At St Peter's, we aim to inspire and equip our children to ‘learn to live’ happily and confidently, with an appreciation of the wide variety of languages, cultures and traditions surrounding them - not only in their local area but also across the world.  

We strive to develop an appreciation of the roles that tolerance, understanding and diversity play in everyday life, providing opportunities for children to explore the wonder of our entire world, developing critical skills to support them with this goal.  For this reason, children at St Peter’s learn French as a modern foreign language - taught every week throughout their time with us.  

'They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them'
(1 John 4:5)

Learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a fully inclusive member of society and provides an opening to other cultures and ways of life. We believe that a high-quality language education fosters children's curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world, promoting their role as a global citizen.  

A wide range of languages are spoken by children at St Peter’s, and each of these is celebrated and valued in its own right, with similarities to both English and French vocabulary regularly highlighted and discussed.  Through regular opportunities to engage in listening, speaking, reading and writing activities in our weekly French lessons, we aim for our children to develop a natural curiosity and confidence to explore other countries, cultures and languages - recognising the valuable skill of communication.  

As stated in the national curriculum for languages, we aim for all our children to:

• understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
• speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation
• can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
• discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

We strive to embed our values in all areas of school life,

promoting them as a guide for flourishing in life and learning.

As language explorers, we:

• CELEBRATE the richness and diversity of French language and culture.
• Show PERSEVERANCE by challenging yourself to learn and use new language.
• Demonstrate CURIOSITY by asking questions and exploring the wider world.
• Model HONESTY by expressing yourself truthfully and confidently in French.
• Show KINDNESS through respectful communication and support for others.

Our Learning Journey for French

At St. Peter’s, we use a programme of study called ‘Kapow Primary’.  Through our taught curriculum, we strive to develop a love for languages, preparing our children for the next steps in their lives.

Our children learn French from the start of their time at St Peter’s, predominantly through songs, rhymes, stories and games. Children are taught to listen attentively to spoken language and respond with actions and basic vocabulary.  Through engaging lessons, we support our children to have the confidence to speak aloud in French, using the correct accent, as soon as possible. As they move through the school, children will see much more of the written language and build on their early skills, allowing them to speak, read and write accurately.

Please click on the documents below for further information about our Languages (French) curriculum and progression.