Spanish
‘‘You live a new life for every language you speak. If you only know one language, you only live once.’’ – Czech Proverb
Purpose of study
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. It should also provide opportunities for them to communicate for practical purposes, learn new ways of thinking and read great literature in the original language. Language teaching should provide the foundation for learning further languages, equipping pupils to study and work in other countries.
DfE Statutory guidance – National curriculum in England: art and design programmes of study. Published 11 September 2013
Holland Park Curriculum Intent Statement for Spanish
At Holland Park school, the core language taught is Spanish, with the aim of fostering children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. The teaching of Spanish at HP aims to provide the children with opportunities to express themselves creatively and imaginatively in another language, and explore their own cultural identities and those of others. In turn, pupils will be able to apply and develop their knowledge of languages and language learning and gain enjoyment, pride and a sense of achievement.
Holland Park Curriculum Principles for Spanish
At Holland Park we are committed to ensuring our MFL teaching provides the foundation for learning further languages, as well as the means to access international opportunities for study and work later in life. The teaching of Spanish in KS2 provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further foreign language teaching at KS3.
How we are going to achieve everything that is set out in the curriculum
Children are introduced to Spanish in the EYFS and throughout KS1. Although they do not undertake formal Spanish lessons, adults will use Spanish in the classroom to give basic instructions and refer to familiar objects in the classroom. This enables the children to develop early language acquisition skills that facilitate their understanding of the patterns of language and how these differ from, or are similar to, English.
In KS2, each class has a timetabled Spanish lesson of 30 minutes (or the equivalent as determined by the class teacher) per week.
Lessons across the Key Stages support the skills of speaking; listening and responding; reading and responding; and writing:
- Children are taught to listen attentively to spoken language and respond, joining in with songs, rhymes and games
- Links are being developed with secondary schools and the aim is for children from KS3 visit to disseminate language learning to the children.
- Children develop an appreciation of a variety of stories, songs, poems and rhymes in Spanish that are delivered through the curriculum content, as well as by native Spanish speakers within the wider school community.
- We follow the primary MFL scheme of work from Language Angels, a cross curricular scheme of work that engages children from EYFS to upper KS2.
Knowledge and skills in Spanish are progressive from one year to the next and are mapped across the school, in line with the Language Angels scheme of work. Cross curricular links have been identified and the school’s own context is considered as part of curriculum planning, including, for example, how the grounds of the school and local resources can be used to enhance and enrich Spanish learning.
Language lessons will, on the whole, be taught in a discrete way from other subjects and not necessarily link to any overarching topic or theme. However, teachers will endeavour to plan activities that raise awareness and give pupils an increased intercultural understanding linked to languages and cultures around the world. Through these stand alone lessons children will build links to wider topics and other subjects. The children will learn to apply skills that allow them to inquire about other countries so that they can compare locations that will lead them to want to discover more.
Impact
Our MFL curriculum ensures that children develop their knowledge of where different languages, including the range of home languages spoken by the families of the school, as well as Spanish, are spoken in the world. Varied learning experiences ensure that languages are celebrated throughout the school community whilst providing a context for language learning and develop the children’s understanding of different cultures.