Modern Foreign Languages

As there is no National Curriculum for the teaching of Languages at Key Stage One, the objectives and themes taught to our pupils have been chosen to introduce and allow our pupils to enjoy the start of their language acquisition in Spanish. Our curriculum is shaped with ‘I can’ objectives so pupils can see what they are capable of doing and what will be coming next in their learning. Our curriculum and vocabulary acquisition is shared with a love of reading as at least one story compliments each term’s topic and the use of songs in the target language support our pupils growth in Spanish.

When our pupils begin their learning of Spanish in Year One, we teach them how to understand and verbally respond to simple words, short phrases and be able to answer to simple questions asked. In terms of skills developed in reading, our pupils learn how to understand simple words, read short phrases and progress to understanding simple sentences. Verbs that are used by our pupils are used in the first person singular as we encourage our pupils to speak about oneself in Spanish. Our pupils develop their Spanish vocabulary through themes of personal introduction and information, body parts and colours, animals and countries. Our pupils begin to be able to understand where Spanish is spoken in the world and enjoy their language acquisition with a selection of stories and songs in Spanish.  Our pupils can attend an extra-curricular Spanish group where the language learnt in class is explored further and pupils begin to develop a passion and understanding of language learning.

When our pupils reach Year Two of their learning of Spanish, we teach them how to understand some key phonemes, especially vowels, are pronounced clearly, can understand and respond to a short conversation and able to give a short-rehearsed response to a range of questions. In terms of skills developed in reading, our pupils learn how to understand short phrases and simple sentences, able to read words and phrases and able to read a simple sentence with gaps and complete the gap with appropriate word choice. Our pupils continue to use verbs in the first person singular and understand the questions asked in second person singular. Our pupils also can use a common verb in both positive and negative forms. Our pupils revisit vocabulary from Year One and now can ask as well as respond to personal introductions and information in Spanish. Our pupils’ learning of Spanish is complimented with cultural links to Spanish cities and our pupils can identify and label features of a Spanish speaking home, city or country. We begin to introduce vocabulary through healthy lifestyle ideas and look at the necessary vocabulary linked with sports, hobbies and mealtimes. Our pupils begin to express a basic opinion with food in Spanish. Our pupils can attend an extra-curricular Spanish group where the language learnt in class is explored further and pupils begin to develop a passion and understanding of language learning.  

There is a National Curriculum expectation to teach Languages to pupils from Key Stage Two. The curriculum objectives, themes and assessment have been paired with the National Curriculum objectives and offer our pupils the development needed for their language acquisition in Spanish. Similarly to our Key Stage One curriculum, our curriculum is shaped with ‘I can’ objectives so pupils can see what they are capable of doing and what will be coming next in their learning. Our curriculum and vocabulary acquisition is shared with a love of reading as at least one story compliments each term’s topic and the use of songs in the target language support our pupils' growth in Spanish.

As we have a mixture of pupils who have already learnt Spanish for two years and new pupils joining us from other Infant schools, our curriculum for Year Three offers the opportunity for Mayfield Infant pupils to reflect on their previous learning whilst our new pupils joining us will be exposed to the vocabulary and structures for the first time. Our Mayfield Infant pupils will be able to transmit their enjoyment and engagement for their Spanish learning with our new pupils and all will be on level par.  

Our pupils acquire their Spanish through three topics, each one broken down over a whole-term and this allows for our pupils to acquire, practice, and master the new vocabulary in Spanish. The topics are explained below.  

Me presento con mi monstruo. 

As we wish for our Mayfield Infant pupils to reflect on their previous learning whilst our new pupils are exposed to the vocabulary for the first time, the topic of ‘me presento con mi monstruo’, teaches our pupils how to express personal introductions and information, such as their birthday and age. Our pupils can use the vocabulary and structures to partake in rehearsed role plays, asking and answering questions regarding personal information. Our pupils then develop their language acquisition with the use of songs and stories to recall and label parts of the body. Our pupils are introduced to adjectival agreements in Spanish with the use of colours and this is applied with the vocabulary of the body parts. With this vocabulary, our pupils can design and create a description of their own monster and using verbs in the third person singular. 

