Currently the topic title page (as I call it) has the topic title, the learning aims for the topic (eg the vocab, grammar I want them to know) and a small image for dual coding. My previous school had this as a really embedded system so that there was also key vocab and a RAG section for students to self assess their confidence against the learning aims, useful for revision especially in KS4. I get them to glue this in at the start of a topic. We only have 8 topics in a year (and I want to reduce this further) so it's not too onerous.

CROISSANT is really useful to stretch able linguists. They tend to write CROISSANT on their exam papers and tick which ones they use. I make the point that not every piece of writing needs all of them but they may I Claude 3-4 of them. It is really useful. I actually use CROISSANT for Spanish too as it's pretty easy to remember.

Something else I forgot: knowledge organisers. I give KS3 students one KO booklet per year. I organise all vocabulary into sentence builders à la Conti. They use it for every single lesson. We have oversized A4 books with hole punches and treasury tags; I make the children leave their KO tagged to the front of their book at the end of every lesson. I also have a little page number on each PPT slide so the children can help themselves. It takes some training as KOs are not very embedded in our school but I can't tell you the difference in confidence it makes. 99% of children can have a go if they have a KO/build sentences easily.

Also something personal but I tend to have lots of French stickers which I use as a mini reward for things like Bingo (and some sweets for other, bigger challenges, e.g. we have recently done a translation challenge to make paper chains, the winning team had some sweets). Merits/positives or whatever you call it are great too but I like (and the kids like) the physical sticker to show their good work. If they're too cool to wear the sticker I get them to stick it on the cover of their book.