Spanish(Español) 

‘We want our young people to grow up with the language skills they need in order to speak to the hearts of people around the world, to compete effectively in a global economy, and to contribute as global citizens.’ British Council

INTENT         

What do we teach? Why do we teach it? 

Bienvenidos a español! Welcome to Spanish!

As a school in which many of our children speak more than one language, we recognise the importance of learning a modern foreign language. At Sir Thomas Abney, Spanish is taught to all children in Year 2, and Key Stage Two for a minimum of 30 minutes every week.  We aim to provide an engaging curriculum that will develop the children’s love of learning another language and will ensure that they have a good understanding of Spanish culture. Opportunities are provided to inspire children to become confident in the four key skills of: speaking, listening, reading and writing. The Spanish curriculum is creative and fun; focusing on teaching the language through games, songs and lots of practice of speaking Spanish. Children will acquire, use and apply a growing bank of vocabulary and key phrases organised around key topics: polite words and phrases, salutations, numbers, colours, feelings, animals, classroom instructions, families, food and drink and hobbies.

We have an annual ‘Spanish Day’ in the summer term during which we get excited about all things Spanish and organise a wealth of activities, including playing Spanish games, making Spanish food and watching a Spanish flamenco performance.

IMPLEMENTATION

How do we teach and assess and how does this look in practice?

Children will be taught how to:

• 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;
• 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.
• develop curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world and their role as a global citizen;
• Develop curiosity to learn foreign languages;

For more details, please also see: Modern Foreign Language National Curriculum 

IMPACT

By the time our children leave our school they will be:

Enthusiastic linguists who confidently share their developing understanding of Spanish. They will be confident to take risks in speaking, listening, reading and writing across the Spanish curriculum. They will enjoy engaging in activities in which they learn about Spanish culture and traditions and they will recognise the importance of learning different languages as part of a globalised world.