En el café 

When we begin with the topic of ‘en el café,’ we see our Mayfield Infant pupils can reflect and recall previous food vocabulary and our new pupils are learning this vocabulary. Our pupils continue to use their adjectival agreements with the colours of fruit and they can link simple opinions with them. Our pupils expand their vocabulary with two stories relating to food vocabulary. With all of the food vocabulary, our pupils are exposed to café role play with questions and answers and can partake in a variety of short, rehearsed role plays.

Mis pasatiempos 

With the start of our topic ‘mis pasatiempos,’ our pupils follow and attempt to read parts of the story Libro de deportes and extend their vocabulary based on sports. Our pupils can recall hobbies and saying them in both positive and negative affirmations. Our pupils begin to link hobbies with time expressions, saying which days of the week they complete their hobbies. Our pupils revisit opinions and express their opinions about their hobbies. Our pupils learn how to say the weather in Spanish and we push our pupils to create the links between the weather and their hobbies. Our pupils present a basic, rehearsed, weather report in Spanish.  

When it comes to assessing our pupils’ development in Spanish, we expect to see for their listening and speaking skills that they can listen and respond to simple rhymes, stories and songs. Our pupils are also able to recognise and respond to sound patterns, short sentences and can listen attentively and understand instructions. Our pupils can express simple likes and begin to express dislikes. Writing is a new skilled assessed in our Key Stage Two curriculum and is complimented with the development of reading skills. Our pupils can write two or three sentences on familiar topics with a model for support. Our pupils can make links between some phonemes, spellings and reading aloud and our pupils begin to experiment with writing of simple words from memory. In terms of grammar assessment, our pupils develop the use of verbs in the first person singular and use the correct verb dependent on the context. Our pupils can identify and understand gender of singular nouns and our pupils can state opinions.

As we spend the first year of Junior teaching on revisiting and reteaching vocabulary to our Mayfield Infant pupils and our new pupils, when our pupils being their second year of Junior teaching in Year Four, our pupils are at the same level and we can continue their language acquisition.  

Similarly to Year Three, our pupils acquire their Spanish through three topics, each one broken down over a whole-term and this allows for our pupils to acquire, practice, and master the new vocabulary in Spanish. The topics are explained below.   

Mi familia 

When our pupils begin the topic of ‘mi familia’ they are introduced to vocabulary through the story “mi familia y yo” where our pupils can extend their vocabulary and recall a range of family members in Spanish. Our pupils then begin to physical describe family members with their eyes, hair and height. Adjectival agreement is reinforced with our pupils and they ensure to use the correct agreement dependent on the family member they are describing. Our pupils can create a written presentation about their family, either with a writing support or not. Our pupils revisit opinions and hobbies and begin to apply opinions and hobbies to members of their family.

Mi panda lleva 

For the introduction of vocabulary, our pupils read and recall animals from the story “oso pardo.” For each of the animals from the story, our pupils can recall a range of habitats and use verbs in the third person singular to say where the animals live. Our pupils listen, follow and remember forms of clothing from the song and then link adjectival agreement rules to describe the colours of our clothes. Our pupils can link animals, clothing and habitats together and design and create outfits for their animals in Spanish. 

Estoy en forma 

When our pupils begin the topic of ‘estoy en forma,’ we recall previous vocabulary of food, drink, sports and hobbies from previous topics and from previous year groups. To develop the use of the vocabulary, our pupils can use verbs in the first, second and third person singular to describe eating habits and sporting activities. Our pupils can use the correct sports verb dependent on the activity. With all the healthy lifestyle vocabulary, our pupils can create and present healthy lifestyle advice in both spoken and written presentations.  

When it comes to assessing our pupils, for listening and speaking skills we expect that our pupils can memorise and present short-spoken texts, listen and say specific words and phrases, explore patterns and sounds of language, and ask and answer questions on several topics. In terms of assessing reading and writing skills, our pupils can write simple words and phrases using a model and can recall some words from memory. Our pupils can read and understand a range of familiar writing phrases, follow, listen and read short familiar texts and read some familiar words with accurate pronunciation. For assessing our pupils’ grammar skills, our pupils can use a range of verbs in the first, second and third person singular, using both positives and negatives and develop their awareness and application of gender adjectival agreement.

