Modern Foreign Languages
Spanish is our chosen modern foreign language (MFL) at Whiteheath Junior School. Lessons take place weekly and are planned with the guidelines set out in the Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages in mind. The school’s Scheme of Work ensures that there is continuity and progression in both skills and content across all classes.
Our weekly classes are taught by class teachers who receive support and professional development from our MFL leader who is fluent in Spanish. Where possible, we endeavour to make links with our local feeder schools.
The intention of the Spanish curriculum at Whiteheath Junior School is that children are assisted in developing an interest in learning other languages in a way that is enjoyable and stimulating. We strive to embed the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing necessary to enable children to use and apply their Spanish learning in a variety of contexts. This, we hope, will inspire them to learn further languages, thereby equipping them with the means to broaden their horizons.
We use a variety of techniques to encourage children to engage actively in learning Spanish. These include games, role-play, songs and rhymes. We may use videos, sound recordings and songs to demonstrate the language and for the pupils to hear more than one voice speaking the language. We use mime to accompany new vocabulary in the foreign language as this teaches the language without the need for translation.
Spanish Curriculum
Useful Websites
How to Support Your Child
1. Practice
Learning a language is like learning to play an instrument - practice, practice, practice!
2. Teach each other
Ask your child to teach you to say something new in the language every day. Explaining is learning - let your child laugh at your mangled pronunciation and correct you.
3. Websites
Use the websites in the useful website section to help support your child’s learning
4. Use Labels
It is easy to find or make labels for everyday objects with either the English and Spanish words for the item or with just the Spanish word. Not only does this help to focus on the day-to-day vocabulary you use, but it will also support your child learning to read and write in Spanish.
5. Make it about culture
If your child struggles with traditional styles of learning, a change of perspective can help. Research Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries together, and let them pick the language up as a bi-product of your cultural explorations.
6. Cooking!
You could visit the supermarket, identify imported foods, and decode the labels. Then go online and look for recipes in Spanish, using the same ingredients.
7. Read Bilingual English/Spanish books
Seek out children’s books that are printed in both English and Spanish to read and enjoy together.
End of Year 6 Expectations
By the end of Year 6, children will be able to:
- listen attentively to spoken language and show understanding by joining in and responding
- explore the patterns and sounds of language through songs and rhymes and link the spelling, sound and meaning of words
- engage in conversations; ask and answer questions; express opinions and respond to those of others
- speak in sentences, using familiar vocabulary, phrases and basic language structures
- present ideas and information orally to a range of audiences
- read carefully and show understanding of words, phrases and simple writing
- appreciate stories, songs, poems and rhymes in the language
- broaden their vocabulary and develop their ability to understand new words that are introduced into familiar written material, including through using a dictionary
- write phrases from memory, and adapt these to create new sentences, to express ideas clearly
- describe people, places, things and actions orally and in writing
- understand basic grammar appropriate to the language being studied, including (where relevant): feminine, masculine and neuter forms and the conjugation of high-frequency verbs; key features and patterns of the language; how to apply these, for instance, to build sentences; and how these differ from or are similar to English