Our Champion of French – Bonjour Belle
❝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
Learning a foreign language provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education fosters pupils’ curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world. Teaching enables pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language, both in speech and in writing. It also provides the foundation for developing pupils’ language skills, giving further insight into their own language, and starting them on their journey to potentially learn future languages.
We want children leaving our school to have high self-esteem, as well as respect and understanding for people from different cultures, lifestyles and customs. We want to expand their personal horizons, instil in them a love of learning and foster inquisitive minds, self-discipline and self-motivation. We want them to be flexible and adaptable, to think outside the box, to be good communicators and problem solvers. It is for these reasons that we teach a language to every child from Year 3 to Year 6.
Our Curriculum provides opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking, and read literature in the original language. Learning the structures of a language and how to think about languages other than English also primes children for developing the skills used in coding, as code is, in essence, another language.
French was chosen as it has a similar language construction to English and has had a significant influence on the development of English since the time of William the Conqueror.