Jane Wright, a teacher and languages adviser, was one of the first to join University of the West of England’s trial of content and language-integrated learning last summer.
She taught Year 4s at Christ Church CofE VC Primary in Downend about the Field of the Cloth of Gold, a three-week series of contests between Henry VIII and Francis I of France.
“To teach about the competition, the children made shadow puppets, following instructions in French. Then they jousted with the puppets, using simple sentences such as, ‘I am the King - I am strong,’” she said.
Later, pupils were assessed in English to make sure they had learnt both the history and the French.
Ms Wright said that, before the seven-week project, pupils said it would be “weird” to learn history in French, but afterwards one said it was “cool doing two things at once”.
