Bacon's College — A 68-page French book with grade ladders and core terminology built in

The brief

Bacon's College came to us for a French book that would do real work in every lesson — not just hold notes, but carry the references students reach for most often. The MFL team had a clear picture of where students get stuck: not knowing what the next grade actually requires of them, running out of connectives and opinion phrases when writing longer answers, and forgetting the grammar terminology they need to talk about the language itself.
They wanted those problems answered inside the book — a clear progression students could see at the start of the year, and a reference spread strong enough that students would stop asking for vocab sheets that get lost the same week they're handed out.
The cover and opening pages also needed to make the case for French itself — 220 million speakers, an advantage on the job market, a route into study in France — before students arrived at the first lined page.

What we designed

Working with the Bacon's MFL team, we built a 68-page French book with reference material baked in alongside the lined writing pages.

An opening "Why Study French?" page setting out the case for the language — 220 million speakers across five continents, an advantage in the job and tourism market, a route into study in France, and a key into international organisations like the UN and EU.
A five-step grade ladder showing students what each level looks like in practice — from producing simple sentences and translating short phrases at Grade 1+, through using two tenses and justifying opinions at Grades 1, 2 & 3+, all the way to four tenses, modal verbs, negatives and emphatic pronouns at the top of the ladder.
A French terminology reference spread with everything students lean on for extended writing — opinion starters ("Je pense que", "À mon avis", "J'aime…car"), connectives ("quand", "puisque", "pendant que", "bien que"), time expressions ("hier", "aujourd'hui", "demain", "l'année dernière"), prepositions, emphasis words, negatives ("ne…jamais", "ne…rien", "ne…que") and a full set of sequencers for longer paragraphs ("Tout d'abord", "Ensuite", "À l'avenir", "Quand j'aurai 20 ans").
A grammar terminology panel explaining the language students need to talk about the language — gender, tenses, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, agreements, the infinitive, connectives and interrogatives — each with a French example so the rule and the example sit side by side.
A French punctuation guide covering full stops, commas, exclamation marks, question marks, brackets, apostrophes and dashes, with a sentence in French illustrating each.
Lined writing pages throughout for class notes, positioned so students can flip back to the references mid-task.

The finished book

The book gives every Bacon's French student the same toolkit on their desk every lesson — the grade they're working toward visible at the front, the connectives and opinion phrases that unlock longer writing always within reach, and the grammar terminology they need to make sense of what they're learning.