"KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGES IS THE DOORWAY TO WISDOM" - ROGER BACON

Learning a foreign language is a liberation from insularity and provides an opening to other cultures. 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.

Intent

Our Spanish curriculum aims to give children curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. It will allow children to express their ideas and thoughts in another language and to understand and respond to its speakers, both in speech and in writing. It also provides opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Learning Spanish provides the foundation for learning further languages, equipping our children with the ability to study and work in other countries.

Overall Aims

Our aim is to foster an enjoyment of foreign language learning from an early age and to promote awareness of the culture of other countries. Learning Spanish at primary level also increases confidence in Modern Foreign Languages at secondary school and beyond, providing a solid foundation for learning other languages.

Our curriculum aims for all children to

• understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources
• 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
• discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in Spanish

Spanish is introduced in reception and studied throughout the School. Children enjoy a variety of interactive activities that develop their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The children are encouraged to express their ideas in Spanish and learn new ways of thinking. We strive to develop every child’s confidence in language learning by encouraging them to join in with songs, stories, poems and rhymes in the original language.