Spanish

Concise Rationale

At Sewell Park Academy pupils arrive to Spanish lessons with little or no knowledge of Spanish and are often unsure of what to expect from a language lesson.
We aim to create positive relationships towards languages and other cultures and provide a wider understanding of the world
SPA has a large number of feeder primary schools, some of which do not specialise in Spanish, and therefore Spanish is taught at Year 7 assuming little or no knowledge.
By teaching pupils the pillars of progression to success in languages; teaching phonics first at the beginning of Year 7 and then feeding in basic vocabulary and grammar, we can attempt to eliminate this issue and smooth the transition.
During KS3, students engage in a trip to the cinema to practise watching films with subtitles and be able to master the skill of ‘reading along’ as they watch the film, build up their vocabulary and the four key skills in Languages; listening, reading, writing and speaking
When students reach KS4, they then engage in culture through ‘cooking’ and watch authentic videos of recipes and they get to recreate this and build upon their listening, reading, writing and speaking skills
We think the best way to teach Spanish is by incorporating chanting, which is use of the Conti and Barry Smith methods, making pupils culturally aware and engaging in enrichment activities, and through games and activities

Context

At Sewell Park Academy pupils arrive to Spanish lessons with little or no knowledge of Spanish and are often unsure of what to expect from a language lesson. We are fortunate to have around 30% of EAL pupils in the school, totalling to over 30 spoken languages. Therefore we have a head start in encouraging an interest in learning languages and cultural awareness. We aim to create positive relationships towards languages and other cultures and provide a wider understanding of the world. Our curriculum is designed to support our cohort and many arrive with low literacy levels, therefore the curriculum is rich in cultural capital and strives to encourage the teaching of academic literacy. Given the decrease in uptake in recent years, we aim to pique pupils' interest in languages and demonstrate that learning languages can be fun and creative, as well as opening many opportunities in the future. Languages are regarded as strong subjects (as part of the EBacc), and therefore we want to promote them as much as possible within our teaching, demonstrating the jobs, skills and opportunities obtained through languages.

Why is Spanish valuable?

SPA has a large number of feeder primary schools, some of which do not specialise in Spanish, and therefore Spanish is taught at Year 7 assuming little or no knowledge. However, research shows the transition to Secondary school can have an effect on engagement and motivations in languages. By teaching pupils the pillars of progression to success in languages; teaching phonics first at the beginning of Year 7 and then feeding in basic vocabulary and grammar, we

can attempt to eliminate this issue and smooth the transition.

The use of the Mira books systematically introduces vocabulary and topics, but as language teachers, we take our initiative to revisit vocabulary regularly to avoid forgetting. Alongside Quality First Teaching, we use the textbooks to help facilitate the integration of the 4 skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking) and provide authentic resources. We incorporate our own cultural teaching, using personal knowledge and alternative resources to relate to the relevant topics, ensuring we teach with enriching and stimulating material.

Spanish is also essential for its teaching of cultural awareness and development of intercultural communication skills. Pupils gain the opportunity to explore the context in which the language is rooted; the culture and people. Our curriculum incorporates authentic resources teaching Hispanic popular culture and heritage (such as music, TV, film, fashion, history). At SPA the pupils' exposure to culture may already be quite limited, especially within their demographic and geographical location, therefore we recognise it is our responsibility to enthuse the subject and teach them to be culturally sensitive - arguably a key life skill.

Pupils will also see direct links to the English language (for many this is their native language) as they learn new vocabulary and acknowledge grammatical terms they may not have been previously familiar with, such as the use of conjunctions and recognition of verbs, nouns and adjectives. This not only benefits them across the curriculum by improving their general communication skills, but also helps to focus on their academic literacy.

In order to encourage language success for our students we recognise we need to remove the ‘fear’ of the subject. Research shows that pupils' self-efficacy hinders language engagement, and therefore our lessons promote an environment where making mistakes are welcomed positively. There are many social and moral ideas within each topic (such as through topics of the environment, poverty and natural disasters and racism), which pupils will be able to explore and aid their learning. Through exploring these topics along with the nature of language lessons themselves (with opportunities for pair or group work), allow pupils to develop their interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, all of which are essential life skills that will hugely benefit them to open more opportunities in the future.

KS3

National Curriculum

Pupils will have the opportunity to: -

Master all 4 key skills in languages: reading, writing, speaking and listening and demonstrate this in classroom activities
Explore Spanish & Latin American culture
Learn words and use this to create sentences
Look at texts and master pronouns, connectives and tenses
Explore intercultural understanding

Year 7's into year 8's

Big Ideas:

Spanish give rise to many ‘big ideas’ topics, such as culture – their ‘group’ culture, food culture and different customs. This is explored through their own research and YouTube videos, which are extremely easy to find. The different fiestas allows pupils to see a different way of life and explore a culture other than their own.

Spanish (and languages & culture more broadly) continue to be explored through KS4 via the Best of Big Ideas programme which can be seen here:

Best Of Big Ideas 2022-23

Academic Literacy:

Learning a different language lends itself to recognising grammar in English, such as writing long texts and paragraphs, recognising what verbs and adjectives are as these are covered heavily from year 7. Along with using three tenses in their work, they will also learn to write long paragraphs in Spanish, using recycled language and previously learnt language.

Future You:

The ideas of careers need to be developed as it is coming away from the ‘misconception’ that Spanish can only be used within the ‘Travel & Tourism’ industry. The fact that they will need languages more in the jobs that they aspire to do within their own ‘setting’ other than Spain & Latin America.

KS4

National Curriculum

Pupils will be able to: -

Explore topics in depth that have been covered at KS3
Develop skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking
Produce longer texts using all three tenses, connectives and a range of vocabulary
Revision of present tense verbs
Revision of present tense verbs
Revision of preterit tense verbs
Revision of countries

Note: Year 8's into year 9's

Mira 2 workbook to be started ASAP upon their arrival to school and the most important 3 topics to be started to be done until end of February
After February half term, the three most ‘important’ topics from Mira 3 to be covered which is the start of the GCSE Spanish