Spanish Intent

At Cowbit St Mary’s Church of England Primary School, we aim to provide all of our children in Key Stage 2 with a high-quality education in Modern Foreign Languages (MFL). We firmly believe that learning a foreign language is a necessary part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to understanding other cultures within our world.

Furthermore, we believe that learning a modern foreign language fosters children's curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world they live in therefore providing a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our pupils as well as supporting our work on British Values. Our chosen language is Spanish, which is taught through the comprehensive and progressive ‘Language Angels’ scheme in Key Stage 2.

Our aim is for all of our pupils to develop a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages, finding them enjoyable and stimulating. Learning a second language will also offer pupils the opportunity to explore relationships between language and identity, develop a deeper understanding of other cultures and the world around them with a better awareness of self, others and cultural differences.

The Language Angels Curriculum is structured in units, separated into three Teaching Types:

• Early Language

• Intermediate

• Progressive

Within the scheme of work, the four key language learning skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) are taught and embedded and all necessary phonics, grammar and vocabulary is covered in a logical and progressive way.

With support from Language Angels, we have carefully allocated units to year groups based on our assessment of children’s prior language learning. This is because, other than beginning the year with the Phonetics unit, the units themselves do not need to be taught in order, as long as they are in the appropriate learning level of the year group. Language Angels also contains supplementary units focused on Key Vocabulary, which we use to support embedding the language in classrooms, even if the discrete lessons are not taught by the class teacher and Grammar, which can support adult subject knowledge and, in particular, stretch and challenge our most high-attaining learners. Although some vocabulary is recapped across topics, most units present new language learning, though Key Vocabulary and sentence structures will be revisited.

In addition to teaching Spanish in our weekly MFL lessons, we also strive to provide our children with opportunities to experience a range of other languages by celebrating the diversity of languages and cultures in our school community and within the wider world. Through the teaching of a modern foreign language, we hope to foster in our children curiosity and the confidence to explore other countries, cultures and languages, accepting that, in a multi-lingual society, it is a valuable skill to be able to communicate effectively with others in another language. They will be prepared to continue language learning at Secondary School, having an understanding that this can equip them to study and work in other countries in the future.