French

From the outset of year 5, language learning at Cranborne Middle School is an important tool helping children to recognise the opportunities that another language provides.

“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

Building on basic words and phrases, pupils’ skills develop to include sophisticated phrases and sentences deepening their ability to communicate with another culture. It also supports and extends their understanding of their native tongue and its structures. Pupils transfer and link skills from other subjects into French. But it’s not just about French and its beauty as a language, it’s the cultural understanding that is just as important.

In Key Stage 3, pupils have contact with a French student of a similar age, which provides invaluable motivation and curiosity about their correspondents’ lives in France and how they are similar or different to their own.

To see the French Curriculum Overview, Click Here.

French Leaders

The French Leaders’ programme brings French culture to life. Pupils participate in weekly video-conferencing sessions with our exchange school as well as a one week exchange.

Each year, twelve year eight pupils are chosen as French Leaders. They show motivation and enthusiasm for language learning and are eager to communicate weekly with a French correspondant. Every Thursday lunchtime, French Leaders video conference with our partner school in Normandy alternating French and English weeks. In the summer term, French Leaders travel to France to stay with their exchange partner’s family and reciprocate the hospitality when our French friends come to Cranborne. French Leaders also help with other language-related events at CMS and in area primary schools.

Useful Links

BBC Bitesize French

The BBC Bitsize French pages have a wealth of resources to learn more about French customs, culture and literature.