Spanish

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart. - Nelson Mandela

At Academy 360, we believe that the learning of a foreign language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our pupils. It helps them to develop communication skills, including the key skills of speaking and listening, and extends their knowledge of how language works. Learning another language gives children a new perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures, their own languages, and the culture and languages of others. As part of the National Curriculum, all Key Stage 2 pupils must now learn another language in school time. At Academy 360, we have chosen to teach Spanish to all children in KS2 to compliment the all-through approach taken within our school. Working collaboratively with the Secondary MFL Department, the Primary MFL approach is one which seeks to nurture the talents of the youngest linguists within our setting, building their confidence and fluency.

Intent

Academy 360 intends to offer a relevant, broad, vibrant and ambitious foreign languages curriculum that will inspire and excite pupils using a wide variety of topics and themes. All pupils will be expected to achieve their full potential by encouraging them to maintain high expectations and excellent standards in their foreign language learning. MFL teaching content will be continuously updated and reviewed annually, ensuring that the foreign language knowledge of our pupils progresses each academic year and is extended throughout their key stage two careers.

There are four key language learning skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Each of these will be taught, with all necessary grammar covered in an age-appropriate way across years 3 - 6. This systematic and progressive method of teaching will enable pupils to use and apply their learning in a variety of contexts, laying down solid foundations for their future language learning and helping them to improve their overall attainment in other subject areas. In addition, the children will be taught how to independently research vocabulary that they are unsure of in order to have a bank of reference materials to help them with their spoken and written tasks going forward. This bank of reference will develop into a reference library to help pupils recall and build on prior knowledge throughout their primary school language learning journey.

The intent is that all pupils will develop a genuine interest and positive intellectual and cultural curiosity about foreign languages, finding them enjoyable and stimulating. Learning a second language will also offer pupils the opportunity to explore relationships between language and identity, develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and the world around them with a better awareness of self, others and cultural differences. The intention is that they will be working towards becoming life-long language learners.

 Implementation

Spanish will be taught to all children in key stage two regularly, ensuring that they receive at least their statutory entitlement to MFL learning. The sequences of lessons, including given opportunities for the reinforcement and revisiting of prior learning will allow children to build upon their existing knowledge and skills. The foreign languages online programme, ‘Language Angels’, will be used to teach this. Children will progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge. Lessons are planned to provide appropriate levels of stretch, challenge and differentiation.

Staff will begin teaching using the ‘Language Angels - Early Language’ units. These are entry level units based on teaching pupils with little or no previous foreign language learning. Lessons in this unit are designed to run for 30 minutes. Pupils then progress onto Intermediate units. These increase the level of challenge by increasing the amount and complexity of the foreign language presented to pupils. Lessons in this unit are designed to run for 45 minutes. Children will then progress onto Progressive and Creative Curriculum units. These are the most challenging units and are suitable for pupils with a good understanding of the basics of Spanish. Lessons in this unit are designed to run for 45 minutes.

Children will build on existing knowledge gradually, as their foreign language lessons continue to revise and consolidate previously learnt language whilst building on all four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Knowledge and awareness of required and appropriate grammar concepts will be taught throughout all units at all levels of challenge. Children will be taught how to listen and read longer pieces of text, gradually, in Spanish and they will have ample opportunities to speak, listen to, read and write the language being taught (with and without scaffolds, frames and varying levels of support).

Each lesson will have clearly defined objectives and aims, incorporate interactive whiteboard materials to include speaking and listening tasks within a lesson and incorporate challenge sections that will be offered will three levels of stretch and differentiation. Reading and writing activities will be offered in all units and a grammar concept which will increase in complexity as pupils move from Early Language units, through Intermediate units and into Progressive units. Extending writing activities are provided to ensure that pupils are recalling previously learnt language and, by reusing it, will be able to recall it and use it with greater ease and accuracy. These tasks will help to link units together and show that pupils are retaining and recalling the language taught with increased fluency and ease.

Units are progressive within themselves as subsequent lessons within a unit build on the language and knowledge taught in previous lessons. As pupils progress though the lessons in a unit they will build their knowledge and develop the complexity of the language they use. Pupil learning and progression will be assessed at regular intervals.

Impact

Academy 360 will develop the teaching and learning of Spanish across key stage two, preparing children for future opportunities in Spanish-speaking countries. Each subsequent lesson within a unit directs, drives and guarantees progressive learning and challenge as the children become more confident and ambitious with Spanish. Early Learning units will start at basic noun and article level and will teach pupils how to formulate short phrases. By the time pupils reach Progressive units they will be exposed to much longer text and will be encouraged to formulate their own, more personalised responses based on a much wider bank of vocabulary, linguistic structures and grammatical knowledge. They will be able to create longer pieces of spoken and written language and are encouraged to use a variety of conjunctions, adverbs, adjectives, opinions and justifications. Children will continuously build on their previous knowledge as they progress in their foreign language learning journey through the primary phase. Previous language will be recycled, revised, recalled and consolidated whenever possible and appropriate.

Aims and Objectives

At Academy 360, foreign language teaching ensures that all children have the opportunity to: 

• 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;
• 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 studies.
• listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding; 
• explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
• engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help
• speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures;
• develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases;
• present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences;
• read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing;
• appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language;
• broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary;
• write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly;
• describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing; and 
• 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.