Spanish at St John XXIII Catholic Primary School
We are excited to offer a vibrant and interactive Spanish curriculum designed to engage young learners and foster a lifelong interest in language learning. Our qualified instructors use a variety of teaching methods to ensure that all children, regardless of their starting level, can make significant progress in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Spanish. We believe that learning a new language opens doors to other cultures and provides our pupils with the tools they need to succeed in a global community.
Intent
All pupils in Key Stage Two at St John XXIII Catholic Primary School have the right to learn an additional language, the study of which liberates children from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. MFL lessons give children opportunities to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both verbally and in writing. They also provide opportunities to read age-appropriate literature and learn songs in the target language. Ultimately, MFL lessons at St John XXIII Catholic Primary School aim to provide a firm foundation for further language-learning, equipping children with the skills that they need in order to become life-long language learners, both for the pleasure that can be derived from doing so, and for the practical purpose of equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.
We teach a curriculum that enables our pupils to become effective users of language and show an understanding and respect of different cultures in our local, national and global communities.
Through the teaching of high-quality Spanish lessons at St John XXIII Catholic Primary School, we aim to:
- Ensure that each child in Key Stage Two has the opportunity to study Spanish as a foreign language over four years, fostering their interest in the culture of Spain and the Hispanophone world.
- Teach vocabulary and linguistic structures informed by the National Curriculum and the skills expressed therein: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing (as well as Cultural Understanding).
- Enable children to ask and answer a range of questions about themselves, which would allow them to confidently address a Spanish speaker and exchange simple, personal information.
- Create opportunities for children to manipulate language for their own purposes, drawing on their knowledge of increasingly complex sentence structures.
- Teach children the basics of phonics in Spanish to allow them to spell in a phonetically plausible way and read and speak with increased confidence and improved pronunciation.
- Enable children to draw comparisons between Spanish and English vocabulary, using their knowledge of cognates and near-cognates to decode unfamiliar texts of increasing complexity.
- Encourage children to draw comparisons between Spanish and English grammar, syntax and sentence structure, both as a tool for developing their understanding of the Spanish language and their understanding of English.
- Give children opportunities to make, and learn from, mistakes in the target language, thereby building resilience.
- Develop children’s understanding of Spanish as a global language, and the reasons why it is spoken in countries other than Spain.
- Enable children to understand their place in the wider world and the concept of interdependence.
Implementation
The current programme of study has been amended by the MFL specialist teacher based on the scheme of work for the Hackney Learning Trust, ensuring coverage of reading, writing, speaking and listening and building in opportunities for children to revisit knowledge at varying degrees of complexity at a variety of points throughout the four years of study. Lessons are intended to be active and highly focused, with children working as a whole class, in small groups, or in mixed-ability pairs to complete tasks at their individual level. Work is differentiated in a variety of ways to accommodate children in the same class who are all at different stages of their language-learning journeys. Activities consist of games, stories, songs, phonics, grammar and sentence-building activities, rhymes, role-play and dictionary work, to name but a few.
Children are encouraged to share their learning with parents, carers and other family members through the use of ‘take-home bags’ which are full of books and activities which can be used as additional resources to support learning at home.
Our ‘International Week’ offer children opportunities to focus on particular aspects of the culture of Spain and the Spanish-speaking world and use their language in a real-life context.
In addition to the study of Spanish, children have access to extra-curricular clubs in Spanish and French which enables them to develop their fluency in other languages and draw linguistic comparisons to deepen their understanding of Spanish.
Impact
Formative and summative assessment are used during Spanish lessons to ensure progress over time. Data gathered is recorded with the help of tracking documentation to demonstrate both attainment and progress over time as well as to identify gaps in knowledge in order to inform the planning of future lessons and units.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
In Class/Lesson Feedback
We understand that feedback in linked to progress and has to be timely to make an impact. In class feedback is used to support teacher’s workload, ensure it is as immediate and timely and specific as possible, and leaves the teacher time to focus on individual identified needs. In Spanish, immediate feedback is provided to pupils to support them in developing their skills and knowledge within each lesson.
Corrective Teaching/Summative Assessment
When a pupil has not met the learning objective there is timely support so they are able to continue on the learning journey with their peers. Teachers adapt their planning for the next lesson to ensure there is time to address these misconceptions. Teachers support the children with small steps to ensure progress of a skill.
Partnership
Teachers engage parents through September welcome meetings. Parents receive updates through the school newsletter on pupils’ learning in Spanish and also through the use of ‘take-home bags’.
Additionally, Year 6 pupils work on a termly basis Pen Pal project. This project is conducted in collaboration with CC Beatriz de Silva in Ceuta, Spain. The aim of the project is to develop their writing and reading skills as well as become aware of how children around the world learn different languages as part of a multicultural and multilingual world.
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