Children at Balfour Primary School are taught French for half an hour each week.  We strive to introduce our young learners to a rich language environment in a way that is enjoyable and fun. We embed the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing which are necessary to enable children to use and apply their French learning in a variety of contexts and lay the foundations for future language learning.  It is intended that when children leave us, they will have a natural curiosity and the confidence to explore other countries, cultures and languages, accepting that in a multi-lingual society it is a valuable skill to be able to communicate effectively with others in another language. Children progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary organised around topics. We follow the ‘Early Start French’ online scheme to ensure coverage and progression across the school and draw upon native and/or fluent speakers to model the language, where possible.  New vocabulary is introduced using games, songs and role-play and units are covered over a number of weeks to allow for lots of repetition and practice.  Years 3 and 4 focus primarily on oral skills to build confidence, with a greater emphasis on reading and writing in Years 5 and 6.