Students learn greetings and how to introduce themselves. They learn French phonics and have a focus on speaking.
Unit 2: Art
Students learn colours and shapes through studying works of Art by French and Belgian artists including Claude Monet and René Magritte. Students learn how to form adjectival agreements and how to express their opinions about paintings by these artists with reasons.
Unit 3: My school
Students learn how to describe what subject they study at school and give opinions on why they like and don’t like school subjects. They learn to describe eat facilities they have in their school and describe their ideal school. Students also learn about differences in French schools.
Year 8 Curriculum Overview
Unit 1: My region
Students learn to describe where they live and what they can and can’t do in their area. They learn to give opinions about the place where they live and describe where they would like to live in the future. They also can describe their house with colours.
Unit 2: Sport and healthy lifestyle
Students learn how to describe what sports they play and why they like sport. They describe how often they play sports and why it is good for your health. Students also learn to say what they eat and drink and what they should eat and drink to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Unit 3 Life in Francophone countries
Students learn about daily routines to describe what they do using time phrases and reflexive verbs. They also look at differences in routines and customs around the French speaking world and make comparisons. Students also learn about different foods, drinks, customs and festivals.
Year 9 Curriculum Overview
Unit 1: Holidays
Students will learn to use past, present and future tenses to describe their holidays including which countries, transport, weather, types of accommodation and activities. Students will start to look at GCSE speaking questions and writing tasks which require all three tenses to be used.
Unit 2 : The environment
Students will learn to explain what they do in their daily routine to help save the environment. They will continue to say what you should do and not do to save the environment with extended opinions.
Unit 3 : Bonjour Paris
Students will learn about famous land marks around Paris and be able to describe them in French. They will revisit places in a town and will learn hoe to ask for directions. They will also look at larger numbers and be able to understand them and use them in role plays in shops, cafes and tourist attractions to help prepare for GCSE.
Year 10 & 11 Curriculum Overview
Assessments
Over the two year course, students study all of the following themes on which the assessments are based.
Theme 1: Identity and culture
Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest
Theme 3: Current and future study and employment
Students sit four papers at either Foundation or Higher tier covering four skills, all worth 25% each.
Paper 1 – Listening
Understanding and responding to different types of spoken language.
Paper 2 – Speaking
Communicating and interacting effectively in speech for a variety of purposes.
Paper 3 – Reading
Understanding and responding to different types of written language.
Paper 4 – Writing
Communicating effectively in writing for a variety of purposes.