Curriculum Intent

Learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. A high-quality languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable children 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 children to study and work in other countries.

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

  1. understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
  2. 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
  3. can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt
  4. discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.

To do this, at Corpus Christi, we use a scheme of work from the Primary Languages Network to support our planning, delivery and assessment of spanish throughout the school

Implementation

In KS1 class teachers give our children an ‘Education of Ear’- listening to stories, learning songs and rhymes and having an awareness of another country’s culture in order to build confidence in the target language and develop an enthusiasm for language learning.

Teachers use a variety of the following techniques to encourage children to have an active engagement with languages:

  • Games – in order to develop vocabulary through repetition, reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
  • Role-play – these should relate to the situations the children may find themselves in the future.
  • Action songs and rhymes – to develop phonetic skills, memory skills and to further vocabulary.
  • Puppets and toys – to be used to develop communication skills.
  • Mime – to associate vocabulary.
  • Reading and writing quality materials
    ICT programs and websites; the use of ICT to develop communication skills.
  • We make the lessons as entertaining and enjoyable as possible, as we realise that this approach serves to develop a positive attitude in the children to the learning of modern foreign languages.
  • We build children’s confidence through constant praise for any contribution they make in the foreign language, however tentative.

We also aim to celebrate the culture of not only Spain, but other Spanish speaking countries. We ensure planning looks at areas around the world that speak Spanish. We also have ‘themed weeks’ celebrating all aspects of Spanish culture.

In KS2, children have a weekly 30 minute Spanish lesson, using the Primary Languages Network resources. This is led by the class teacher. We acknowledge that most teachers are not experts in this subject and so we ask teachers to use the ‘video to learning’ activities that feature instruction from an expert Spanish teacher. We feel that it is important that teachers present themselves as learners to the students to encourage all to join in. This session is supported through 5 minute refresher sessions throughout the week, recapping key vocabulary etc.

Impact

  • Children will be provided with opportunities to communicate with each other in the target language.
  • Children will be given the opportunity to look at other languages – particularly if children are bi-lingual.
  • Children will learn how language skills can be applied to a range of languages.
  • To make young children aware that language has structure, and that the structure differs from one language to another.
  • Children will develop their language through development of the four key skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.
  • Children will enrich their language learning by developing an understanding of culture.