French is taught as a discrete subject in KS2 at Bitham Brook. The school has adopted the PLN French curriculum. The curriculum has sequenced knowledge and skills to ensure they are built on progressively as children move through KS2. The PLN language curriculum provides a strong language foundation that will also provide the foundation for learning further languages.

French plays a vital role in the curriculum. Opening children up to other cultures will help to equip pupils with knowledge and cultural capital; encouraging pupils to appreciate and celebrate difference.

The school choose to adopt PLN as it builds children’s acquisition of phonics and grammar while thinking about vocabulary acquisition. These are the ‘three pillars’ of language that were identified in the findings of the Ofsted research review into modern foreign languages.

French lessons at Bitham Brook build progressively through KS2 this should lead to greater success for pupils. A phonetic approach to learning enables them to sound out words in a foreign language ensuring that the building blocks for language are in place. During lessons teachers have an understanding that there is limited capacity in short-term memory to process information and that overloading it. In light of this, teachers build on previous learning with new learning embedded with what is already known and built overtime.