At Highfield Primary School, through the Spanish curriculum, we aim to encourage and nurture a genuine love for languages. We understand that learning a foreign language in primary school will lay a strong foundation to proficiency in learning further languages, both in secondary school education as well as throughout their life. By teaching our children the value and importance of learning another language, we will give them opportunities to explore other cultures, foster their curiosity, challenge insular behaviours and ultimately, deepen their understanding of the world.

We have selected Spanish as the Modern Foreign Language (M.F.L.) to teach our children, as it is the most widely spoken international language after English, as well as being most likely to be used by our children at this stage in their life. Spanish is one of the main languages taught in the secondary schools that our children go on to, so that they can continue to build upon their knowledge and understanding beyond primary school.

At Highfield, Spanish lessons are delivered to all children in the Early Years Foundation Stage, Key Stage One and Key Stage Two, as we are committed to ensuring that competence in another language enables our children to interpret, create and exchange meaning within and across cultures. We want to embed in our children, at an early age the skills that will open further opportunities for them later in life. The curriculum is intended to support our school community’s interests and to reflect the diversity of cultures that we celebrate.

Our Spanish lessons explicitly target the four main language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Through carefully chosen units of work, our children gain a strong knowledge of frequently used vocabulary, basic grammar rules and phonics.

We deliver a curriculum which is cumulative, and therefore provides explicit opportunities for revisiting previously taught content, throughout lessons. It is designed to be interesting and engaging, in which we employ such mechanisms as songs, poems and stories to aid memory and to assist with recall.

High importance is placed on giving children opportunities to speak Spanish and develop an accurate pronunciation. Teacher modelling, video, audio materials and, also, the extremely important and efficient small peer to peer conversations, help the shaping of their pronunciation as well as the confidence in using the language freely.

The children are taught to recognise sound patterns, shared roots of words and vocabulary that echo with words in the English language. Vocabulary is built upon gradually over time, to help them retain new words and information and to boost their confidence in using them.

In addition to the vocabulary, teaching children the verb conjugation of frequently used Spanish verbs, as well as the use of adjectives and their agreement with the nouns, will help our children understand the language structure and will enable them to form their own sentences and express themselves clearly.

In all three key stages lessons are sequenced so that prior learning is considered and opportunities for revision of language and grammatical concepts are built into lessons. Our lessons and resources help children to build on prior knowledge alongside the introduction of new skills. A series of lessons, provide structure and context as well as offering an insight into the culture of Spanish-speaking countries, their communities and significant people. The introduction and revision of key vocabulary and grammatical structures is built into each lesson. This vocabulary is then included in display materials and additional resources so that children have opportunities to repeat and revise their learning.

Our Spanish teaching supports learners to make progress and empowers them to feel resilient and enthusiastic about learning the language. The children are encouraged to self-assess their Spanish learning and reflect upon their next steps. Meanwhile, the teacher monitors assessment in a range of ways, including observation of participation levels, engagement, pronunciation and written work. Assessment then informs planning to promote progress in developing language skills.

Ultimately, our Spanish curriculum has been designed to inspire a love of learning and respect and tolerance for one another, by expanding their horizons to other countries, cultures and people. Our aim is for our children to grow as curious, confident and reflective language learners. To provide them with a foundation, that will equip them for further language studies in their next educational setting. We want our children to leave Highfield with a curiosity to study other cultures and with a deep fascination for learning other languages, so that they can be active members of their communities, in a diverse and multilingual world.