Year 6 French Residential to the Opal Coast – June 2026

In June 2026, our Year 6 pupils enjoyed an unforgettable residential adventure to the beautiful Opal Coast in France! Travelling by ferry, the children immersed themselves in French culture while enjoying a fantastic range of activities and experiences.

The trip was packed with excitement, from tree-top climbing and an action-packed water sports day, including kayaking, rowing and a thrilling triathlon, to visits to a chocolate factory and a local snail farm, where the children had the opportunity to taste snails! A highlight was our visit to Nausicaá, the impressive national sea centre, where we discovered the fascinating world beneath the waves.

Our evenings were just as memorable, spent on the wonderful beach enjoying the play equipment and taking a ride on the gigantic Mechanical Dragon! The residential was a wonderful opportunity for the children to practise their French, experience French culture first-hand, develop their independence and resilience, and make lasting memories together.Un voyage inoubliable ! 

Year 6 Trip to Paris

21st - 24th May, 2024

The date had finally arrived!  On 21st May, Year 6 left Hildenborough station for our much anticipated trip to Paris.  We were so excited as we travelled by Eurostar to the capital city.  We had to navigate the metro, which is very different to the tube in London and arrived at the Fiap hotel at 4pm.  There was lots of excitement as Mrs Glover announced our rooms.  We then unpacked and the adventure began.  We had a full on, exciting week visiting many incredible view points of Paris.  On our first night, we went to the top of the Montparnasse Tower. It was quite special to watch the sun set behind the Eiffel Tower.  On our second day we climbed to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and also climbed the stairs of the Eiffel Tower! We loved our visit to the Musee D'Orsay and enjoyed seeing the original paintings of so many well-known artists, including Vincent Van Gogh as we had been looking at these in class before our trip.  We also travelled by double decker train to the Palais de Versailles - wow what an incredible place.  When Mrs Glover told us we would be having a picnic in the gardens, we didn't realise how vast they would be! The relaxing boat trip down the Seine was a welcome rest.  It was especially fun to see so may of the Olympic stadiums being built during our trip.  It was such a good week that we will always remember.  Thankfully, we all have ten Eiffel Tower keyrings each to help us remember the memories! Our feet needed a holiday when we got home as we walked between 20,000-30,000 steps every day!

Jazzy Golds & Sam Cheshire

Head Students

French lessons and displays of work throughout school

The teaching and learning of French at Chiddingstone School

Through the study of a modern foreign language, children’s intercultural awareness is stimulated, leading to a curiosity and a deeper understanding of the world around them. 

At Chiddingstone School, our French curriculum promotes global citizenship by incorporating teaching about cultures, communities and people in France and in French speaking countries across the world.  Through this experience and making comparisons, children gain a new insight into their own culture and society; they learn new ways of thinking, recognising that there are different ways of seeing and interpreting the world, developing a truly international outlook.

The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources

• Speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation

• Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt

 • Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

At Chiddingstone School, pupils are taught to:

Our French curriculum is designed to be progressive, with fun and stimulating 45 minute weekly lessons for pupils in EYFS and Key Stage 1. A formal curriculum commences from Year 3 with hourly lessons covering the following core strands:

 • Listening

 • Speaking

• Reading

 • Writing

•  Phonology

 • Grammar

• Intercultural Awareness

In addition to lesson time with Mrs Glover, class teachers will work on regular practise throughout the week when appropriate. This may include calling the register in French, counting, singing Happy Birthday in French and other language skills that relate to class work.

The Chiddingstone School French curriculum is designed for pupils to: 

• Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding

• Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words

• Engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help

• Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures

 • Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases

• Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences

 • Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing

 • Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language

• Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary

 • Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly

 • Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing

 • Understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including: feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.

Year 6 residential trip to France

Between 2023 and 2025, our Year 6 pupils enjoyed four-day residential trips to Paris, exploring the sights and immersing themselves in French culture. We carefully planned our own itineraries to provide an exciting, engaging and exhausting (!) experience in the heart of the French capital.

In June 2026, we changed our destination to the beautiful Opal Coast to give pupils even more opportunities to speak French and experience everyday French culture first-hand. The trip was a huge success, filled with exciting activities, memorable experiences and plenty of opportunities to practise their language skills. We are already looking forward to our next adventure to France in 2027!