Languages

¡Hola! 

“One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.” Frank Smith

At Christopher Pickering Primary School we have chosen Spanish as our language as there are over 400 million Spanish speakers worldwide, it is the official language of 21 countries and it is a popular holiday destination.  We are determined to ensure each KS2 child receives high quality MFL teaching so we chose to teach the children Spanish as this supports their transition into our local high schools that also teach Spanish.

Intent

‘A high-quality languages education should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching should enable pupils to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing,’ (National Curriculum 2014- Appendix A).

At our school we intend to use the Language Angels scheme of work and resources to ensure we offer a relevant, broad, vibrant and ambitious foreign languages curriculum that will inspire and excite our pupils using a wide variety of topics and themes.

We feel that the earlier a child is exposed to a foreign language such as Spanish, the faster it can be acquired. Therefore we intended to expose children in both KS1 and KS2 with the Spanish curriculum.

The intent is that all pupils will 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. The intention is that they will be working towards becoming life-long language learners.

The ultimate aim being that pupils will feel willing and able to continue studying languages beyond key stage 2.

Implementation 

In order to prepare our children for KS2, Spanish is integrated into the curriculum alongside other subjects in KS1. These sessions are delivered through songs and rhymes which are engaging and fun.

Children are encouraged and supported to develop their speaking and listening skills through conversational work, singing activities and games.

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 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.

Impact

Our languages curriculum will ensure all pupils develop key language learning skills set out by the national curriculum, as well as a love of languages and learning about other cultures.

Pupils will:

  • understand and respond to spoken and written language
  • 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
  • can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt

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 6-week teaching unit. This information will be recorded and will be monitored by the Foreign Language Subject Leader who can use this data to ensure teaching is targeted and appropriate for each pupil. Teachers will be able to record, analyse and access this data easily using the Tracking and Progression Tool that will monitor school, class and individual progress in the foreign language. Pupils will also be offered self-assessment grids to ensure they are also aware of their own progress which they can keep as a record of their progress.