Modern Foreign Languages (Spanish)

A high-quality languages education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. At Colham Manor, we are committed to ensuring that teaching enables pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. We recognise that competence in another language enables children to interpret, create and exchange meaning within and across cultures.

The 2014 National Curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) aims to ensure that all children:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources

• Are able to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and that they are 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 writing in the language studied

Our Approach

We teach Spanish using the 'Language Angels' Scheme of Work. Each lesson is built around specific goals and subject themes so that pupils can develop their language skills as a series of building blocks. 

The three ‘pillars’ of language learning (phonics, grammar and vocabulary) are all built into our approach and, as pupils progress through the units and teaching types, previous language is recycled, revisited and consolidated and any new language introduced gradually becomes more complex and sophisticated. These three pillars of learning contribute to substantial progress in Spanish by the end of our pupils' time at primary school.

The four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) are catered for. Early Learning units focus on listening and speaking but still provide age-appropriate materials for reading and writing. As children progress, there is an equal focus on all four of the skills in progressively more challenging activities.

What Spanish Looks Like

We are committed to ensuring our Spanish teaching provides the foundation for learning further languages, as well as the means to access international opportunities for study and work later in life.  Children are introduced to Spanish from Year 3. The teaching of Spanish provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further foreign language teaching at Key Stage 3. Throughout Key Stage 2, children receive at least 30 minutes of Spanish teaching and learning every week.

Spanish is delivered through a spiral curriculum, with key skills, grammar and vocabulary revisited with increasing complexity, allowing our pupils to revise and build on their previous learning. Cross-curricular links are included throughout our Spanish units, allowing children to make connections and apply their language skills to other areas of their learning.

Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including role-play, language games and language detective work. Our teaching focuses on developing what we term ‘language detective skills’ and developing an understanding of Spanish grammar, rather than committing to memory vast amounts of Spanish vocabulary.

Children are taught to listen attentively to spoken language and respond, joining in with songs, rhymes and games. They develop an appreciation of a variety of stories, songs, poems and rhymes in Spanish that are delivered through the curriculum content.

Curriculum Celebrations

We have facilitated international residential visits to Barcelona. On these visits, children made some lifelong memories. Our pupils who attended also benefitted from maximum exposure to the language during their trip, providing constant opportunities for learners to use their Spanish in a real-world setting so that they see the benefits of learning a second language.

How Can I Support My Child's Learning?

You might like to support their learning at home by trying some of the following:

1. Learn alongside them: Find out the language they are learning and get them to teach you some key words and phrases. You may also wish to invest in a child friendly Spanish dictionary to look up further words.

2. Make it multimedia: 

• Duolingo is a free, fun and effective app to learn languages on. 
• Bitesize Spanish have lots of songs, games and activities to support the learning of Spanish.
• Bitesize languages have lots of activities linked to other languages your child may be interested in.