Curriculum & Assessment
Spanish
Spanish at Stillness
Intent
We believe that learning a foreign language provides an opening to other cultures and deepens our understanding of the world. Through our teaching of Spanish, we aim to provide children with a broad understanding of what it entails to communicate ideas and thoughts in another language.
The 2014 National Curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages aims to ensure that all children:
- Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
- Are able to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and that they are 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.
- Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.
Implementation
Lessons are taught in 30 minute weekly sessions and are often complimented with additional cross-curricular consolidation with the use of Duolingo or other consolidation programmes on Chromebooks. We follow the primary MFL scheme of work, ‘Lightbulb Languages’. Whole school celebrations like European Languages day enables the whole school to be immersed in the celebration of our multiculturalism and the versatility of the languages spoken within our community.
Each new unit builds on previous knowledge of grammar and vocabulary and every lesson includes a recap of previous relevant learning to help equip the children with context for their learning and give them the best chance of remembering through repetition. Children have access to their ‘Knowledge Organiser’ for each unit which allows them to view the key vocabulary and subject matter for those succession of lessons. This provides definitions and accompanying visuals for each word to ensure accessibility to all. This approach also means that children are able to understand the new vocabulary when it is used in teaching and learning activities and apply it themselves when they approach their work.
Knowledge and skills in Spanish are progressive from one year to the next and are mapped across the school, in line with the ‘Lightbulb Languages’ scheme of work.
The curriculum allows us to introduce the basics in lower Key Stage One such as numbers, colours, days of the week and how to introduce themselves. Then, as their confidence grows, we move onto topics such as family, animals, weather, parts of the body and food and drink. They then move on to Upper Key Stage Two where they deepen their understanding of more complex grammatical concepts, widen their vocabulary across a wide range of subjects that build upon their previous knowledge and begin to hone their pronunciation and conversational skills.
During the lessons children are taught to:
- listen attentively to the spoken language and show understanding by joining in/responding
- engage in conversations, asking and answering questions and expressing opinions
- speak in sentences using familiar language, phrases and structures
- develop accurate pronunciation and intonation
- broaden their vocabulary
Impact
Our aim is to act as a springboard from which our children may wish to pursue languages more deeply as they progress through their education and then beyond. We hope to help inspire children to access opportunities worldwide for study and work later on in life.
The teaching of Spanish in Stillness Junior School provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further foreign language teaching at KS3.
Year 3:
Year 4:
Year 5:
Year 6:
Beyond the Curriculum
At Stillness Juniors our learning goes beyond the curriculum and is supplemented in a number of different ways. We enrich our knowledge through workshops – some led by our wonderful parents, themed days, school trips, team sports, and afterschool clubs to name some. Head over to our gallery and our Instagram page where you will see a showcase of these activities.
