Statement
At St Matthew’s we understand how important it is to learn language skills. We believe they contribute towards our understanding of the society and world that we live and work in.
The language we learn at our school is Spanish.
Spanish is one of the very few languages spoken all over the world. There are currently over 450 million people around the world that speak Spanish in 20 countries.
Learning Spanish helps our children to appreciate different countries, cultures, communities and people. In addition it helps to develop the skill to understand and communicate in another language, which the children can use all over the world to make new friends and aid communication for their future. It is important to learn these skills from a young age for our children to respect others.
We believe our children will learn best through interactive, fun lessons which give the children plenty of opportunities to use their language skills with each other.
On this page, you will find relevant information about the MFL Curriculum at St Matthew’s.
View our MFL Policy on our Curriculum Policies page
Download: Spanish – Overview 2024-2025 [PDF]
Download: MFL – Vision 2024-2025 [PDF]
Download: MFL – Milestones 2024-2025 [PDF]
Download: Spanish on a Page [PDF]
Intent
A high quality languages education should capture children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. At St Matthew’s we are committed to ensuring that competence in another language enables children to interpret, create and exchange meaning within and across cultures. It also helps children develop skills that will open further opportunities later in life. The teaching of Spanish in KS2 provides an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and lays the foundations for further foreign language teaching at KS3.
We believe that learning a foreign language is an essential part of being a member of a multi-cultural society and provides an opening to other cultures. At St Matthew’s we aim to nurture the children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.
The 2014 National Curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages aims to ensure that all children:
- Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
- Are able to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say, including through discussion and asking questions, and that they are continually improving the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation.
- Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.
- Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.
Implementation
Children are introduced to Spanish from Year 3 and receive a weekly 45 minute lesson, throughout their time in Key Stage 2. We follow the SIL scheme of work and have a foreign language teacher who is fluent in Spanish delivering the lessons.
Lessons across the Key Stage support the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing:
Children are taught to listen attentively to spoken language and respond, joining in with songs, rhymes and games.
Children develop an appreciation of a variety of stories, songs, poems and rhymes in Spanish that are delivered through the curriculum content.
The children are assessed in their Spanish listening, speaking, reading and writing skills during the summer term.
Impact
As a result of a progressive, well sequenced and purposeful MFL curriculum we ensure that children leave St Matthew’s with the knowledge and skills needed to speak in another language and with a good understanding of alternative cultures around the world. The children have good foundations for further language learning skills.