Spanish

^{Spanish at Wybourn Community Primary School}

^Intent

The Spanish curriculum at Wybourn contributes to our overall school ethos in enabling our children to leave primary school as curious, independent and motivated learners who are eager for the next stage in their education.  We encourage our children to develop their aspirations and an understanding of the wider world and other cultures.  Through their time at Wybourn we want our children to be confident communicators ready to continue their learning in the 21^st century as they embark on their secondary school journey.

Our school was awarded the foundation level for the International School Award and we aim for this to be accredited in the future.  Our language lead has also made strong links with a Spanish school. 

Aims

• To develop an interest in learning other languages.
• To introduce young children to another language in a way that is enjoyable and stimulating.
• To encourage children’s confidence and creative skills.
• To stimulate and encourage children’s curiosity about language.
• To encourage children to be aware that language has a structure and that the structure differs from one language to another.
• To help children develop their awareness of cultural differences in other countries.
• To develop listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
• To lay the foundations for future language learning.
• To foster an interest in learning other languages.
• To develop important aspects of the Wybourn life skills.

^{Implementation}

Organisation

Our language curriculum is designed to progressively develop children’s skills in Spanish, throughout regular taught lessons.  Spanish is taught formally in KS2 and informally in KS1.  KS2 children have a regular thirty minute lesson of

Spanish a week, in order to ensure progression and skills development.  Class teachers often use morning task time to consolidate and reinforce new and prior learning. Lessons are taught by the class teacher.

Children progressively acquire, use and apply a growing range of vocabulary organised around topics.  Children are encouraged and supported to develop their speaking and listening skills through conversational work, activities and games.  As confidence and skill grows, children record their work through pictures, captions and sentences.

Each child has an exercise book to record their learning. They start this book in Y3, which is continued throughout their time in KS2.  As the very nature of the Spanish scheme of work is practical and verbal, this exercise book is only a small representation of all the work covered and is used as a jotter. Formal pieces of work will be completed in this book.  Photographs of practical learning will be found on each class’ Class Dojo page.

The language lead is a language specialist.  Class teachers follow the Rachel Hawkes’ scheme of work.  Annually, we have a Spanish day across the school to raise awareness of Spanish culture and to raise engagement across the community with MFL.

Whenever possible, staff are encouraged to laise with staff at Colegio Puente (link school) to ensure children are exposed to the widest possible range of teaching and learning resources as well as experiencing audio and visual resources from native Spanish speakers.

^Impact

Teaching and Learning

There is a statutory expectation that all Key Stage two children receive a language education.  At Wybourn, this statutory expecation is fulfilled with Spanish being taught on a weekly basis throughout key stage two.
 

We strive to ensure that our pupils’s atainment is in line or exceeds their potential when we consider the wide range of starting points of all of our children. 

The Rachael Hawkes’ scheme used to plan and teach Spanish ensures that children are accessing work at age-related expectations, with regular opportunities to be challenged through higher-level objectives.  This is broken down into year group expectations in a separate skills progression document.  This can be accessed via the school network.  All staff are expected to access this document regularly in order to support the effective delivery of Spanish.

Children are assessed during each level according to age related expectations in line with the National Curriculum requirements.   

Comments with regards to children’s Spanish abilities are written in their end of year reports which are taken home.

Teaching and Learning Processes

Teachers   should   provide   balance   in   teaching   approaches   and   identify   suitable progression  in  understanding  and Spanish listening, speaking, reading and writing skills  across  Key Stage 2  to  continue  to challenge pupils.  Teachers should attempt to make links between units of work and encourage pupils to use previous knowledge in approaching new work.  Pupils  should  be  given  opportunity, where  possible,  to  use  ICT  to  communicate with Spanish peers and handle information. 

A variety of teaching methods best suited to activities and interests of the pupils will be used.

