Spanish
"If you talk to a person in a language they understand, that goes to their head. If you talk to them in their language, that goes to their heart."
Nelson Mandela *2024 edit by Sayesha in year 4
Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) is an exciting and enriching subject in the curriculum. It brings together creativity and uses a variety of teaching methods to engage and challenge children. A high quality language education should foster children’s curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world.
Our Key Aims
The National Curriculum for Modern Foreign Languages aims to ensure that all children:
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Understand and respond to spoken and written language from a variety of authentic sources.
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Are able to speak with increasing confidence and fluency, 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.
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Can write at varying length, for different purposes and audiences, using the variety of grammatical structures that they have learnt.
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Discover and develop an appreciation of a range of writing in the language studied.
How do we teach Spanish?
At Archibald, we teach a weekly 30 minute Spanish session to each class from Nursery to Year 4 using the Language Angels teaching platform. In EYFS and Key Stage 1, our children are introduced to Spanish through songs, rhymes and stories to help familiarise thems with the language. This enables the children to develop early language acquisition skills that facilitate their understanding of the patterns of language and how these differ from, or are similar to, English. As our children move through our school, they practise the skills and the vocabulary needed to prepare them for the start of year 5 at middle school.
The children initially focus on practising their speaking and listening skills, and later, in Key Stage 2, they also practise their reading and writing skills whilst developing their growing knowledge of grammar, phonics, vocabulary and culture.
What is the impact of our Spanish curriculum?
Our young learners of Spanish gain confidence and a curiosity of languages and cultures different to their own which will be something they can build on in later learning.
Key Documents
AFS Spanish Curriculum Statement
International Award
Archibald First School encourages its children to be creative, unique, open-minded and independent individuals, respectful of themselves and of others in their school, local community and the wider world. The staff aim to nurture the children on their journey through life so they can grow into safe, caring, democratic, responsible and tolerant adults who make a positive difference to society and to the world. Archibald and its staff are ambitious and deeply committed to the creative and international curriculum it offers, including teaching Spanish to all pupils from Nursery to Year 4 and building International partnerships with schools in other countries. We were proudly awarded the International school award in 2024 and look forward to mantianing this in 2027
