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 curriculum should be coherently planned and sequenced so that pupils build knowledge and skills sequentially and cumulatively across the key stage meeting the aims of the National Curriculum. 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.

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.

Intent:
At Grange Junior School, we are committed to delivering a broad and balanced MFL curriculum that embodies our core values of resilience, nurture, respect, challenge, and safety. Through the carefully structured teaching of Spanish across the three domains of writing, reading, and listening, we foster resilience by encouraging children to embrace new linguistic challenges and persist in developing their language skills. The curriculum is thoughtfully designed and coherently planned and sequenced so that pupils build knowledge and skills sequentially and cumulatively across the key stage meeting the aims of the National Curriculum. We create a nurturing environment where all learners, especially disadvantaged pupils, those with SEND, those who are known (or previously known) to children’s social care and those who face other barriers to their learning and/or well-being (though carefully planned support and scaffolding), feel supported in their language journey and are given opportunities to build confidence in communication. Our curriculum promotes respect by deepening students' understanding of diverse cultures, traditions, and lifestyles, helping them appreciate the richness of the Spanish-speaking world and the importance of cross-cultural communication. We provide challenge by equipping children with the skills to hold meaningful conversations, express their thoughts, and ask insightful questions—preparing them for future language learning at secondary school. Finally, we ensure a sense of safety by creating an inclusive and supportive space where children feel encouraged to take risks in their learning without fear of making mistakes. By embedding these values into a clearly sequenced curriculum, we inspire curiosity, motivation, and a lifelong appreciation for languages, empowering our students to engage with the wider world with confidence and respect.

Implementation:

The MFL subject manager has carefully planned the long and medium-term curriculum for the school, ensuring a coherently planned and sequenced curriculum so that pupils build knowledge and skills sequentially and cumulatively across the key stage meeting the aims of the National Curriculum. Teachers are supported with high-quality resources that promote consistency and confidence in delivering Spanish lessons. Planning incorporates a range of learning mediums, including electronic presentations with sound files for pronunciation modelling, educational songs, interactive video content, and engaging activities tailored to different learning styles. This multi-modal approach ensures that all pupils, especially disadvantaged pupils, those with SEND, those who are known (or previously known) to children’s social care and those who face other barriers to their learning and/or well-being (though carefully planned support and scaffolding), have access to an inclusive and meaningful language-learning experience.

Our curriculum is deliberately structured to support all learners through task adaptation and active learning strategies—such as singing, movement-based activities, and kinaesthetic techniques—which embed vocabulary and grammatical structures in an enjoyable and memorable way. These methods are especially beneficial for pupils with additional needs, offering alternative pathways into language learning beyond traditional literacy-focused tasks. Repetitive phonological exercises are embedded throughout the curriculum, reinforcing knowledge and helping pupils build confidence in pronunciation and intonation before moving on to constructing sentences.

To make language learning purposeful and accessible, children are introduced to topics rooted in their own lived experiences—such as school life, hobbies, and family—before being supported to develop their vocabulary, apply simple verb conjugations, and construct increasingly complex sentences. Reading skills are built progressively by engaging with written texts, enabling pupils to extract meaning and make links between spoken and written Spanish.

As pupils move through the key stage, they encounter increasing levels of challenge, with more complex grammatical structures introduced in a scaffolded, well-sequenced manner. This includes subject-verb agreement, verb conjugation and the accurate use of gender and number in sentence construction. These skills are carefully layered to secure understanding and develop fluency, ensuring pupils are well prepared for the next stage of their language education.

Cultural capital is intentionally woven throughout the curriculum, with opportunities for pupils—especially those who may not otherwise access such experiences—to explore the traditions, customs, and ways of life in Spanish-speaking countries. This fosters , respect,  broadens global awareness, and helps develop the interpersonal and intercultural skills necessary to communicate with empathy and understanding in a diverse world.  By embedding resilience, nurture, respect, challenge, and safety into our curriculum, we provide every child with the opportunity to thrive in language learning, regardless of their background or learning needs.

Impact:

The MFL curriculum equips pupils with the confidence, resilience and enthusiasm to engage with language learning. Through a coherently sequenced curriculum and inclusive teaching, all pupils—especially those with SEND, disadvantaged backgrounds and any and all barriers to learning —make sustained progress in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Over time, they build the knowledge and skills needed for effective communication and future language learning.

Pupils also develop cultural awareness and respect for other cultures, broadening their understanding of the wider world. In line with the national curriculum, they learn to:

• Understand and respond to spoken and written language;
• Speak with confidence, fluency, and spontaneity;
• Write for different purposes and audiences;
• Appreciate a range of writing in the language studied.