"You live a new life for every language you speak. If you only know one language, you only live once."

 Czech proverb

Intent

Our Spanish curriculum aims to instil a love of language learning and an awareness of other cultures. We want pupils to develop the confidence to communicate in Spanish for practical purposes, using both written and spoken Spanish. Through our curriculum, we aim to give pupils a foundation for language learning that encourages and enables them to apply their skills to other languages, facilitates further language study and opens future opportunities to study and work abroad. Our Spanish curriculum aims to provide pupils with a firm foundation of language learning. For this reason, we have carefully planned and sequenced when to teach the three strands of a language system:

•  Phonics
• Vocabulary
• Grammar

Our pupils connect these building blocks of knowledge to create meaning in a variety of contexts, allowing them to develop their skills in the following strands:

• Language comprehension: listening and reading
• Language production: speaking and writing

Implementation

Throughout our Spanish curriculum, pupils are given opportunities to communicate for practical purposes around familiar subjects and routines. Our curriculum provides balanced opportunities for communication in both spoken and written Spanish. Pupils first develop confidence and accuracy with oral skills then increasingly apply their knowledge to extended reading and writing as they progress through Key Stage 2. The Spanish curriculum is a spiral curriculum, with key skills, grammar and vocabulary revisited with increasing complexity, allowing 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 curriculum 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. Each unit is based on a specific theme with a motivating end outcome which gives the children a context and clear purpose for their learning. Lessons are expertly adapted by our teachers to ensure that lessons can be accessed and enjoyed by all. To help pupils retain their Spanish learning, we provide information on incorporating Spanish into the classroom environment every day in the form of ad hoc speaking, whilst taking the register for example.

Impact

The impact of the curriculum is monitored continuously through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. After studying the full curriculum, pupils leave school equipped with a range of language learning skills to enable them to study Spanish, or any other modern foreign language, with confidence at Key Stage 3.

Pupils frequently evaluate their own and their peers’ performance, respond to feedback and recognise their own progress. Every unit has a unit quiz which children complete, the gaps are then analysed and inform the Review phase in subsequent lessons. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives.

The expected impact of following the curriculum is that children will:

• Demonstrate understanding of spoken language by listening and responding appropriately.
• Speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation.
• Apply their understanding of phonics to make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases and short texts.
• Be able to engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations (e.g. ordering in a cafe, following directions) and express an opinion. Be able to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt.
• Have developed a range of language detective skills to tackle unfamiliar words in Spanish, English and other languages.
• Use a bilingual dictionary to support their language learning. Be able to construct short texts on familiar topics.
• Meet the end of Key Stage 2 stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for languages.
• Develop a greater awareness of the wider world and an appreciation for the role of language learning in promoting cross-cultural understanding.

Assessment systems used in school check that pupils are progressing through the curriculum as intended at key points in time.