Aims: 

The national curriculum for languages aims to ensure that all pupils:  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 the language studied.

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

Intent

At Grange Junior School, the intention of our MFL curriculum is to develop an interest in and thirst for learning other languages. We aim to introduce the learning of the Spanish language and the understanding of its culture in enjoyable and stimulating ways. We hope to embed the essential skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing. We aim to build the children’s ‘culture capital’ so that they are aware of similarities and differences between cultures. In short, we hope to lay the foundations for future language learning.

In the past Spanish has not been a priority at Grange Junior School, however we are working hard to change this, as we are aware of the huge benefits language learning provide.

Implementation

Our MFL curriculum has been designed to progressively develop skills in Spanish. We are currently using the Catherine Cheater Schemes of work to deliver our Spanish lessons. These ensure children acquire a bank of vocabulary organised around topics. They ensure development is progressive as they build on previous knowledge from units already studied.

All children are taught Spanish in a weekly discreet lesson. This is delivered by the class teacher or during PPA.

We are also focusing on Spanish outside the classroom. Songs will be learnt in Spanish during whole school assemblies and signs around the school will be displayed to make language learning more meaningful and give it a purpose. 

Impact

Through the high quality first teaching of Spanish taking place we will see the impact of the subject in the following ways:

· Children will become aware that a language has a structure, and that the structure differs from one language to another.

· Children will develop their language and communication 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.

· Children will transfer to KS3 effectively and successfully and will be well prepared to continue and develop their language skills