All children learn French at The Russell School with weekly sessions using audio and interactive resources. They have the opportunity to listen, learn, speak and write in a different language. They also learn about the traditions, culture and geography of the country.

At the Russell School, the main intent in our language teaching is to provide our children with the opportunity to begin to learn a second language, as we consider this to be an increasingly important skill in our globalised society of the twenty first century. Learning another language assists in promoting and developing a broad, cultural understanding which further enhances our knowledge of the world and its diverse societies. Our language teaching provides a sound basis for further study and is anchored in our school values, promoting respect and cooperation.

Whilst our innovative programme of study reflects the national requirements for the curriculum in languages, requiring substantial progress to be made in one language across Key Stage Two, at The Russell School, a community of many languages and cultures, we believe that it is also important that all of our children are introduced to language learning through exploring other cultures and languages beyond their own. 

Our inclusive foreign language teaching enables the school to meet the National Curriculum aims for all children, helping them 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

● 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

Progression of Knowledge and Skills in Languages