By the time our pupils reach Year Five, they have used many techniques to acquire Spanish and we continue with this learning in Year Five. Our pupils are set more challenges and we know our pupils are resilient and can achieve them.  

As with the previous year groups, our pupils acquire their Spanish through three topics, each one broken down over a whole-term and this allows for our pupils to acquire, practice, and master the new vocabulary in Spanish. The topics are explained below. 

Mi rutina diaria 

Our pupils begin this topic of daily routine by reading as a class and individually the story “No me quiero ir a la cama,” where our pupils are exposed to new vocabulary relating to the daily routine. Our pupils can use daily routine verbs in the present tense and can understand and apply rules with regular AR verbs in the present tense conjugations. To compliment the daily routine expressions, our pupils learn how to tell the time in Spanish. With all this information, our pupils can prepare and present a short presentation about their daily routine and use times. Our pupils can reflect on their previous Spanish learning and can use conjunctions, opinions and negatives about their daily routine.

Mi barrio

As a usual piece of new topic, our pupils begin this topic by following the song “mi barrio” and by reading as a class and individually “última parade de la calle.” Our pupils acquire vocabulary relating to their neighbourhood and can use verbs of location and what there is in their neighbourhood. Our pupils can use specific adjectives to describe facilities in their neighbourhood, ensuring there is correct adjectival agreement. Our pupils reuse opinions and negatives about their neighbourhood. Our pupils revisit regular AR verbs in the present tense conjugations and can link this with recycling and actions needed to support the environment.

Mi dieta 

To start this topic, our pupils read a story they might be familiar with “la oruga muy hambrienta.” Our pupils have already visited food and drink vocabulary in Year Three and Year Four so our pupils develop their vocabulary of food and drink, along with more interesting adjectives. As our pupils have used AR regular present tense conjugations, our pupils apply their conjugation knowledge to ER regular present tense verbs relating to meals. Our pupils are pushed to compare the present and preterite tense conjugations of ER verbs relating to food on the first, second and third singular conjugation. With all the vocabulary, our pupils create, write and share a presentation to explain a diet in two tenses and perform to an audience.  

When it comes to assessing our pupils progress in Year Five, for listening and speaking skills, our pupils can prepare and practise simple conversations, reusing familiar vocabulary and structures in new contexts. Our pupils listen attentively and understand more complex phrases and sentences, using a simple conjunction and our pupils can prepare short presentations on familiar topics with opinions expressed. For reading and writing skills, our pupils can write more interesting sentences by adding in conjunctions, re-read a variety of short texts with growing accuracy and write words, phrases and short sentences with references. In terms of grammar skills, our pupils can explain conjugations of AR and ER verbs, along with being able to conjugate confidently to first, second and third person singular.

As our pupils reach their final year of primary language acquisition, in Year Six we push our pupils to revisit knowledge and skills they have acquired and add in extra details, in preparation of their transition to secondary school.  

As with all previous year groups, our pupils acquire their Spanish through three topics, each one broken down over a whole-term and this allows for our pupils to acquire, practice, and master the new vocabulary in Spanish. The topics are explained below.

Mis vacaciones pasadas 

Our pupils begin by independently reading the story “lo que escuchó la mariquita en vacaciones” where our pupils acquire and share new vocabulary with their class. As this topic is referring to past holidays, our pupils develop their conjugation knowledge and know how two irregular verbs are conjugated into the preterite tense, especially for first, second and third singular person. Our pupils link their vocabulary of past holidays to a range of countries, including Spanish speaking ones. Our pupils can describe a range of transports and add preferences. Our pupils can describe past weather expressions. With all this vocabulary, our pupils can write a personal diary entry of a previous holiday and share this with an audience.

