Intent, Implementation, Impact

Intent

At Ethelbert Road, the intention of our MFL curriculum is to develop an interest in and a thirst for learning other languages, which develops their love of learning about other languages and cultures and helps to provide them with an understanding of the world. We aim to introduce the learning of the Spanish language and the understanding of its culture in enjoyable and stimulating ways that is accessible for all. We embed the essential skills of listening, reading, speaking, grammar in an age-appropriate way and endeavour to develop children's curiosity as language learners, learning new ways of thinking whilst experiencing authentic texts and materials to enable them to develop their understanding of the hispanic world. We aim to build the children’s ‘culture capital’ so that they are aware of similarities and differences between cultures, are open to learning all about new cultures and develop a desire to be able communicate in a variety of languages. We hope to lay the foundations for future language learning for all as well as celebrate the languages spoken by all pupils at Ethelbert Road.

Implementation

At Ethelbert Road the MFL curriculum has been designed to progressively develop skills in Spanish as children move through the school - from Reception to Year 6. Our bespoke Spanish curriculum is cross-curricular where possible, linking with children's topic learning in other class subjects. It ensures that all pupils have the opportunity to develop key language learning skills (as set out by the National Curriculum). The principal objective is that all children progressively develop their confidence in language skills and gain a love of language learning in a way that is fun, engaging and age-appropriate, whilst recognising and embracing diversity and multiculturalism. 

Key Stage 1 pupils will:

• develop basic language learning skills through listening and actively participating in songs, rhymes, stories and games.

Key Stage 2 pupils will:

• understand and respond to spoken and written language.
• 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.
• write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.

Reception class lessons are 20 minutes every week. Key Stage 1 lessons are 30 minutes every week. Key Stage 2 lessons are 45 minutes every week.

A variety of teaching techniques enable children to be actively engaged in Spanish lessons at Ethelbert Road and develop their confidence in reading, writing, speaking and listening skills:

• Role-play activities - to encourage speaking skills
• Action songs and rhymes to develop phonetic skills and repetition of key vocabulary
• A range of games, which support the recall and acquisition of new language
• Access to high quality reading and writing materials.

Enrichment - We celebrate other languages and cultures through a yearly 'Language Day', which coincides with European Day of Languages celebrations on 26th September each year.  We also offer a lunchtime French club where children can learn to speak French. 

Inclusive - Primary Language teaching at Ethelbert Road is fully inclusive. Language learning activities are planned in order to encourage the full and active participation of all pupils.  Resources are used in order to remove barriers to learning, as appropriate to the needs of the individual. Paired and group work, with peer and teacher support have all proven successful in enabling all children to learn and engage with their Spanish learning.

At Ethelbert Road, we recognise the way in which learning a language contributes to other areas of the curriculum and the learner as a whole:

English 

The learning of a modern foreign language contributes to the development of our children’s listening and speaking skills. It also develops the children’s grasp of linguistic features such as rhyme, rhythm and emphasises the importance of knowing the role of different word types in sentence structure. As children progress in their Spanish throughout the school grammar and phonics are overtly taught, with much repetition and reference to the grammatical features of the English language.

Mathematics 

Children reinforce their time-telling skills by playing time-related games in the foreign language. We play many number games from EY to KS2, thus reinforcing their counting and calculation skills, expand their understanding of date, and increase their knowledge about money.

Science 

Many of the topics taught link to topics that are being taught in Science, for example in Key Stage 1 the theme of plants and growing is a lovely topic to bring in to our Spanish learning. Our body parts, animals and food topics are a fun way to encourage a cross curricular development of children's learning in Science.

Personal, social and health education (PSHE)

One of the main benefits to the children of learning a modern foreign language at primary school level is a social one. It gives the children the opportunity to learn about cultures from a different country. Spanish lessons regularly give children the opportunity to take part in paired/ group work and to have fun with their learning of new vocabulary and topics.

Geography

In MFL lessons children will learn the names of cities and towns in the Spanish-speaking world, using atlases and maps to support. The topic of weather is taught in KS1 and developed upon with more geographical language in KS2.  

Computing

Video clips, games and a range of programmes are used on the interactive whiteboard to support and engage children in their Spanish learning. A new initiative for Sept 2022 is that KS2 Children will be able to access Duolingo class-edition in their classrooms and at home.

Impact

Spanish is assessed throughout lessons and across topics using assessment for learning. This informs teaching, enabling appropriate planning for future lessons. All year group data is recorded in the teacher's feedback and marking book and  bi-annually on our whole school Insight tracking system.

Through quality first teaching across the school, the impact of Spanish can be seen in the following ways:

• Children develop their awareness of the structure of a new language and can recognise that structure varies from one language to another.
• Children will develop their communication and language through the four main skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.
• Develop their skills in the three pillars of language learning - phonics, grammar and vocabulary.
• Enriched language learning, which includes developing an understanding of the cultures of Spanish speaking countries.
• Children will transition to KS3 effectively; they are well-prepared and confident to continue to develop as a language learner at Secondary school and beyond.

The subject action plan enables the subject lead to monitor the effectiveness of the language teaching. 

Lesson observations, environment walks and book looks carried out by the senior leadership team and languages lead all ensure that quality first teaching and learning is consistent across the whole school.

Spanish is assessed using the ERPS progression documents, inline with the statutory requirements outlined in the KS2 Framework for Languages. The subject lead records assessment data against the learning objectives for the lesson and has a record of children that are emerging, expected or demonstrating greater depth in their learning, measured against the statements of progression and lesson learning objectives.