Intention

At Leyland Methodist Schools we have developed a curriculum which motivates our children to be innovative, confident, evaluative, imaginative, passionate and perceptive. These characteristics are focused on across all Spanish units and allow children to become confident speakers, developing a clearer understanding of another country in our world.

Spanish and the National Curriculum

Our Spanish curriculum is taught to all classes in Leyland Methodist schools and focuses on the four areas: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. Children build on their vocabulary knowledge as they move through the schools so that they have a broad knowledge of different vocabulary linked to different genres. By the end of Key Stage One, children are not expected to be able to write in Spanish, however they are expected to be able to understand a variety of individual words. By the end of Key Stage Two, children are expected to be able to remember words and phrases, speaking them with correct pronunciation and recognise many phrases, also beginning to write them with accurate spelling.

An in depth progression document has been produced for each year group, detailing what children should and might be able to do by the end of each year. This provides clarity for teachers so that they know what is expected of their pupils at the end of each year.

A Curriculum Needs Analysis has been carried out to ensure that our curriculum caters for our children, the children of Leyland, to make sure that we plan to meet the needs they have. We have planned a variety of extra-curricular activities to give children and their families extra learning experiences linked to the Spanish Curriculum.

Cultural Capital

At Leyland Methodist Schools, we firmly believe that Spanish offers a great opportunity to develop our children’s cultural experiences. The Spanish Curriculum is enhanced with extra-curricular opportunities and learning experiences in addition to the weekly Spanish lessons. These activities and experiences are designed to enhance the learning of our pupils and increase their cultural capital. The opportunities children are given have included learning about Spanish festivals (La Tomatina and Pamplona), writing to pen pals and Spanish Day.

Also we recognise the importance of children sharing their learning with their families. In order to help them do this, parents are invited in to see the work of their children on Spanish Day and also take part in mini lessons with their children.

Diversity

At LMS our Spanish curriculum encourages and promotes diversity for all our learners. We are able to bring experiences to our children so that we help them to understand the way of life in another country and how to appreciate all people and the different ways they live. Children are given the opportunity to experience how other countries celebrate and compare that to celebrations in their own country.  

Equal opportunity

Our Spanish curriculum has been carefully planned to engage and excite all learners. Our long term and medium term plans clearly state the Modern Foreign Language skills and ensure that they are covered across each of the Spanish units. These are also closely linked with the year group’s topics so that they are learning the English and Spanish words alongside each other.

At LMS, we provide children with many opportunities to develop their knowledge and language of Spain. It can prove costly to visit another country to experience the true culture of Spain, therefore at LMS we strive to bring those experiences to the children. Inviting a Spanish speaker in to school allows children to learn more about the country and lifestyle. Similarly, we have also ensured that year groups with particularly high levels of vulnerable children have benefited from other educational experiences. Any visits for these children are funded through the Pupil Premium strategy.