Modern Foreign Languages - Spanish - at Belmont

How we teach Spanish (MFL) at Belmont School

Intent 

Our aim at the Belmont School is to develop the confidence and competence of each child in the foreign language they are learning. Our goal is for them to be passionate, curious, and confident about their own foreign language learning abilities when they finish the primary school phase of their education.

Spanish learning at Belmont School is based on practical communication and instilling a passion for language learning. Learning a new language is key to becoming part of the global community, and we ensure that our pupils have a solid foundation for this journey.  By the time pupils leave Belmont School, they will have mastered a range of skills that will support their future development:

• To be good communicators – language will be modelled daily to encourage speaking and listening including in Spanish. Pupils will develop the vocabulary they need to converse with other cultures as well as conversing in their home language.
•  To be enthusiastic, lifelong learners with a passion for other cultures and languages.
•  To understand how to keep themselves safe and be respectful in their communities by being educated on different cultures around the world and different languages spoken.
•  To develop their talents by being creative in learning a new language
•  To be independent, resilient learners who enjoy challenges faced when learning a new language.

Additional Skills for KST2:

• Ensure that each child in Key Stage Two has the opportunity to study Spanish as a foreign language over eight years, fostering their interest in the culture of Spain and the Hispanophone world.
• Teach vocabulary and linguistic structures informed by the National Curriculum and the skills expressed there in: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing (as well as Cultural Understanding).
• Enable children to ask and answer a range of questions about themselves, which would allow them to confidently address a Spanish speaker and exchange simple, personal information.
• Create opportunities for children to manipulate language for their own purposes, drawing on their knowledge of increasingly complex sentence structures.
• Teach children the basics of phonics in Spanish to allow them to spell in a phonetically plausible way and read and speak with increased confidence and improved pronunciation.
• Enable children to draw comparisons between Spanish and English vocabulary, using their knowledge of cognates and near-cognates to decode unfamiliar texts of increasing complexity.
• Encourage children to draw comparisons between Spanish and English grammar, syntax and sentence structure, both as a tool for developing their understanding of the Spanish language and their understanding of English.
• Give children opportunities to make, and learn from, mistakes in the target language, thereby building resilience.
• Develop children’s understanding of Spanish as a global language, and the reasons why it is spoken in countries other than Spain.
• Enable children to understand their place in the wider world and the concept of interdependence.

Implementation 

Spanish is taught mainly through oral and listening activities for KS1 with the addition of writing and reading in KS2. The current program of study has been amended by the MFL specialist teacher based on the scheme of work from the school, ensuring coverage of reading, writing, speaking, and listening and building in opportunities for children to revisit knowledge at varying degrees of complexity at a variety of points throughout the eight years of study.

Pupils are introduced to Spanish from the EYFS and receive a weekly 20-minute lesson, throughout their time in Year 1. This enables the pupils 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 45 minutes.

Lessons are sequenced so that prior learning is considered and opportunities for revision of language and grammatical concepts are built into lessons. Our lessons and resources help children to build on prior knowledge alongside the introduction of new skills. A series of lessons are suggested, providing structure and context as well as offering an insight into the culture of Spanish-speaking countries and communities. The introduction and revision of key vocabulary and grammatical structures is built into each lesson. This vocabulary is then included in display materials and additional resources so that children have opportunities to repeat and revise their learning.

Lessons across the Key Stages support the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing: 

• Children are taught to listen attentively to spoken language and respond, joining in with songs, rhymes and games. 

• Children have access to the Spanish website where they can find all the resources like video, songs, activities and games. 
• 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. 
• Hispanic Week enables the whole school to be immersed in the inclusion of the culture and use the language meaningfully in context. 

Impact 
Through the high quality first teaching of Modern Foreign Languages taking place, we will see the impact of the subject in different ways:

• Children will be provided with opportunities to communicate with each other in Spanish.
• Children will be given the opportunity to look at other languages – particularly if children are bi-lingual.
• Children will learn how language skills can be applied to a range of languages.
• Children will become aware that language has structure, and that the structure differs from one language to another.
• Children will develop their language through development of the four key skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.

 Children will enrich their language learning by developing an understanding of the Spanish culture. 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.

We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:

• Lesson Feedback

We understand that feedback in linked to progress and has to be timely to make an impact. In class feedback is used to support teacher’s workload, ensure it is as immediate and timely and specific as possible, and leaves the teacher time to focus on individual identified needs. In Spanish, immediate feedback is provided to pupils to support them in developing their skills and knowledge within each lesson.

• Summative Assessment

When a pupil has not met the learning objective there is timely support, so they are able to continue on the learning journey with their peers. The teacher adapts their planning for the next lesson to ensure there is time to address these misconceptions. In addition, the teacher supports the children with small steps to ensure progress of a skill.

• School reports

School reports are issued every half term as well as at the end of the school year. Spanish is marked as Working towards National Expectations, Meeting National Expectations or Exceeding National Expectations.