Mi escuela ideal 

Our pupils begin by singing along independently to the song “las asignaturas” and pick out new vocabulary. Our pupils can apply their grammar knowledge and conjugate a school verb into the present tense and can describe a school timetable. Our pupils revisit opinions and can use a range of adjective and opinions to share information about subjects and facilities. Our pupils can use conditional ideas to describe their future school aspirations. With all this vocabulary, our pupils can create a short presentation with the vision of their future school and what they would like for it contain or not.

Mi futuro 

As this is our pupils’ final term with primary Spanish, we want to think about our futures. Our pupils begin by reading “cuando sea mayor, quiero ser…” and share new vocabulary of jobs and professions with their class. Our pupils can describe a range of professions in masculine, feminine, singular and plural and can use the conditional tense to describe future jobs and aspirations. Our pupils can conjugate into the near future tense and use first and third person singular. With all of this information, our pupils write a letter to their future Spanish teacher using the near future and conditional ideas.  

To assess our pupils’ progress in Year Six, for listening and speaking, our pupils understand and use ideas in different tense. Our pupils can use spoken language confidently to hold a conversation and express opinions. Our pupils can understand and use more complex phrases and sentences with confidence in Spanish. With regards to reading and writing skills, our pupils can write sentences on a range of topics using references to support. Our pupils can identify and create different text types and our pupils can read and understand main points and details of passages. In terms of assessing our pupils’ grammar skills, our pupils can conjugate key irregular verbs into the preterite tense. Our pupils can use conditional and future ideas, mainly talking in first person singular. 

There is a National Curriculum expectation of teaching Languages to pupils at Key Stage Three. The curriculum objectives, themes and assessment have been paired with the National Curriculum objectives and offer our pupils the development needed for their language acquisition in Spanish. Similarly to our Key Stage One and Key Stage Two curriculum, our curriculum is shaped with ‘I can’ objectives so pupils can see what they are capable of doing and what will be coming next in their learning. Our curriculum and vocabulary acquisition are complimented with a knowledge organiser for each term’s topic to encourage our pupils to be resourceful and resilient with their Spanish learning.

When our pupils join us in Year 7, we have pupils who have learnt Spanish, French, German or another language in their primary school. For our Mayfield Primary pupils, they have been exposed to Spanish lessons and they will have a mixture of retrieving previous learning and also learning new skills. Our Mayfield Primary pupils will take the lead and support our new pupils and we aim to ensure all pupils are on the same par with their language acquisition.  

As we do for the Key Stage One and Two curriculum, our pupils are taught three topics over the three whole-terms. Our Year Seven pupils follow the below plans:

Todo sobre mi vida 

This is our first topic for our Year Seven pupils and it is all about sharing personal information in Spanish. Our pupils begin by breaking down Spanish phonics and practising their pronunciation and spelling. Our pupils regularly speak in class and our pupils can greet someone in Spanish and converse verbally and written basic details of oneself. Our pupils can introduce and present key information about their family and friends and understand and apply regular adjectival agreement with nouns. Our pupils can express their own opinions and begin to add simple justification to them. Our pupils have the opportunity to expand opinions by asking questions and stating others’ opinions. Our pupils can explain activities that they and other people complete by understanding how to conjugate regular verbs into the present tense on all pronouns. Our pupils can hold a basic question and answer role play and provide a basic description of a photo. As this is the first term of Spanish learning for some of our pupils, we regularly make links to the Spanish speaking world and culture so our pupils can appreciate and understand the links to their own learning. 

Mi insti 

Our pupils continue with their knowledge of regular present tense conjugation on all pronouns and can identify and use key verbs that are expressed in the imperfect, present and simple future tense to describe facilities and timetable at school. Some of our pupils can retrieve knowledge of vocabulary about school timetable with days and time and our new pupils will be exposed to this new vocabulary. Our pupils can use adjectives and a complex structure, with comparatives, to describe their teacher. Our pupils can describe their school uniform by using adjectives and more specific clothing adjectives. Our pupils can expand their school uniform description by using conditional tense ideas. Our pupils can share information and opinions about school clubs. Our pupils' writing is becoming more spontaneous and they can create a 40-50-word piece of writing using bullet point starters.

