Year 6
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Year 6

This year pupils will continue with French starting a course which will eventually lead to formal assessment at the end of Key Stage 3 (age 14). We are in the very fortunate position of being able to offer pupils the opportunity to continue learning French a year earlier than the legal requirement.
Throughout the four years during which French is taught at Perton Middle School, the department liaises closely with the other three schools in the pyramid to ensure a smooth transition at the end of Year 8. Pupils will be given plenty of opportunities to develop the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
The course book used this year will be Metro 1 and pupils will cover the following topics:-

  • Introducing myself, classroom vocabulary – Term 1
  • Nationality, family – Term 2
  • Pets, describing self, school subjects (if time allows) – Term 3

Much of the spoken work will be in the form of role plays using material from the text books or simple ones written by the pupils themselves. This will involve pupils co-operating with others, either in pairs or small groups. Practice tapes containing most of the vocabulary in each unit are available to allow pupils to practise accent and pronunciation at home. Pupils need to bring in a blank named tape and the vocabulary will be recorded onto it for them. They will also receive a transcript of what is on the tape.
They will perform simple written tasks most of which will be with help from written cues. From time to time pupils will be required to learn items of vocabulary and reproduce these from memory. This is a very important aspect of language learning (see No.2 below).
By the end of Year 6, the majority of pupils will be working at Level 2. Some will not have achieved this and will still be working at Level 1 whilst a few will have progressed towards to Level 3. Please bear this in mind when you receive your child’s end of year report.

There are several ways in which you can help your child, even if you do not know any French yourself.

1. Encourage them to teach you the things which they are learning in class. At the end of each year, pupils will bring home their Mes Progres booklet for you to sign. This details what they have learnt – please talk to them about it.
2. Help them with learning homeworks. Even if you do not know any French you can call out the words in English and ask your child to write them down in French.
3. If you have a video recorder, record some of the French programmes for school on ITV and BBC2 e.g. Le Club, 15 minutes, Top. (We could provide you with details of these if requested).
4. If you are able to spend a holiday in France or even go on a day visit, this can provide a valuable opportunity for your child to practise some of the structures learnt in class.
5. It would be useful if your child could have a 20 or 40 pocket Display Book, available from such places as Stationery Box, in which to store vocabulary sheets or completed worksheets. This can then be added to in Years 7 and 8.
6. We have a few copies for sale of the CD ROM En Route which accompanied our previous course, Route Nationale. Many of the topics covered are the same as those in the present Year 6 and 7 and if you would like to purchase one the cost is £10.00.
7. There are several useful websites your child can access which provide practice in the vocabulary learnt in school. These are:-

We hope your child will enjoy their language learning this year. If there is any other information you would like about the course in Year 6 please let us know.
Miss M. A. Jones
Co-ordinator of Modern Languages.