This resource is used by every teacher in my department and it's all about getting over that motivation barrier in the very first lesson. There's a settling activity which requires them to consider where French is spoken (thereby giving them a reason to learn the language), then a few of slides about the expectations we have of them (these can be taken out if preferred, or amended to suit your needs). The first 'real' task required students to identify the same word in four languages and to group them accordingly. This shows students how similar many languages are and that once they have begun to learn one foreign language, learning another one is easy! It also introduces them to the concept on cognates. Following this there are three pictures with a short phrase in French. Where necessary there are a few items of vocabulary. Students are to translate the meaning of the phrases, using cognates, the vocab given and the context of the picture to help them. I emphasise to them that in their first lesson they are already showing that they can understand whole phrases and practising important reading skills. The next slide shows a sign in Norwegian and asks students to apply the skills they've just learned to translate it, thereby showing students that although they are learning French, the skills they are learning can be applied to any language. The final section of the powerpoint shows a number of amazing places around the world (an attempt to broaden students' horizons beyond the region they live in), interspersed with reasons to learn a foreign language. I ask students to make brief notes of these reasons and then at the end of the ppt to select the 5 reasons which are most important to them. We discuss these reasons briefly at the end of the lesson.

Eye-catching posters to be used as a visual aid for your students when conjugating in the present tense, plus a poster for the near future. The PDFs can be printed up to size A3 or larger, if you have the specialist printing equipment.

It's so important to be able to provide some extra for those Y7 students who've already learned some French, whilst the rest of them are still learning the vocab. I've put together a sheet which breaks down the greetings words and gets them to start using the vocab they've learned in other contexts.

It's vital to provide extension tasks for those new Y7s who already know some French, whilst others are still grappling with the vocab, so I created a worksheet to get them thinking about where the words for the days of the week come from and then asks them to work out the order of the Spanish and Italian days of the week too. The aim is to show them that by learning one language they will be able to understand a little of other languages too!

It's really important to be able to provide those students who've already learned some French at primary with something to do while the rest of the class are still learning the vocab, so I've put together a worksheet with 11 sentences in French describing something that happens in each month (except 1, obviously!). There is vocab to help the students work out the meaning. It's a good exercise in reading comprehension and in teaching students that they don't need to understand every word of something to be able to get the gist. The second exercise is about the circumflex and recognizing that there used to be an 's' in the word, which may help them to understand more vocab.

This aim of this resource is not only to provide something for those students who have already learned their numbers at primary to do, but also to get them thinking about the fact that the English language has many words of French origin in it and many words of latin origin which are shared by both languages. It explores words such as trio, unique, quadrangle, decade and asks students to link each word to a French number.

An authentic resource - an article from 1jour1actu.fr about the collapse of a clothes factory in Bangladesh with comprehension activities to help students to understand the article. I find that students are always really proud of themselves when told that the article has come from a real French newspaper! I don't tell them it's a newspaper for kids!

Included is a pronunciation table which can be glued into students' exercise books. I (or a student) select a section of the table at the beginning of the lesson and everyone has to answer the register with a word from that section. The repetition of a particular sound is helpful in reinforcing correct pronunciation and classes have confirmed that this has helped them greatly with their pronunciation. There is also a powerpoint which gives students tasks to complete based on the pronunciation table and a worksheet which can be set as homework. Finally I have included a set of spelling tests which are based on specific phonemes, rather than the traditional topics. These are also helpful when set occasionally, in helping students to focus on the link between sound and spelling. In terms of neuro-plasticity it is also helpful to give students something slightly different!

A huge crossword that requires students to revise all of the vocab they have learned in term 1 of year 7, including months, numbers, days and greetings. Students will have to consider their spelling carefully and spell words correctly if all of the words are to fit in. The first tab of the document contains the crossword and clues. The second tab contains a word bank for the students who need the most support whilst the third tab contains a slightly less comprehensive word bank. Obviously the most able students should not be given a word bank. Classes love the challenge of one of my massive crosswords and will happily spend the whole lesson revising in this way!

A worksheet which requires students to demonstrate that they understand a wide range of days, months and numbers, plus a few phrases for saying what the day or date is. Students identify the same word or phrase in French and English and colour both boxes in the same colour to show that they have matched them. Students may need to use patterns as a means of showing matched pairs unless they have a huge number of different coloured pencils!

An extension task which I keep on the wall of my classroom throughout the year. Students can go to the Challenge Wall whenever they have completed a task which the rest of the class are still working on. This task contains a text about the solar system and activities which will help students to break the text into chunks and begin to understand a great deal of it. A good way of getting students to practise their reading skills independently and a good way of extending their vocabulary.

A collection of resources to be used at the beginning of KS3 to help students to understand classroom instructions. There is a list which we use as a department to ensure that we are all using the same phrases, plus a student worksheet, a help sheet for students who are 'on red' (traffic lights) and an extension task on powerpoint for the more able.

I like to have one of these settling activities on the board as the students come into the classroom. It's part of their routine that they start on the settling activity as soon as they've sat down and copied the date and title. I find that it makes a calm start to the lesson and in addition it's an excellent opportunity to cover vocab or a grammar point that students haven't seen for some time.

I like to have one of these settling activities on the board as the students come into the classroom. It's part of their routine that they start on the settling activity as soon as they've sat down and copied the date and title. I find that it makes a calm start to the lesson and in addition it's an excellent opportunity to cover vocab or a grammar point that students haven't seen for some time.

I like to have one of these settling activities on the board as the students come into the classroom. It's part of their routine that they start on the settling activity as soon as they've sat down and copied the date and title. I find that it makes a calm start to the lesson and in addition it's an excellent opportunity to cover vocab or a grammar point that students haven't seen for some time. They may also contain words or phrases in other languages in order to show students how learning one language can help them to understand others.

27 settling activities that I use with Year 8 more able students. I find that a settling activity on the board is really useful in ensuring a calm start to the lesson, whilst offering challenge from the first minute. These offer an easy means of revising vocab and grammar points that are not frequently covered and therefore easily forgotten!

A useful resource to get students practising saying the phrases they've learned in their first term of French. Contains phrases about describing their house and where they live plus phrases about daily routine and school. The avoir être set allows students to practise a variety of phrases using these verbs in the present tense. Useful for vocab recap too. Give one domino to each student (if there are more dominoes than students give more able students two dominoes). The students with the domino that starts with 'Début' begins by saying the French phrase. The student with the matching phrase in English says it and then the French phrase that forms the other side of their domino. Keep going until the class reaches the final domino. To introduce a competitive element challenge students to get through the whole domino set in less than 2 minutes. The dominoes last longer if laminated before being used!

I like to have one of these settling activities on the board as the students come into the classroom. It's part of their routine that they start on the settling activity as soon as they've sat down and copied the date and title. I find that it makes a calm start to the lesson and in addition it's an excellent opportunity to cover vocab or a grammar point that students haven't seen for some time.

I like to have one of these settling activities on the board as the students come into the classroom. It's part of their routine that they start on the settling activity as soon as they've sat down and copied the date and title. I find that it makes a calm start to the lesson and in addition it's an excellent opportunity to cover vocab or a grammar point that students haven't seen for some time.