Spanish
At Merryhills Primary School, the learning of a foreign language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our pupils. It helps children to develop communication skills and extend their knowledge of how language works. Learning another language gives children a new perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures and those of others.
Our chosen Modern Foreign Language is Spanish.
We provide age-appropriate Primary Language learning opportunities for children throughout the school. Our aim is to develop the confidence and competence of each child in Spanish so they are passionate, curious and confident about their own foreign language learning abilities when they finish the primary school phase of their education.
Learning Spanish
Spanish is planned and the majority of year groups are taught by a specialist Spanish teacher, and our curriculum is supported by the Language Angels Scheme of work and supplemented with a wealth of other resources. It reinforces the core skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing. Essential vocabulary is covered in all units, each unit recaps and consolidates the core vocabulary and then provides opportunities for the children to expand their range of language gradually. Grammar is woven into every unit. The lessons are designed to motivate, captivate and interest children from the very start. They have clear, achievable objectives and incorporate different learning styles.
Our whole school approach to language teaching and learning is in line with the recommendations of the National Curriculum and the requirements outlined in the Department for Education Languages Programme of Study for Key Stage 2.
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 authentic writing in the language studied.
