Woodcote Primary School

Introduction

This protocol sets out Woodcote Primary School’s vision, aims and strategies for the teaching and learning of languages and is the basis for the development of languages in our school.

Aim

The overall aim for languages is that pupils develop a deep interest in and appreciation for other cultures, as they learn to understand and express themselves with increasing confidence in Spanish. In our organisation of the languages curriculum and extra-curricular opportunities, we envisage pupils developing their sense of belonging to the wider world and embarking on a journey towards a wealth of opportunities in their future lives.

Language learning enables young people to express their ideas and thoughts in another language, and to understand and respond to its speakers, which is essential, practical knowledge for all global citizens in the 21st century. More than this, it is about young people exploring the relationship between language and identity, about developing an international outlook and growing into an enhanced understanding of the world and their place within it.

Pupils will develop specific knowledge of Spanish, learning words and structures that enable them to ask and answer questions, listen to, read and understand stories, songs, poems and other short texts, and to write from memory about themselves. At the same time, they will develop language learning skills and strategies that will equip them for the learning of additional languages.

Curriculum/Scheme of Work

Woodcote Primary School’s 4-year KS2 scheme of work is designed to fulfil the requirements of the KS2 Programme of Study, and to provide learning experiences that engage, enthuse and motivate all of our learners.

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 writing in the language studied.

To aid progression within our medium term planning, we draw on the non-statutory KS2 languages framework guidance. All pupils learn languages for at least 20 minutes per week. Primary Languages Network will be used in conjunction with other resources collated by the Subject Leader.

Planning

Teachers should refer to the medium term planning to identify the key objectives for the term. The key themes that will be taught throughout KS2 include:

The initial lessons for each year group have been developed and can be referred to as examples. The subject leader will be available to support teachers with their planning, if needed. All resources are available on the Teacher Share drive.

Teaching

A typical Spanish lesson will begin with a song in Spanish to recall classroom instructions. Vocabulary needs to be repeated by children throughout the lesson so I would expect to see use of power points with vocabulary or flashcards to help the children recall the vocabulary. Games allowing the children to repeat vocabulary should be played:

• true or false – if I say the correct word for the picture, repeat after me. If I say it wrong, silence.
• Throw a teddy around the room and get individual children to repeat vocabulary.
• Paired talk so children can practice asking questions and responding to each other.
• Model vocabulary with different expressions for them to copy.
• Human sentence building – children hold up words in Spanish and start to form sentences in Spanish.
• Some written Spanish.
• Use of Hola Espanol.
• Practice Maths to recall numbers in Spanish.

To end the lesson, get children to recall the vocabulary and work in pairs to practice the language learned.

Pupils are given regular opportunities to listen to, join in with, read, speak and write Spanish. In the early stages of language learning, pupils engage in a lot of listening, to tune into and learn how to produce the sounds of the language, through the teaching and learning of phonics and phonics-related activities. Once the vocabulary has been learned, children are able to join in with songs, rhymes, stories and poems. These will be read by the teacher and if vocabulary needs to be revisited to help their understanding, the teacher will use activities listed in the teaching section above to help them recall the vocabulary. Pupils then begin to develop, from the earliest stages in Y3, the ability to form simple sentences of their own, with relation to topics of close, personal interest, such as self, family and pets. In order to begin producing full sentences from single words, children need to look at the grammar linking it to English. Every sentence needs a noun and a verb. Children can form sentences and when they are confident, they can write it down. Year 3 will have simple sentences building up to more complex sentences using conjunctions in year 6. As learning develops, pupils are given more and more opportunities to engage with Hispanic culture, learning about places, festivals and other aspects of daily life in countries where the language is spoken. They develop confidence in writing from memory, building up over the course of KS2 to being able to write a short paragraph with information on two or three topics. Teachers make use of a wide variety of resources, including ICT, and learning activities, including games, information-finding (research), pattern-finding, and quizzes to stimulate interest and general literacy and other learning skills. There are clear links with literacy, particularly through the teaching of grammar, and teachers work together to join up these aspects of pupil language development.

Differentiation

Differentiated approaches are employed to seek to ensure that all learners in the classroom are able to make optimum progress. EAL and speakers of languages other than English are encouraged to bring those languages into the classroom and use them to support their learning of Spanish. Every opportunity is taken to recognise and celebrate the ability to speak any and all languages. Teachers should use the attainment descriptors to help challenge the more able children in each year group so they can plan for those that are emerging, expected or exceeding. If there are children that have Spanish as a mother tongue, they can be used as an expert during the lesson to help with pronunciation and can help to model to the rest of the class.

Assessment

When assessing the children, teachers should refer to the attainment descriptors for each year group that are saved on the Teacher share drive. These help to show how the children will progress across the Key Stage. Teachers need to assess the children’s listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar.

Assessment in languages is primarily to inform and support teaching and learning, enabling the language teacher to refine planning to best meet learner needs.