The 3 I’s Spanish

At Fawbert and Barnard’s, we are beginning a journey of learning the language of Spanish. We began our journey in 2019/20 where Years 3-6 began the first Year of Spanish. Over the next 3 years, we will be developing our Spanish curriculum ensuring children learn the fundamentals skills.

Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.

Intent:

At Fawbert and Barnard’s, the intention of our Modern Foreign Language (MFL) curriculum is to develop an interest in and thirst for learning other languages. We aim to introduce the learning of the Spanish language in an enjoyable and stimulating ways. We hope to embed the essential skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing. We aim to build the children’s ‘culture capital’ so that they are aware of similarities and differences between cultures. In short, we hope to lay the foundations for future language learning.  Using pupil voice, the language was chosen as pupils wanted to learn a language they could use on their holidays.

We teach a curriculum that enables children to become confident in MFL by:
• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
• Are able to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and that they are 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.

A high-quality languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. At Fawbert and Barnard’s Primary School, we are committed to ensuring that competence in another language enables children to interpret, create and exchange meaning within and across cultures. It also helps children develop skills that will open further opportunities later in life. The teaching of Spanish in KS2 provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further foreign language teaching at KS3.

Implementation:

·      The language chosen to be taught is Spanish and it is currently taught once a week for approximately 30 minutes in each Key Stage 2 class. Previously, children were learning mandarin therefore we are on a journey with our school to ensure children are able to meet the progression below.  For the next few years, children may be following a progression in a different year group as they have not had previous learning on this language.

·      At the start of each lesson, previous vocabulary is reviewed, modelled by the teacher and then practised by the children. New words/ phrases are introduced orally in both English and Spanish, with supporting visual resources. Children then record and practise this new learning in a variety of ways depending on ability - orally and/ or in writing. 

·      Continuous assessment takes place during each lesson and challenges extended/ simplified where needed.

·      The scheme of work has 4 main topics (introduction, family, food and school) that are taught through the academic year across KS2. In upper KS2 year groups students will learn more complex contents in each topic because they have been learning the language for longer in comparison to students in lower KS2. This organisation alloys the teacher to recap contents taught in previous years and continue building on prior knowledge.

Impact:

Our Spanish curriculum is planned to demonstrate progression. If children are keeping up with the curriculum, they are deemed to be making good or better progress. In addition, we measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:  

·      A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes; 

·      Children can understand and apply the fundamental principles and concepts of learning a new language, pronunciation, reading and writing sentences as well as being confident to have a short conversation in Spanish;

·      A celebration of learning for each term which demonstrates progression across the school;  

·      Pupil discussions about their learning.