Our Spanish Lessons
 

At Our Lady & St Patrick's, children in Key Stage Two learn to speak Spanish, through dedicated weekly Spanish lessons.

We prioritise teaching children to accurately pronounce the sounds of the Spanish language, giving them the phonics skills required to enable them to decode new words they encounter.

Lessons are carefully planned to allow for progression in children's understanding from Year 3 to Year 6.  Our Spanish lessons are fun and engaging, with a key focus on speaking and listening, and covering a range of spoken and written work in Spanish.

During lessons, and in our planning, we aim to develop listening, responding and speaking skills, supported by the acquisition of reading and writing skills. 

Ultimately, we want our to children develop positive attitudes to other languages and, thereby, to other cultures and countries, as they grow and discover more about the wider world. An understanding of other languages is a key skill - for life!

Guide for Parents & Carers

Please click the document below, which is a guide to the Kapow Spanish curriculum for parents and carers. This document will explain children's learning journey and acquisition of Spanish skills and knowledge.

Pillars of Language Learning

There are 3 pillars of progression: phonics, grammar and vocabulary and the interplay of these pillars are the key to understand and speak a language.  Increased capability in the use of languages can promote initiative and independent learning and encourages diversity within society

In line with research conducted by Ofsted, Kapow Primary’s language specialists have identified three knowledge strands: phonics, vocabulary and grammar, and two skills strands: language comprehension (listening & reading) and language production (speaking & writing), that help children learn a foreign language.

These strands are known as ‘pillars’ and they are used to help children understand and communicate in Spanish, while also promoting cultural awareness of Spain and the Spanish-speaking world.

Planning & Coverage

This long-term planning document sets out an order for teaching Spanish in Key stage 2, using the Kapow Primary Spanish curriculum.

It also explains how our curriculum is structured, using our knowledge strands or 'pillars': Phonics, Vocabulary and Grammar. Building knowledge across these strands enables pupils to develop their skills of 'Language comprehension' (Listening and Reading) and 'Language production' (Speaking and Writing).

Developing cultural awareness is an important element of language learning and this long term plan document explains how following our scheme will help to build pupils' awareness of Spanish culture, including cuisine, etiquette and geography.

Kapow Primary's languages curriculum for Spanish is unique in that pupils develop their Language detective skills to support them in becoming independent language learners who can search for meaning when faced with unknown spoken and written language.

Progression in Knowledge, Skills & Vocabulary

This document gives an overview of how pupils' knowledge builds across the knowledge strands: Phonics, Vocabulary and Grammar.

It also shows how pupils' application of this knowledge is expected to develop in our skills strands of Language Comprehension (Listening and Reading) and Language Production (Speaking and Writing).

Finally, it shows some of the cultural awareness and understanding that pupils will develop when following the scheme of work.

Intent, Implementation & Impact

National Curriculum

In key stage 2, children must learn a foreign language. This document provides a clear demonstration of how Kapow Primary’s Spanish curriculum fully covers the statutory guidance outlined in the KS2 national curriculum for languages. Each lesson is designed to help pupils achieve specific national curriculum attainment targets, which are clearly stated within the lesson. The document is regularly updated and each lesson is hyperlinked for easy access for easy access.

Achievements & Events

European Languages Day 2023

Every year, we celebrate 'European Day of Languages' in school. This is always a fun and educational day in school, which the children really enjoy.

This year, on 25th September 2023, our children had lots of fun learning about the languages and cultures of a range of European countries:

Early Years - Poland

Year 1 & Year 2 - France

Year 3 - Greece

Year 4 - Italy

Year 5 & Year 6 - Spain

'International School Award' 2021-2022

Celebrating El Dia de los Reyes - ‘The Day of The Kings’ -  Jan 2022

On the evening of January 5th every year, Spanish towns and cities are given over to the colourful parades of the Dia de los Reyes, or the Kings' Day – a celebration of the arrival of the three wise men in Bethlehem after Jesus' birth.

For many families, Three Kings Day is as big a celebration as Christmas Day. It's customary to gather with friends and family to celebrate, often by opening gifts, playing music, and sharing a large meal together.

Working with a Spanish School

We have established a link with a primary school in Spain, which has given our children a real purpose for their new language skills, and is further enhancing their intercultural awareness and understanding.

For the last two years, our Spansih Teacher worked with our Year 6 children to make Christmas cards, celebrating Britain and our local area of The Lake District, to send to children in Spain.

This year, every class made Christmas cards with a British theme, and some children also made traditional, handmade gifts at home, to send to our friends in Spain! 

The Spanish children were delighted to receive our Christmas Cards, gifts and messages and have replied with lovely cards and messages of their own!

The whole school made Christmas cards and gifts to send to our friends in Spain! 

Vision Statement - Modern Foreign Languages

At Our Lady & St Patrick's, we believe that the learning of a foreign language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for pupils.  

Pupils develop communication and literacy skills that lay the foundation for future language learning.  They develop linguistic competence, extend their knowledge of how language works and explore differences and similarities between the foreign language (Spanish, in our case) and English.  

Learning another language raises awareness of our multi-lingual and multi-cultural world and introduces an international dimension to pupils’ learning, giving them an insight into their own culture and that of others.

The learning of a foreign language provides a medium for cross-curricular links and for reinforcement of knowledge, skills and understanding developed in other subjects. 

We will teach children to:

• 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
• 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  
• 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.  

Attainment & Assessment 

We use the ‘Framework for Languages’ as a tool for assessment, assessing the different strands of language learning on a termly basis.

We use the following documents (published above) to inform our assessment of children's learning in Spanish:

• Progression of skills in MFL (throughout Key Stage Two)
• National Curriculum year group expectations for MFL