Intent

We use the Kapow scheme of work to support our delivery in Spanish.

We started teaching Spanish to our KS2 children in October 2024, having previously taught French to our children for many years. This change was decided due to the fact that we felt that it would be more useful to our children in the future as several of them take holidays in Spanish-speaking countries. We felt that being able to use the language in a real life situation would increase their engagement.

We aim to instil a love of learning languages and an awareness of other cultures. We want our children to develop the confidence to communicate in Spanish for practical purposes, using both spoken and written Spanish. 

Our scheme of work enables all children to meet the attainment targets set out in the National curriculum. 

Children learn Spanish phonics, vocabulary and grammar and then use these basics in the following strands: 

• Language comprehension: listening and reading
• Language production: speaking and writing

 

Implementation

Through our work in Spanish, children 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. Children develop confidence and accuracy with oral skills first and increasingly apply their knowledge to extended reading and writing as they progress through Key stage 2.

The 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. Cross-curricular links are included throughout our Spanish units, allowing children to make connections and apply their language skills to other areas of their 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. 

 

Impact

Spanish is still very new to our children, but by delivering a high-quality and engaging curriculum in Spanish, we expect that our 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.
• Use a bilingual dictionary to support their language learning. 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.