Spanish
Spanish Curriculum Rationale
At Ormskirk Church of England Primary School, we believe every child is a linguist. We want our children to develop a love of language learning that will open up a world of opportunities for them in the future. Through learning Spanish, we hope that our children will gain an awareness of how important it is to be able to communicate effectively with people from all over the world.
Curriculum Intent
The Spanish curriculum has been designed to teach children about other cultures and countries, whilst learning how to express themselves in another language. The goal for our Spanish learners is not to simply memorise long lists of vocabulary, but to develop the ability to communicate naturally and independently in a new language. Children are encouraged to use Spanish around school, outside of lessons, to develop the fluency and high-profile of the language that we want to instil.
We want all pupils to develop a genuine interest and positive 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. All pupils are expected to achieve their full potential by encouraging high expectations and excellent standards in their foreign language learning - the ultimate aim being that pupils will feel willing and able to continue studying languages beyond primary level. The intention is that they will be working towards becoming life-long language learners.
Year 6 children enjoyed having the opportunity to use their Spanish speaking skills whilst trying traditional Spanish foods, when their classroom turned into a café for the afternoon.
Curriculum Implementation
At Ormskirk Church of England Primary School, children are encouraged to develop a love of language learning from an early age. Children start learning Spanish before it becomes a statutory part of the curriculum, through the use of Spanish songs in Early Years and KS1, and pupils in Years 3-6 have weekly lessons with our school’s own specialist teacher.
Spanish lessons are planned around the Language Angels scheme of work, which allows pupils to progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge. Every lesson offers an appropriate level of challenge to each year group, to ensure that pupils learn effectively and continuously build their knowledge of and enthusiasm for Spanish. Children are given the skills and experience they need to confidently understand Spanish when listening and reading, and produce Spanish in speaking and writing. We supplement the Language Angels scheme of work and resources with other authentic materials to ensure that we offer a relevant, broad, vibrant and ambitious foreign languages curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety of sources. Lessons often involve reading authentic Spanish-language picture books and discussing Hispanic culture. As our Spanish curriculum grows, children are going to learn more about a wider range of Spanish-speaking countries to deepen their awareness of how the language is used around the world and how culture varies in Spanish-speaking countries.
Spanish phonics and grammar are incorporated into lessons to give children a thorough understanding of the language and allow for independent language creation. The four key language learning skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing are taught in an age-appropriate way across the primary phase. This enables pupils to use and apply their learning in a variety of contexts, laying down solid foundations for future language learning and also helping the children improve overall attainment in other subject areas. Children use Spanish exercise books to record some of their work. These move up with them through school, so they will have a bank of reference materials to help them with their spoken and written tasks going forward. At the back of their books, children are given the freedom to build a personal dictionary by creating their own bank of interesting Spanish vocabulary encountered in lessons. This bank of reference materials will develop into a reference library to help pupils recall and build on previous knowledge throughout their primary school language learning journey.
For an overview of how a Spanish lesson is structured, please click here.
Curriculum Impact
The organisation of Language Angels units directs, drives and guarantees progressive learning and challenge as children move through the lessons. Units increase in level of challenge, stretch and linguistic and grammatical complexity as pupils move from Early Learning units through Intermediate units and into the most challenging Progressive units. Units in each subsequent level require more knowledge and application of skills than the previous teaching type. Activities contain progressively more text (both in English and Spanish) and lessons will have more content as the children become more confident and ambitious with the foreign language they are learning.
In Year 3, children study the Early Learning units which start at basic noun and article level and work towards formulating short phrases. By the time pupils reach Progressive units in Years 5 and 6, 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.
Pupils 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.
Having all our Spanish lessons taught by one specialist teacher means that progression is continuous and informed throughout the year groups. The use of knowledge organisers in Spanish exercise books means that pupils can keep a record of what they have learnt from unit to unit and from year to year.
The opportunity to assess pupil learning and progression in the key language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) and against the 12 DfE Languages Programme of Study for Key Stage 2 attainment targets is provided at the end of each teaching unit in Language Angels. This is frequently conducted informally and informs the subsequent unit’s teaching, to ensure teaching is targeted and appropriate for each pupil, class and year group.
Children are expected to make good progress in their foreign language learning due to the frequency and length of their Spanish lessons. Ultimately, however, children are expected to develop enthusiasm and excitement for language learning, which leads to greater levels of attainment.
“We are given reminders of previous topics which my class finds very helpful. The class’s favourite game is where you name the colour of the bean bag. People love speaking Spanish instead of just reading it off the board.” – Ethan, previous Year 6 pupil.