Resources

Authentic Spanish resources are accessible to all. Examples include well known children’s books such as The Gruffalo and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, menus, photographs receipts and games.  Staff can access a vast amount of electronic resources collated throughout and at the end of the Erasmus+ projects.  Collections  of  books  about Spanish life and culture can be ordered and collected from the Children’s and Young Person’s Library service.  Classes, Lower Key Stage 2 and Upper Key Stage 2 also have their own individual budgets from which they can purchase any resources they may need. 

Planning

Spanish planning is informed by the content of the National Curriculum. Staff are expected to follow the Rachel Hawkes’ scheme of work.  This information is developed by staff into Medium Term Plans, which is used to produce more detailed weekly plans.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The language lead  at  Wybourn Community Primary  School  is  responsible  for  monitoring curriculum coverage and will review medium-term plans for each year group on a half- termly or termly basis, as appropriate. Monitoring of classroom practice and children’s work  is  carried  out  by  the  subject  coordinator  through  an  allocation  of  support  and development  time.

It is also the role of the language lead to evaluate the success of the teaching and learning of language learning through:

• Discussions with staff and children
• Questionnaires for staff and children
• Learning environment walks
• Book scrutinies – individual and class books
• Regular reviews of children’s work and teacher’s planning
• Informal observations and drop  ins

SEND

All Key Stage 2 pupils are taught Spanish, whatever their ability. Spanish teaching is fully inclusive. It forms part of the school’s policy to offer a broad and balanced education for all children. No child is excluded by reason of a learning difficulty, or because they have English as an additional language.  Experience has indeed shown that such children can derive particular benefit from taking part in Spanish learning activities in which they may be less disadvantaged than in other areas of the curriculum. 

Language learning activities are planned in such a way as to encourage the full and active participation of all pupils.  Work is differentiated as appropriate to the needs of individual children.  Pairs and groups for collaborative work may be made up in different ways, depending on the task.

Individual class teachers are responsible for ensuring that the activities included in the lesson match the ability of the pupils in every group.  Some tasks will need to be extended as appropriate to provide additional challenge for more able pupils and others will need to be sufficiently adapted to be accessible for less able learners.  The language lead is responsible for providing guidance to other colleagues who might need suggestions about how tasks and activities can be adapted.

Differentiation

Teachers can adapt the planning and tasks to suit individual needs, differentiating to allow all to achieve, building self-esteem and fulfilling the aim to give all pupils the opportunity to experience success in learning and to achieve as high a standard as possible.

This is done by:

• setting common tasks which are open ended and can have a variety of responses
• setting tasks of increasing difficulty (not all pupils complete all tasks)
• providing resources of different complexities matched to the ability of the child
• using additional resources to support the work of individual children / groups of children
• using peer support by partnering pupil ability to complete tasks

Assessment

At Wybourn Community Primary School assessment is an integral part of the teaching process. Assessment is used to inform planning and to facilitate differentiation. Pupils’ work is assessed informally on the basis of observation during the lesson. This is particularly important for oral work. At the end of a piece of work, pupils check each other’s answers, particularly for a listening or reading activity.  Very simple comments may be made in the target language such as Bien, Muy Bien etc.  Verbal feedback is also given with examples of good practice shared to encourage and motivate. At the end of each session the children are encourage to self-assess using thumbs or the smiley face method. Teachers encourage children to reflect and identify areas where they achieved well and need more practise.

Training

Where  appropriate,  members  of  staff,  usually  the  language lead,  are  sent  on  relevant courses and attend regular local network meetings.  This is determined by the school management plan, the needs of individuals, year groups, the availability and suitability of courses offered.

Visits

Over the past seven years, as part of Erasmus+ projects, many staff members have taken part in week long cultural immersion courses in Santander at our link school, Colegio Puente III.  Our staff have visited the school on multiple occasions and the children have taken part in a range of exciting and immersive activities as a result of our projects ‘Broadening Horizons’, ‘Making Links’ and ‘Maintaining Links’.  A KS2 residential has been booked for the Summer term of 2024 and preparations are being made to further build upon and maintain this outstanding relationship.  To consolidate their language learning, children will put experience into practice when they meet their Spanish peers and gain invaluable experience and insight into the importance of learning and speaking another language in the 21^st century.