Mis vacaciones  

As our pupils have focused on present tense conjugations in the previous term, our pupils develop their conjugation knowledge and can conjugate and use key sport verbs in the present tense. Our pupils can use the correct sport verb with the sport. Our pupils can identify and recall weather expressions and then can use subordinate clauses to link sports and weather. Our pupils develop their grammar knowledge further by being able to conjugate and apply the near future tense relating to future holidays and activities. Our pupils can describe how to travel on holiday and can describe a range of holiday accommodation and facilities. Our pupils begin to conjugate key verbs into the preterite tense to express where and when they went on a past holiday. Our pupils can create a one-minute presentation with regards to leisure and holiday activities. As our pupils have been learning about holidays and travel, our pupils finish this topic by completing a research project on a Spanish speaking country and can create a fact file.  

Our pupils are assessed via two strands: listening and speaking skills and reading and writing skills. The descriptors of how our pupils are assessed via listening and speaking are that our pupils can understand and communicate opinions and say familiar words and short phrases. Our pupils can understand and answer questions with preparation and our pupils understand examples of two different timeframes. Our pupils can understand, share and justify opinions, not just their own opinions but others’ too. With regards to pronunciation, our pupils can identify a range of phonemes and speak with understandable pronunciation. The descriptors how our pupils are assessed via reading and writing are that our pupils can read, adapt and complete short phrases with support. Our pupils can translate familiar language. Our pupils can use correct word order with agreements of nouns and adjectives. Similarly to listening and speaking, our pupils can understand, share and justify opinions, not just their own opinions but others’ too and our pupils can understand texts of two different timeframes and write in two timeframes.

Our pupils are in their second year of secondary Spanish learning and our pupils have developed a strong foundation from their Year Seven learning. In Year Eight, we develop previously taught skills and we introduce new skills and vocabulary to our pupils.   

As we do for the Key Stage One and Two curriculum, our pupils are taught three topics over the three whole-terms. Our Year Eight pupils follow the below plans:

En mi barrio 

Our first topic in Year Eight looks at neighbourhood, both our own neighbourhood and linking to neighbourhoods of the cities in the Spanish speaking world. Our pupils can physically describe the location of where the neighbourhood is. Our pupils can describe the facilities in the neighbourhood and link with the conditional tense of what our pupils would like to see or would do to improve the neighbourhood. Our pupils look at describing where they live with a mapped-out layout of rooms and once again, our pupils can use the conditional tense of describing their ideal house. Our pupils can conjugate verbs into the imperfect tense and explain environmental problems in the past. Our pupils can contrast and compare about environmental problems in the imperfect and present tense. Our pupils can use modal verbs in the present and conditional tenses to recommend environmental solutions. Our pupils can describe a photo covering people, location and weather areas with detail.

Tienes que llevar una vida sana 

Our pupils are introduced to a new type of verb, reflexive verbs. Our pupils can conjugate reflexive verbs with the present and imperfect tense to describe their daily routine and others’ routine too. Our pupils retrieve information on how to use hours and minutes in Spanish and can add this extra information to their daily routines. Our pupils retrieve how to conjugate key sport verbs into the imperfect and present and learn how to conjugate into the near future tense. Our pupils link the verbs with sports and can share information, both verbally and written, about their sporting habits. Our pupils learn healthy and unhealthy lifestyle choices and then can compare lifestyle choices when they were younger, now and when they will be older. Our pupils retrieve the use of modal verbs and can use modal verbs in the present and conditional tenses to recommend healthy and unhealthy choices. Our pupils can create dialogues in the situation of being in a restaurant and link to healthy and unhealthy lifestyle choices.

La vida tecnologica  

For our final topic in Year Eight, our pupils are linking their Spanish learning to a technological life. Our pupils can describe the uses of a mobile phone and the activities they do on their phones. Our pupils can develop and describe an ideal phone using the conditional tense. Our pupils can express justified plural opinions of a variety of television shows and our pupils can retrieve the use of comparatives and can express their preferences about television shows. Our pupils can retrieve the use of the near future tense to talk about films and going to the cinema. Our pupils can use the preterite tense to talk about celebrating a special occasion.  

