Spanish

Subject Leaders - Mrs Summers and Miss Gerrard

At Forefield Juniors, we provide our children with engaging, fun and immersive Spanish lessons which introduce them to the vast culture of Spain, the different grammatical structures of the language and the opportunity to develop their confidence in speaking Spanish. The topics we cover focus on everyday life, which the children can personally relate to. In addition, children are expected to speak and write with increasing confidence.

We use Primary Languages Network as a teaching aid. The staff and children enjoy watching Spanish videos and listening to a native speaker introducing new Spanish vocabulary in a fun, lively and engaging manner. Our children have been exposed to accurate, high-quality pronunciation which they can listen to and respond back to.

Our children are expanding their vocabulary and developing a basic understanding of Spanish sentence structure. As they progress children will be able to write from memory independently. Similarly, children are able to describe specific people, places, animals and objects. Currently, children are taught basic Spanish grammatical structures, including masculine and feminine articles and sentence structure which is recapped in each topic.

Spain is now Year 4’s geography topic of a European country study. In this topic, the children explore various aspects of Spain’s physical and human geography. The children have the opportunity to take part in a Spanish Day where they learn flamenco dancing, play Spanish playground games and enjoy listening to Spanish music.

In addition to the Spanish taught discretely in class, children are encouraged to practise small chunks of Spanish vocabulary during the school day. ‘little and often’ practice in areas such as counting and greetings – answering the register for example, significantly boosts their confidence and willingness to ‘have a go.’ We have a range of Spanish songs which have been matched appropriately to lessons and children are encouraged to sing these in class so they can explore the patterns and sounds of the language, appreciate songs in Spanish and have an extended opportunity to embed new vocabulary.

All children across the school are given the opportunity to join our Spanish club. This is delivered by a native speaker and enables them to learn new vocabulary, songs and activities in a fun and interactive environment.

Through the use of a high number of quality displays, the children are continually exposed to core vocabulary around school and in their classrooms.

Spanish Curriculum

	Autumn Term	Spring Term	Summer Term
Year 3	Greetings Numbers Colours Classroom Instructions Calendar	Animals Numbers Dates	Fruit and Vegetables
Year 4	Classroom commands Numbers	Family members Faces Body parts	Weather
Year 5	School subjects	Healthy eating Clothes Colours	At the seaside
Year 6	Telling the time Homes and houses	Sports Funfair	Café culture

Reading within the Spanish Curriculum

In today's information-driven society, the ability to read critically is essential for academic and career success. By teaching reading across the curriculum, we are equipping children in our school with a crucial skill that will facilitate learning across the breadth of the curriculum. Reading is not just about decoding words on a page, but also about comprehending and analysing information. Reading is incorporated into our Spanish lessons using multimedia resources tailored to pupils’ level of language comprehension with reading content that's just challenging enough to keep pupils motivated and learning. Teaching focuses on context, repetition and active engagement to build vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency, often incorporating native speaker audio for authentic pronunciation.