¡Aprendiendo español en Gawber School!

At Gawber Primary School, we learn the Spanish language. We know that languages are an integral part of the curriculum. Learning Spanish helps to equip our children with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life and it also helps our children to appreciate and celebrate difference. By providing our children with a well planned, progressive Spanish curriculum, we aim to provide our children with the foundational knowledge needed for learning further languages later in their education. 

As well as ensuring our language curriculum is engaging and fun, children at Gawber are made aware of the importance of learning languages because of the usefulness in the future. Children are encouraged to think about how they would be able to use languages to communicate with others outside of the UK and how they can discover more about other cultures and people. 

Although Spanish is taught through formal lessons in Key Stage 2, in order to exceed national curriculum expectations, we ensure that our children are exposed to key Spanish words and phrases prior to KS2. For example, greetings may be shared orally or through singing in Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1. At Gawber, we are aware that multiple studies show that children learning English abroad begin to do so from between the ages of 6 and 8. As there is more time spent on languages here, the children are more likely to succeed and may even continue studying languages until the end of their compulsory education.  A love for learning languages is something we aim to instil into our children from a young age at Gawber. 

The i-Languages Spanish scheme of work has been specifically chosen for the teaching of Spanish at Gawber.

This includes step by step lesson plans that gradually builds knowledge of the Spanish language. This scheme has also been chosen because of the strong phonics focus and because it includes support for non-specialists with sound files and video clips that aid clear and precise pronunciation.

i - Languages also uses the Talk4Writing learning methodology to enhance interaction and progress - a process we use to teach writing across KS2. By choosing this scheme, we firmly believe that by using familiar processes with a strong focus on oracy and 'talk,' our children are engaged in learning languages and learning is embedded. 

i-Languages also provides our staff with the building blocks of studying languages - the sounds, words and rules about how these connect to create meaning. By mastering the basics, our children can fully engage in the process of language learning and communicate about an increasingly wide range of themes. 

Despite our children being exposed to vocabulary through different themes and topics when learning Spanish, we are keen to ensure that they are able to understand and use words across a wide variety of contexts. Having a strong phonological awareness is key in order for our children to be able to decode words as well as recognise high frequency vocabulary and the i-Languages scheme prioritises this.