Languages - Spanish
“You live a new life for every language you speak. If you only know one language you only live once.” – Czech proverb
Languages Lead - Mrs Rachael Nash
Intent
At St Dennis Primary Academy, we believe that learning a new language opens doors to new worlds, broadens horizons, and fosters global citizenship. Our Languages Curriculum is underpinned by the National Curriculum for Languages and is designed to build on children’s prior knowledge, provide rich, real-life learning experiences, and develop both linguistic competence and intercultural understanding.
We aim to nurture confident, resilient, and articulate language learners who are equipped with the oracy skills to express themselves clearly and respectfully. Through engaging and interactive lessons, children will develop speaking and listening skills that enable them to communicate ideas, ask questions, and build connections with others in a new language.
Learning a different language at St Dennis:
Encourages curiosity about and respect for other cultures and communities, locally and globally
Provides real-life contexts and meaningful experiences to embed language learning in everyday life
Promotes children’s wellbeing through enjoyable, creative activities such as singing, storytelling, role play, games, and cooperative learning
Strengthens a sense of identity, belonging, and empathy through exploring cultural perspectives and values
Offers an inclusive environment where all children start from the same point, promoting equality and mutual support
Builds pride, confidence, and a sense of achievement through sustained progress and celebration of success
Encourages the application of metacognitive strategies that improve both language and wider learning skills
To ensure a coherent and ambitious foreign languages curriculum, we use the Language Angels scheme of work. This provides a broad and vibrant curriculum aligned with the National Curriculum, and enriched with diverse topics and themes that inspire, challenge, and excite our pupils. We set high expectations for all learners, ensuring they are supported and encouraged to achieve their full potential and develop a life-long love of languages.
Language learning at St Dennis is structured around the four key skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, delivered through an integrated approach to phonics, grammar, and vocabulary acquisition. These elements are taught in dynamic, purposeful ways that allow pupils to apply their learning in real-world contexts, both inside and outside the classroom. Pupils will also develop independent research skills, building a personal reference library that supports ongoing learning and recall of key concepts.
Beyond the classroom, we aim to connect language learning with our local environment and community. Opportunities such as themed days, cultural celebrations, language ambassadors, and community engagement will help pupils experience the real-life value of learning a language. This reinforces their understanding of diversity, strengthens community links, and contributes to their overall social, emotional, and cultural wellbeing.
Our ultimate goal is for all children to develop a genuine interest and positive curiosity about foreign languages. We aim to help them explore the relationship between language and identity, build deeper connections with the world around them, and become confident, compassionate, and reflective global citizens prepared for the next stages of their education and beyond.
Implementation
At St Dennis Primary Academy, all classes in Key Stage 2 have access to a high-quality languages curriculum, delivered through the Language Angels scheme of work and resources. Spanish is taught through regular, well-planned weekly lessons, led by a specialist teacher, ensuring consistency and high expectations across the school.
Why Spanish? We have chosen to teach Spanish as our modern foreign language to give pupils the best possible foundation for language learning at secondary school, where Spanish is studied up to GCSE level.
Our Spanish curriculum is carefully sequenced to enable pupils to progressively acquire, use and apply an expanding bank of vocabulary, grammatical knowledge and language skills. These are taught through age-appropriate topics and themes that form the essential building blocks for developing increasingly fluent and authentic language use.
As pupils move through the curriculum, they build on prior knowledge through a spiral approach that regularly recycles, revises and consolidates learning. Each lesson integrates the four key language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Pupils are introduced to grammar in a clear and structured way, with increasing complexity as they progress:
Early Learning Units: Focus on nouns, articles, and the 1st person singular of high-frequency verbs
Intermediate Units: Introduce adjectives, the negative form, conjunctions/connectives, and regular verb conjugations
Progressive Units: Explore opinions and high-frequency irregular verb conjugations
This systematic approach helps pupils understand how language works, promoting long-term retention and transferable skills.
