Spanish at Evelyn CP School

Intent

Languages are at the centre of our school of due to many different languages now being spoken by our children. At Evelyn we believe that the learning of a language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our pupils. We aim to build the children’s ‘culture capital’ so that they are aware of similarities and differences between cultures. In addition, children’s knowledge of how language works will be developed to lay the foundations for further language learning in future. We aim to prepare children for the KS3 language curriculum to enable them to transfer confidently and successfully.

Teaching and learning will focus on the building blocks of the Spanish language, phonics, vocabulary and grammar, following a curriculum in which the content is carefully sequenced and which has a clear, logic plan for progression in each of these pillars. Children will also develop the key skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing, as well as an understanding of the culture of Spain and other Spanish speaking countries.

We believe that learning another language gives children a new and broader perspective of the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures and those of others, which feeds into our whole school ethos where many religions and cultures are represented. We have chosen Spanish due to the interest and expertise of the staff within the school. Spanish is also the fourth most spoken language in the world and many of our pupils take holidays to Spanish speaking countries. Our feeder Secondary schools also offer Spanish teaching as part of their curriculum.  

Implementation

Children develop their love of language learning and develop skills throughout their time in school. In Key Stage 1, children learn key phrases within routines, such as greetings and classroom instructions. Key Stage 1 children are also offered a half-term of Spanish after school club. In Key Stage 2, children are taught in 30 minute fortnightly sessions by a teacher from within school who has a solid knowledge of the Spanish language.

The school uses the “Lightbulb Languages" scheme of work to support the teaching and learning of Spanish. This provides clear progression for the development of speaking and listening and vocabulary acquisition. Each lesson starts with retrieval practice of previously learnt phonics, grammar and vocabulary to support long-term memory development, before moving onto new content to build and extend language. Our children learn through active participation in actions, rhymes, stories, song, grammar focus, video clips, sentence structure, dictionary work, book making and many more creative ways to extend, embed and combine language skills.

Class teachers are present in classes during this time and this helps them to embed the skills of the specialist language teacher throughout the school day. This also provides additional help to children who require it and allows the class teacher to develop their own Spanish subject knowledge. Teachers are expected to recap on the vocabulary and grammar taught between sessions.

Impact

Through the high quality first teaching of Spanish taking place we will see the impact of the subject in the following ways: 

· Children will become aware that a language has a structure, and that the structure differs from one language to another.

· Children will develop their language and communication through development of the four key skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.

· Children will enrich their language learning by developing an understanding of the Spanish culture.

· Children will transfer to KS3 effectively and successfully and will be well prepared to continue and develop their language skills.

Assessment is formative and summative and is used to inform classroom practice and curriculum decisions. Our curriculum will enable pupils to learn Spanish so they can one day converse fluently; fully explore cultures and increase their economic prospects.