Spanish at Forest Fields

National Curriculum

“A high-quality language education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.”  National Curriculum, 2014, Appendix A.

Learning a foreign language is part of the Primary National Curriculum and is a requirement for all children within key stage 2 (KS2). At Forest Fields Primary and Nursery School we believe that the skills and knowledge gained through learning a language contribute to the development of children’s oracy and literacy. We also maintain that early acquisition of a foreign language is vital to foster lifelong language learning. Therefore, we have adopted an ambitious whole-school approach to teaching Spanish to KS1 and KS2 pupils, which goes beyond national expectations.

Intent

At Forest Fields, we believe that all pupils should develop key language skills as well as a love of languages. We strive to stimulate and encourage children’s curiosity about language and develop their awareness of cultural differences in other countries. The learning of a language is a crucial part of our curriculum, and our aim is to provide all of our children with a high-quality education in Spanish, our chosen modern foreign language.

Through our curriculum, we will strive for our children to…

• understand and respond to spoken and written Spanish from a variety of authentic sources at the level set out by the National Curriculum and beyond
• communicate by asking and answering questions spontaneously with fluency and increasing confidence
• understand and apply the Spanish phonics and speak with correct pronunciation and intonation
• master writing at varying lengths using the different grammatical structures
• understand the value of studying other languages for their cultural capital as well as for their future
• develop a love of learning languages and other cultures

Aims

We will help the children develop and demonstrate substantial progress in the 5 key language skills necessary for learning Spanish

• Speaking
• Listening
• Reading
• Writing
• Grammar

We aim to ensure that pupils of all abilities develop solid foundations in these key language learning skills - preparing them for the next stage of their language learning journey. These skills will develop children’s ability to understand what they hear and read and enable them to express themselves in speech and writing. We will extend their knowledge of how language works and explore the similarities and differences between the foreign language they are learning and English. We will also help strengthen their sense of identity by learning about other countries’ cultures and comparing them with theirs.

Implementation

Our MFL curriculum progressively develops language skills through regularly taught weekly lessons. This allows the children to acquire a new language and then use and apply it in a range of different scenarios and topics. We use the Language Angels scheme of work to support our MFL curriculum as it is in line with the recommendations of the National Curriculum and the requirements outlined in the Department for Education Languages Programme of Study for Key Stage 2.

The National Curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
• 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
• 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 authentic writing in the language studied.

By the end of key stage 2, pupils should be able to:

1. Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding.
2. Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words.
3. Engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help.
4. Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures.
5. Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases.
6. Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences.
7. Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing.
8. Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language.
9. Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary.
10. Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly.
11. Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing.
12. Understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.  

At Forest Fields, these skills are achieved through a variety of different teaching strategies:

• Explicit, direct teaching with subject-specific pedagogy supported by LanguageAngels PowerPoints and activities.
• Songs and Rhymes – The children are exposed to songs and rhymes already in Foundation and carry on learning with the help of singing all the way up to Year 6.
• Role-Play – The children are given real-life situations to practice their speaking skills.
• Practising reading and writing with quality resources from LanguageAngels
• Games – Using games in all areas of the curriculum to develop vocabulary through fun and engaging games.