Our pupils are assessed via two strands: listening and speaking skills and reading and writing skills. The descriptors of how our pupils are assessed via listening and speaking are that our pupils can understand and dictate and transcribe with some minor errors, developed with the understanding and ability to ask questions which have been prepared. Our pupils develop the use of different timeframes and are looking at identifying and using three different timeframes and growing accuracy between two. With regards to assessing our pupils for reading and writing skills, our pupils can translate mostly familiar language into the target language and understand new words with context and cognates. Our pupils develop the use of different timeframes and are looking at identifying and using three different timeframes and growing accuracy between two.

Year 9 is the third and final year of Key Stage Three learning for our pupils. We are developing the use of skills taught from previous years and applying them to different topics. This way, it allows for our pupils to see their uses in one more than just one context.  

As we do for the Key Stage One and Two curriculum, our pupils are taught three topics over the three whole-terms. Our Year Nine pupils follow the below plans:

Mis vacaciones pasadas 

Our pupils begin Year 9 with the topic of holidays. Our pupils can conjugate regular and some irregular verbs into the preterite tense for activities on holiday. Our pupils are expected to vary the difference of pronouns so they can talk about other people’s activities too. Our pupils can compare activities in the preterite and present tense together. Our pupils can describe transportation and can use comparatives as a justification. Our pupils can use opinions in the preterite and a greater variety of opinions to describe the good, bad, best and worst things of their holidays. Our pupils can retrieve information on weather expressions and can use them in the preterite tense. With the weather expressions and activities, our pupils can use subordinate clauses linking weather and activities in the preterite and present tense. Our pupils can use key ideas in the imperfect tense to describe accommodation and facilities. Our pupils can partake in a dialogue to book accommodation along with problems. Our pupils can use the near future tense to describe future holiday plans.

El mundo laboral  

Our pupils use this topic to boost their future aspirations and wishes. Our pupils can describe a variety of jobs and professions done by oneself and others. Our pupils can link roles and responsibilities with jobs and professions. Our pupils can give opinions and justification about jobs and roles. Our pupils can express future ideas of what they will be like in their future and what jobs they will be doing. Our pupils can use the conditional tense to share what jobs oneself and others would do in the future. Our pupils have to think about work experience and pretend they have completed their experience. Our pupils can use the preterite and imperfect tenses to describe a work experience placement. Our pupils finish this topic by sharing thoughts about feelings about the importance of learning an international language.

¡Vamos a celebrar una fiesta! followed by Grammar boot-camp. 

This is the final topic for our Year Nine pupils, so we split the term’s topic to celebrate a festival and then reinforce all grammar knowledge with the grammar boot-camp.  

For our festival topic, our pupils can describe typical food of Spanish-speaking countries and then draw comparisons with British cuisine. Our pupils can compare festivals held in Spanish-speaking countries and highlight differences with British celebrations. Our pupils can use reflexive verbs in the preterite and present tense to describe how a special day goes. Our pupils can maintain a conversation in Spanish to talk about a music festival.  

Once we have finished the celebration part of the topic, we turn our attention to the grammar boot-camp. Our pupils can retrieve how to conjugate and apply regular and key irregular verbs into the imperfect, preterite, present, near future, simple future and conditional tenses. Our pupils retrieve how to express opinions and justifications. Our pupils can retrieve and apply complex structures that have been taught over the past three years.  

Our pupils are assessed via two strands: listening and speaking skills and reading and writing skills. The descriptors of how our pupils are assessed via listening and speaking are that our pupils can understand and produce longer statements with spontaneity and understand explains in three tenses and mostly accurate with their application into the three tenses. Our pupils can understand and respond mostly accurately in the target language and can understand the meaning of new words in context and speak with accurate pronunciation. For reading and writing skills, our pupils can understand and manipulate a variety of grammatical structures and patters, with three different timeframes and some accuracy with the three tenses. Our pupils can understand and produce longer texts with spontaneity and are able to translate most of short passages into target language with minor errors.