Worthington Primary School Spanish Curriculum Statement

Spanish Curriculum Intent

At Worthington, we are committed to ensuring that children develop a love learning language. We believe that learning a foreign language helps to foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. It also helps children develop skills that will open further opportunities later in life. The teaching of Spanish in KS2 provides an appropriate balance of the four skills areas (speaking, listening, reading and writing) as well as intercultural understanding, and lays the foundations for our children to pursue further foreign language teaching at KS3 and beyond. We aim to ensure that children of all backgrounds and abilities are able to access the Spanish curriculum.

Spanish Curriculum Implementation

Children are introduced to regular Spanish lessons from Year 3 and this continues throughout their time in Key Stage 2. This enables the children to develop early language acquisition skills that facilitate their understanding of the patterns of language and how these differ from, or are similar to, English. Although only statutory from Year 3, children in Early Years and Key Stage 1 also have exposure to learning Spanish. They look at how to say numbers in Spanish and learn songs and they are included in whole-school celebration days which aim to develop children’s cultural understanding of different Spanish-speaking countries around the world.

Lessons support the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing through:

• Children being encouraged to listen attentively to spoken language and respond, joining in with songs, rhymes and games;
• The development of an appreciation of a variety of stories, songs, poems and rhymes in Spanish that are delivered through the curriculum content;
• Opportunities to orally rehearse new vocabulary and join to form basic sentences;
• Applying skills in a written context, such as describing likes/dislikes, describing where they live, who is in their family etc;
• The use of bi-lingual dictionaries to find and translate vocabulary;
  The use of cross-curricular links in order to revisit, consolidate and make links with prior learning (e.g. shape and time in maths, grammar and word classes in English);
• The re-visiting of prior learning to help consolidate and embed subject knowledge.

Spanish Curriculum Impact

Children at Worthington enjoy learning a foreign language and develop an appreciation for how it can be useful in later life. Each year, they build upon their prior knowledge to develop a greater Spanish vocabulary, a clear understanding of correct pronunciations and the ability to read, write, speak and listen to Spanish. They develop their confidence to speak in front of others, as well as the security to attempt and refine the pronunciation of different sounds. Our children enjoy celebrating the cultural differences that they learn about through our Spanish curriculum and they are encouraged to view language learning as an attribute to be admired and valued. Most importantly, we hope that our children emerge with a positive view of themselves as language learners and a desire to further their understanding of foreign languages throughout their higher education and beyond. Feedback is given to the children as soon as possible, and marking work is guided by the school’s Marking Policy.