Languages

Languages

Modern Foreign Languages (Spanish) Subject Curriculum Statement

Intent

At The Icknield Primary School, we are very lucky to have a vibrant, increasingly diverse school community, with children whose origins are from different countries and heritages. Therefore, we greatly value the importance of language and exploration of culture and traditions throughout the world. As Spanish is our chosen modern foreign language (being the world’s most widely spoken language after English and one of the languages taught at the local secondary school), we enjoy learning and exploring the rich and vast heritage of Hispanic culture. We aim to give our children a love for Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) that continues into adult life. We aim to lay foundations to further language learning, especially as it stimulates language development, social development, and cultural awareness. We believe that ‘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. They learn to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It should also provide opportunities for the children to communicate for practical purposes 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.’ (The National Curriculum in England Framework Document (DfE) 2014).

Implementation

Spanish is timetabled for 30 – 40 minutes per week in Key Stage 2 and is taught by a language specialist. Lessons are well structured, and adherence to the Rachel Hawkes scheme of work which ensures that language learning follows smoothly from year to year throughout Key Stage 2, consolidating and extending the pupils’ learning. The scheme of work draws on key recommendations from the pedagogy review and the Ofsted languages research report, which highlight the three key knowledge strands: phonics, vocabulary, and grammar. Phonics and grammar are taught in Years 3 & 4 and repeated in Years 5 & 6. The vocabulary varies (so that lessons themselves are different). These strands underpin the development of confident communication in the new language, cultural understanding (exploiting everyday and rich cultural contexts) and creative use of language. Half-termly topics are similar across the four years of Key Stage 2 and largely focus on pupils themselves. The curriculum map shows each unit to be taught. This is supported by a progression of learning overview, showing knowledge and skills to be developed.
The lessons are informed by the Language-Driven Pedagogy Key Stage 3 scheme of work and resources, thereby preparing pupils for the next stage of their educational journey in learning foreign languages.
‘The logical sequencing of new knowledge, the spaced revisiting schedule, the explicit presentation and practice of phonics, together with the rich cultural input, frequent opportunities for spoken interaction and written production and familiar narrative thread add up to a curriculum that not only stimulates pupils’ curiosity, but really enable pupils to begin to express their ideas and thoughts in the new language and to understand its speakers, both in speech and writing.’ (Rachel Hawkes.com)
There are termly assessments and these, along with book scrutinies and pupil voice, assess the effectiveness of the pedagogies used and changes to implemented where necessary. Cross-curricular links include links with geography, in learning about the continents of Europe and North, Central and South America, as well as the culture and main religion in Spain and Latin America around Christmas, Easter and Halloween. Whole school Spanish days also include art and singing.

Impact

In line with the National Programme of Study for Languages at Key Stage 2, our curriculum enables pupils to:

• Listen and show understanding by joining in and responding
• Link the sound, spelling and meaning of words
• Read aloud with accurate pronunciation
• Read and show understanding of phrases and simple texts
• Speak in sentences
• Describe people, places, things in speech and writing
• Ask and answer questions
• Express opinions
• Write phrases from memory
• Adapt phrases to create new sentences
• Use a dictionary

Through this curriculum, we foster in our pupils a fascination for words and how language works, a wider curiosity about the peoples and cultures of countries where the new language is spoken and the foundational knowledge to support confident communication.

Our curriculum is designed to enable our children to:

• Develop linguistic and communicative competence
• Extend their knowledge of how language works
• Explore similarities and differences between the new language and any heritage languages our children have, and English.