Intent
Our Spanish scheme of work aims to instil a love of language learning and an awareness of other cultures. We want pupils to develop the confidence to communicate in Spanish for practical purposes, using both written and spoken Spanish. Through our scheme of work, we aim to give pupils a foundation for language learning that encourages and enables them to apply their skills to other languages, facilitates further language study and opens future opportunities to study and work abroad.
Kapow Primary’s Spanish scheme of work supports pupils to meet the National curriculum end of Key stage 2 attainment targets (there are no Key stage 1 attainment targets for languages). The curriculum aims to provide pupils with a firm foundation of language learning. For this reason, we have carefully planned and sequenced when to teach the three building blocks of a language system, known as our knowledge strands:
● Phonics.
● Vocabulary.
● Grammar.
Pupils connect these building blocks of knowledge to create meaning in a variety of contexts, allowing them to develop their skills in the following strands:
● Language comprehension: listening and reading
● Language production: speaking and writing
Ample opportunities are provided to ensure that children practise new learning across all four modalities. Our National curriculum coverage shows which of our units cover each of the National curriculum attainment targets as well as each of the strands. Our Progression of knowledge, skills and vocabulary shows the knowledge, skills and progressive vocabulary that are taught within each year group and how these develop to ensure that attainment targets are securely met by the end of Key stage 2.
Implementation
Through Kapow Primary’s Spanish scheme, pupils are given opportunities to communicate for practical purposes around familiar subjects and routines. The scheme provides balanced opportunities for communication in both spoken and written Spanish. Pupils first develop confidence and accuracy with oral skills then increasingly apply their knowledge to extended reading and writing as they progress through Key stage 2. The Kapow Primary’s Spanish scheme is a spiral curriculum, with key skills, grammar and vocabulary revisited with increasing complexity, allowing pupils to revise and build on their previous learning.
Lessons incorporate a range of teaching strategies from independent tasks, paired and group work including role-play, language games and language detective work. Our scheme of work focuses on developing what we term ‘language detective skills’ and developing an understanding of Spanish grammar, rather than committing to memory vast amounts of Spanish vocabulary. Each unit is based on a specific theme with a motivating end outcome which gives the children a context and clear purpose for their learning. Guidance for adapting the learning is available for every lesson to ensure that lessons can be accessed and enjoyed by all.
Spanish teaching may be completed by the class teacher or a covering member of staff. The scheme has been chosen as it ensures that whoever is teaching feels supported to deliver lessons of a high standard that ensure pupil progression. Each unit of lessons includes multiple teacher videos to develop subject knowledge and support ongoing CPD. Lessons include sections to explain key grammar and language points to the teacher before the lesson, together with key vocabulary and a pronunciation sound guide. Lesson presentations include sound files, allowing children to hear native and confident speakers and ensuring correct pronunciation. In addition, there is also a comprehensive series of phoneme videos to build teachers’ and pupils’ speaking confidence.
Impact
Clear learning objectives, taken from the Kapow curriculum, are used for each session. Teachers are able to have a clear measure to assess against, recognising whether an individual has met those objectives, exceeded them, or need further development.
The expected impact of following the Kapow Primary Spanish scheme of work is that children will:
● Demonstrate understanding of spoken language by listening and responding appropriately.
● Speak and read aloud with confidence and accuracy in pronunciation.
● Apply their understanding of phonics to make increasingly accurate attempts to read unfamiliar words, phrases and short texts.
● Be able to engage in purposeful dialogue in practical situations (e.g. ordering in a cafe, following directions) and express an opinion.
● Be able to identify word classes in a sentence and apply grammatical rules they have learnt.
● Have developed a range of language detective skills to tackle unfamiliar words in Spanish, English and other languages.
● Be able to construct short texts on familiar topics.
● Meet the end of Key stage 2 stage expectations outlined in the national curriculum for languages.
● Develop a greater awareness of the wider world and an appreciation for the role of language learning in promoting cross-cultural understanding.