Spanish

At St James Hatcham, all children in the juniors now have weekly Spanish lessons. This choice reflects the growing desire of our pupils to communicate more effectively with the growing number of native Spanish speakers in our school community.

 

I am really pleased that we're learning Spanish as now we can communicate with our Spanish friends and their families better!

 Ifijen- Year 6 pupil

We prepare foundations for the learning of Modern Foreign Languages by introducing elements in a non-formal way in Key Stage 1 in ways such as counting, songs and taking the register.

For Key Stage 2, each year's learning builds upon skills and content taught in previous years, targeting all four areas of language learning as children move up the school - these areas are speaking, listening, reading and writing. Lessons are taught using the Language Angels programme which cover a wide variety of topics (including cross-curricular topics) with all instances of the foreign language pre-recorded using a native speaker. The programme also gives us access to songs and games to support our Spanish learning as well as using the progression tools linked directly to the 12 attainment targets set out in the DfE Languages Programme of Study for Key Stage 2.

At St James Hatcham, our Spanish is designed to suit all learners, including those that have a knowledge of Spanish (i.e. those who additionally speak Spanish at home).

 

As an early speaker, you will learn:

to begin to speak in Spanish working on building up your memory skills. You will repeat and then recall from memory with good pronunciation a variety of nouns and articles from a range of topics: animals, instruments, food and shapes! You will move from single words to short, simple phrases and everyday useful phrases and replies. You will learn how to ask and answer simple key questions in Spanish and give opinions. Your learning will be enhanced by learning a variety of songs and raps!

 

As an intermediate speaker, you will learn:

to build up a larger bank of spoken vocabulary including nouns with greater accuracy in the use of articles. More improved accuracy in pronunciation, retention and recall will allow you to speak in longer sentences with conjunctions and adjectives in a wider range of tops including pets, family, habitats, the weather and clothing! Your oral fluency will improve and you will be able to join in with conversations using more personal details. Phonetics units will allow you to begin to recite short poems and rhymes in Spanish!

 

As a progressive speaker, you will learn:

 

to recall language with ease and accuracy, recalling chunks of appropriate language from memory rather than simply just nouns and articles. You will learn to speak in longer conversations on a much wider range of topics: school, the weekends, healthy lifestyles and even the planets. Your experience in Spanish will mean you can attempt to pronounce unknown words by applying your knowledge of pronunciation.

 

¡Gracias y que tenga un buen día!