Spanish
Spanish - Intent
At Weeke Primary School, our children are linguists! Learning a foreign language is a desirable trait for belonging to a multi-cultural society and provides a window to other cultures. At Weeke Primary School, it is our intent to provide language education which fosters children’s curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world. All pupils will be expected to achieve their full potential by encouraging high expectations and excellent standards in their foreign language learning. The teaching should enable children to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing.
At Weeke Primary School, the core language taught in Key Stage Two is Spanish. Our curriculum is designed to progressively develop children’s skills in languages, through regular taught lessons. Children progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary organised around topics. It is the intention that all children in KS2 have the opportunity to learn Spanish through songs, speech, games and other activities. It is our aim to make learning a new language fun and useful in the children’s lives.
At Weeke we use a robust and well supported scheme of work. For more information click on the link below:
Sample Long term Planning
Spanish Blueprint
Spanish - Implementation
All classes will have access to a very high-quality foreign languages curriculum using the Language Angels scheme of work and resources. This will progressively develop pupil skills in foreign languages through regularly taught and well-planned weekly lessons in Key Stage 2 which will be taught by class teachers
Children will progressively acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary, language skills and grammatical knowledge organised around age-appropriate topics and themes - building blocks of language into more complex, fluent and authentic language. All teachers will know where every child is at any point in their foreign language learning journey.
The planning of different levels of challenge (as demonstrated in the various Language Angels Teaching Type categories) and which units to teach at each stage of the academic year will be addressed dynamically and will be reviewed in detail annually as units are updated and added to the scheme. Lessons offering appropriate levels of challenge and stretch will be taught at all times to ensure pupils learn effectively, continuously building their knowledge of and enthusiasm for the language(s) they are learning.
Language Angels are categorised by ‘Teaching Type’ to make it easier for teachers to choose units that will offer the appropriate level of challenge and stretch for the classes they are teaching. Early Language units are entry level units and are most appropriate for Year 3 pupils or pupils with little or no previous foreign language learning. Intermediate units increase the level of challenge by increasing the amount and complexity (including foreign language grammar concepts) of the foreign language presented to pupils. Intermediate units are suitable for Year 4-5 pupils or pupils with embedded basic knowledge of the foreign language. Progressive and Creative Curriculum units are the most challenging units and are suitable for Year 6 pupils or pupils with a good understanding of the basics of the language they are learning. Grouping units into these Teaching Type categories ensures that the language taught is appropriate to the level of the class and introduced when the children are ready.
Children will be taught how to listen and read longer pieces of text gradually in the foreign language 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. Early Language Units (entry level) and Core Vocabulary lessons are designed to run for approximately 30 minutes. Intermediate, Progressive and Creative Curriculum units are designed to run for approximately 45 minutes. Units, where possible and appropriate, will be linked to class topics and cross curricular themes.
Children will build on previous knowledge gradually as their foreign language lessons continue to recycle, 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.
As pupils progress though the lessons in a unit they will build their knowledge and develop the complexity of the language they use. We think of the progression within the 6 lessons in a unit as ‘language Lego’. We provide blocks of language knowledge and, over the course of a 6-week unit, encourage pupils to build more complex and sophisticated language structures with their blocks of language knowledge.
Whilst the Spanish curriculum officially starts in Year 3, we believe that it is important for younger children to experience another language as this not only support their transition into Key Stage 2 but also their own lanaguage development in English. As a result, opporutnities to understand more about the Spanish language and culture may be explored through games, songs, taking the register and other cross curricular experiences as they move through the school.
Skills progression through KS2
Spanish - Impact
As well as each subsequent lesson within a unit being progressive, the teaching type organisation of Language Angels units also directs, drives and guarantees progressive learning and challenge. 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 of the teaching type categories require more knowledge and application of skills than the previous teaching type. Activities contain progressively more text (both in English and the foreign language being studied) and lessons will have more content as the children become more confident and ambitious with the foreign language they are learning.
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.
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. Teachers will have a clear overview of what they are working towards and if they are meeting these criteria. They will use the long-term planning documents provided in the form of Language Angels unit planners to ensure the correct units are being taught to the correct classes at each stage of the scholastic year. Short-term planning is also provided in the form of unit overviews (covering the learning targets for each 6-week unit) and individual lesson plans laying out the learning aims and intentions of each individual lesson within a unit. These planning documents ensure that teachers know what to teach and how to teach it in each lesson, across whole units and across each scholastic term.
Pupils will be aware of their own learning goals and progression as each unit offers a pupil friendly overview so that all pupils can review their own learning at the start and at the end of each unit. They will know and will be able to articulate if they have or have not met their learning objectives and can keep their unit learning intention sheets and unit core vocabulary sheets as a record of what they have learnt from unit to unit and from year to year.
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Modern Foreign Languages at Primary DfE Guidance on Modern Foreign Languages
What next for our pupils?
A proportion of our children in Year 6 go on to our local secondary school - Henry Beaufort. We work closely with our secondary schools to support the best possible transition not only for the whole children but to ensure their successful curriculum journey continues. This includes curriculum opportunties where we visit the school or we have specialist teachers come to teach our children key knowledge, skills and understanding. To gain a further understanding of the next step in our children's learning journey please visit Henry Beauforts curriculum pages. Here you will see how the Primary curriculum at Weeke enables the children to continue to make progress in given subjects.