Courage     Passion     Integrity        Grace

Coraje        Pasión       Integridad     Gracia

Intent

At Stoke Bishop CofE Primary School, our intent is that our teaching of the Spanish language and culture will help children to develop a love of learning languages. Learning a foreign language provides so many amazing benefits to children and their futures. It is an opening to other cultures; an opportunity to nurture children’s natural curiosity and problem-solving skills; and to foster respect, knowledge and understanding towards another language, culture, and of the World. We believe that all languages should be celebrated and are proud of the numerous languages that are spoken by our school community.

At Stoke Bishop, we believe that learning a language and developing a greater depth of understanding towards another culture is an important learning opportunity that helps children to appreciate and understand other cultures, expressions and styles of communication. This can encourage children to appreciate how big the World is and will open their minds greatly. It is an incredibly useful skill to learn and our Spanish curriculum gives children the building blocks to learning the foundations for further foreign language learning at Key Stage 3, which will also aid a smoother transition from primary to secondary school.

Implementation

The scheme of work for Spanish is called Language Angels and it focuses on speaking, listening, reading and writing. Additionally, we look at the cultural side of the Spanish language, ensuring children are exposed to the customs, festivals, ideas, landmarks, everyday life and traditional aspects of Spain.

In EYFS and KS1, children will begin to hear the Spanish language through songs, games and stories.  They will also learn simple greetings and use these in day-to-day school life.

From Year 3 through to Year 6, children will have the opportunity to learn Spanish and about Spain regularly through different topics. Many of these topics link to each year group’s termly enquiry question, to help enrich their knowledge and understanding, whilst providing an engaging and exciting language curriculum. Children are encouraged to actively take part in our Spanish curriculum, by using their prior knowledge and problem-solving skills to help decode Spanish words, and develop their oracy skills with speaking and listening. Children are taught through songs, stories, videos, games, interactive activities and lessons based on a practical communicative approach. There are extra-curricular Spanish clubs that run each week throughout the school year to widen children’s knowledge and understanding of Spain and the Spanish language. Furthermore, whilst celebrating the Spanish language and culture, we also are thrilled to celebrate the diverse languages and cultures within our school community.

Impact

Children at Stoke Bishop CofE Primary School are engaged and enthusiastic language learners. By the end of their time at Stoke Bishop, they will be able to listen, understand, read and speak Spanish words and phrases linked to a number of different topics. They will have a good understanding of Spanish cultures, traditions, landmarks, festivals and everyday life, and an appreciation and respectful attitude towards another language and culture. Children will be assessed against the National Curriculum objectives as: Pre-Key Stage, Working Towards, At Expected or Above Expected. This will happen twice a year and will be informed from assessments taken from the Language Angels Scheme of Work; ongoing teacher judgements; assessment tools such as Plickers, and any work that the children have produced during the Spanish lessons.

Spanish Games to play at home

Key Stage 2 children are able to practise their Spanish at home with a free range of games on our Language Angels website. These games are linked to the Spanish they learn in school and really help children embed the vocabulary in a fun way.

Access the games here: https://www.languageangels.com/schools/index.php 

Log into the pupil games area using the green button.

Children need to use their class username and password given to them by their teacher. 

Spanish Clubs

We are lucky to host two fantastic after school Spanish Clubs run by a professional Tutor. She teaches Spanish through a range of exciting hands on activities, games and songs as well as celebrating Spanish culture and furthering the learning in our language lessons.

From September 2022 the clubs will be as follows:

KS2 – Club on Wednesdays

KS1 – Club on Tuesday or Thursday

To check availability or sign up for these clubs please contact Ellena Heywood on BristolLanguagesTutor@gmail.com.

International School Award

We’re thrilled to announce that our school has been recognised by the British Council for an International School Award at Intermediate Level. This certificate celebrates the fantastic work of class teachers and pupils across the whole school in exploring other cultures and some of the issues our world is facing through activities such as the Erasmus+ project, Spanish Day, our penpal project and during Arts Week. The British Council says, “Your school has made an excellent start on its international journey and describes a school that has developed a dimension to learning in its curriculum”. We are looking forward to the next steps in this project!