Overview

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. See our intent, implementation and impact policy here.

Our goal is for our children to become Spanish speakers.  Spanish speakers must: 

• Speak with increasing confidence; with good intonation and pronunciation
• Have the tools to develop their fluency in reading using their phonetic knowledge and understanding of word patterns.
• Have an ability to use the tools of grammar and understanding of vocabulary to begin to write independently. 
• Have a strong awareness of the culture of the countries where the language is spoken
• Have a passion and enthusiasm to learn languages. 
• Have the ability to use languages spontaneously and to communicate for practical purposes. 

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.

Attainment targets

By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study. Click on the link below to see our Spanish progression map.

 Newbold Spanish progression map

At Newbold, Year 3 are currently working through the early language scheme of work (Year 3 knowledge organisers).

Years 4 and 5 are working through the intermediate schemes of work (Year 4 and 5 knowledge organisers respectively), whilst addressing any gaps from the previous year (Year 3 La Fruta in Year 4, Year 4 La Ropa and Que Tiempo in Year 5).

Year 6 are working through the intermediate scheme of work (Year 5 knowledge organisers), whilst addressing any gaps from the previous years (Year 4 La Ropa and Que Tiempo). 

During the Summer term, lessons will be used to consolidate the learning that has taken place throughout the year in preparation for the next year of learning, ensuring any gaps in knowledge are addressed.

The aim of our Spanish teaching is to have all children accessing the correct year group knowledge organisers from the beginning of the year by 2023-2024 as we will have filled in the remaining gaps left by the disruption of Covid.

Subject content

In key stage 2, teaching will focus on enabling pupils to make substantial progress in one language. The teaching will provide an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and should lay the foundations for further foreign language teaching at key stage 3. It will enable pupils to understand and communicate ideas, facts and feelings in speech and writing, focused on familiar and routine matters, using their knowledge of phonology, grammatical structures and vocabulary.

The focus of study in modern languages will be on practical communication.

Pupils will be taught to:

• Listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
• Explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
• Engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others; seek clarification and help
• Speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
• Develop accurate pronunciation and intonation so that others understand when they are reading aloud or using familiar words and phrases
• Present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences
• Read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
• Appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
• Broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary
• Write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly
• Describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
• Understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English.

At Newbold Church School we follow the 'Language Angels' programme of study for Spanish to help ensure that children build solid language learning foundations at primary level, so that a passion for languages and subsequent linguistic successes will follow. 

Click on the links below to download a summary of what is taught in each unit:

Spanish LANGUAGE SKILLS GRID  for each unit, which show a clear progression of language skills taught

Spanish CORE VOCABULARY unit summary

Spanish EARLY LANGUAGE unit summary

Spanish INTERMEDIATE unit summary

Spanish GRAMMAR EXPLAINED units breakdown summary

Updated October 2024