At Brierley Hill Primary School, we believe that learning a foreign language is an essential skill for the modern world. Our CUSP (Curriculum with Unity Schools Partnership) French Curriculum ensures that pupils:
🇫🇷 Develop fluency in spoken and written French – Engaging with vocabulary, phonics, and grammar to build confidence in communication.
🗣 Master oracy and pronunciation – Learning through structured speaking, listening, and interaction.
📖 Apply reading and writing skills – Developing the ability to read and write in French with increasing accuracy.
🌍 Appreciate French culture and global perspectives – Understanding customs, traditions, and history through language learning.
🔁 Revisit and consolidate key knowledge – Ensuring retention and mastery through regular retrieval and practice.
Our ambition is that every child leaves Key Stage 2 with a strong foundation in French, ready to progress in language learning at secondary school and beyond.
The CUSP French Curriculum follows a structured sequence designed to ensure high-quality, research-informed language acquisition:
✅ Systematic vocabulary instruction – Building a secure knowledge of key words and phrases.
✅ Explicit phonics teaching – Ensuring accurate pronunciation and confident speaking.
✅ Oracy-focused learning – Encouraging pupils to speak French naturally and fluently.
✅ Reading and writing opportunities – Developing comprehension, grammar, and sentence structure.
✅ Cultural and geographical awareness – Exploring French-speaking countries and traditions.
This balanced, knowledge-rich approach ensures pupils gain both practical language skills and an appreciation of French culture
📅 French is taught from Years 3 to 6, with six blocks of learning per year.
⏳ Each block consists of five weeks of structured teaching, followed by a consolidation and enrichment week.
🕒 Lessons last 30-40 minutes per week, either as one longer session or two shorter sessions.
Each block is carefully sequenced, ensuring repetition, reinforcement, and progression. The curriculum allows teachers flexibility to revisit concepts and adapt lessons to pupil needsCUSP-French-Teacher-Han….
| Week | Focus Area |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Vocabulary and Phonics |
| Week 2 | Oracy and Speaking Skills |
| Week 3 | Reading Comprehension |
| Week 4 | Writing and Sentence Structure |
| Week 5 | Consolidation of Learning |
| Week 6 | Flexible content for retrieval and enrichment |
This structured approach builds linguistic competence over time, ensuring that pupils become confident French speakers.
🗣 Explicit pronunciation instruction – Teaching pupils the French sound system.
📖 Dual-coded Knowledge Notes – Providing visual and phonetic cues for vocabulary retention.
🔁 Repetition and revisiting of key words – Ensuring deep memory retention.
🎭 Role-play, conversation practice, and oral rehearsal – Developing fluency and confidence.
🎤 Structured speaking activities – Including “My Turn, Your Turn” routines for pronunciation.
👂 Listening tasks and comprehension questions – Enhancing understanding of spoken French.
📚 Reading short texts, stories, and factual information – Building comprehension skills.
🔡 Recognising key words, phrases, and grammatical patterns – Supporting fluency in reading.
🗺 Exploring French geography and culture through texts – Connecting language learning to the wider world.
📝 Sentence-building and grammar instruction – Developing structured, accurate writing.
🔄 Frequent retrieval of known language – Embedding knowledge into long-term memory.
🗣 Speaking before writing – Ensuring pupils hear and say words before writing them down.
This systematic approach scaffolds pupils' learning, allowing them to develop linguistic accuracy and confidence
A key aspect of CUSP French is its focus on culture and geography, ensuring pupils:
🌍 Learn about French traditions, customs, and daily life.
🎨 Explore famous French figures, landmarks, and historical events.
🛫 Discover the wider Francophone world – Exploring French-speaking countries beyond France.
Lessons regularly link language learning to real-world cultural experiences, helping pupils see French as a living language
Assessment in CUSP French is formative and designed to build pupil confidence.
📊 Key assessment methods include:
✔ Oral performance and pronunciation checks – Ensuring accuracy and fluency.
✔ Reading and listening comprehension tasks – Measuring understanding.
✔ Sentence-building and writing assessments – Developing written accuracy.
✔ Knowledge retrieval quizzes – Supporting memory retention over time.
Pupils are assessed throughout each block, with flexible content weeks used to revisit key areas where needed
CUSP French ensures all pupils can access high-quality language learning through:
🔹 Scaffolded instruction – Providing additional visual and auditory support.
🔹 Dual-coded Knowledge Notes – Reducing cognitive load and supporting retention.
🔹 Flexible teaching sequences – Allowing teachers to adjust the pace and content.
🔹 Use of gestures, role-play, and practical tasks – Supporting pupils with additional learning needs.
This ensures all pupils, regardless of starting point, can engage with and enjoy learning French
By the time pupils leave Brierley Hill Primary, they are:
🎓 Linguistically confident – Able to speak, listen, read, and write in French with growing fluency.
🌍 Culturally aware – Understanding the diversity of French-speaking communities.
🗣 Oracy-focused communicators – Expressing themselves clearly in a foreign language.
📖 Ready for secondary language learning – With a strong foundation for further study.
CUSP French ensures that pupils not only learn a language but develop the confidence and skills to use it in real-life situations
For more details, including:
📌 CUSP French Knowledge Documents
📌 Curriculum Overviews
📌 Pronunciation and Phonics Resources
Please contact our Curriculum Lead, Tom Amphlett, at info@brierleyhill.dudley.sch.uk