We have a long-term plan in place to ensure consistent coverage and progression across year groups. Each class receives an overview of units to be taught during the academic year, allowing for cohesive development of language knowledge and skills.
Each teaching unit consists of six fully planned lessons, which include:
Clear learning objectives and success criteria
Interactive whiteboard resources to support speaking and listening
Differentiated tasks and challenge activities with three levels of stretch
Desk-based and extended tasks (which may be sent home if not completed)
Reading and writing tasks, including options for native speakers
A focus on one grammar concept per unit, increasing in complexity over time
Extended writing opportunities to support recall, retention and fluency
These lessons are designed to support all learners, enabling them to make sustained and substantial progress.
Sequence of Learning
SEND
Our Languages Curriculum is ambitious for all pupils. We consider ways of minimising and reducing barriers so that all pupils are included. The areas where we consider varying approaches, adaptations and scaffolds include; maintaining an inclusive learning environment, using multi-sensory approaches (including using the latest computer technology), working with additional adults, managing peer relationships through particular groupings, using a wide range of recording methods, ensuring clear communication for all needs, and allowing for formative assessment by ensuring learning objectives and outcomes are understood by all children and assessment methods are wide ranging so not reliant on writing ability.
Enrichment
At St Dennis, we bring Spanish to life beyond the classroom through a range of exciting enrichment opportunities. Our pupils enjoy themed language days, frequent visits from native speakers, cultural workshops, and links with the wider community.
Signs around the school and offering the classroom morning greetings in Spanish, give children extra chances to practise speaking and listening in a fun, relaxed setting. These experiences deepen their love of language, broaden cultural horizons, and help build confidence, curiosity, and communication skills.
Impact
As children work through our scheme of learning, they will be exposed to much longer text and will be encouraged to formulate their own, more personalised responses based on a much wider bank of vocabulary, linguistic structures and grammatical knowledge. They will be able to create longer pieces of spoken and written language and are encouraged to use a variety of conjunctions, adverbs, adjectives, opinions and justifications.
Children continuously build on their previous knowledge as they progress in their foreign language learning journey through the primary phase. Previous language is recycled, revised, recalled and consolidated whenever possible and appropriate.
Assessment of pupil learning and progression in the key language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) and against the 12 DfE Languages Programme of Study for Key Stage 2 attainment targets occurs throughout each unit through formative assessment and at the end of each 6-week teaching unit. This information is recorded and will be monitored by the Modern Foreign Language Lead who can use this information to ensure teaching is targeted and appropriate for each pupil, class and year group.
How does languages promote British Values?
Collaborative work in language lessons develops mutual respect for the differing opinions, beliefs and abilities of others. In addition, children learn to appreciate the value of similarities and differences and learn to show tolerance. A variety of experiences teaches them to appreciate that all people, and their views, are equally important.
Our languages curriculum provides a basis for teaching and learning about other cultures, and this is incorporated into many areas of the curriculum including personal and social education and citizenship, geography, religious education, design and technology, music, art and dance. We ensure that learning across the curriculum includes a ‘flavour’ of the countries where the focus language is spoken.
The five fundamental British values are interwoven into the languages curriculum, in particular how they relate to culture of the countries in which Spanish is spoken and the similarities and differences to life in Britain.
How does languages promote spiritual, moral, social and cultural development?
Children at St Dennis are taught to accept and embrace other languages and cultures through the teaching of languages. Children learn about the religious beliefs of the people in the countries of the languages they are learning. We consider why we communicate in the way we do and help children to understand and begin to question the numerous ways that people express themselves and their ideas.
At St Dennis Primary Academy we encourage respect for other pupils and staff, and this is enhanced within language lessons, which promote respect for other people, their language and culture. This in turn prepares our pupils for the wider world in which they will find themselves as they progress through life and encourages respect for the opinions and beliefs of others.
In Spanish lessons, children are encouraged to use language related to their class topics, whether through pair work, co-operative learning techniques or group work.
The social element of language learning comes both from learning about other societies and learning together in the classroom. Children are encouraged to experiment with language and learn from their mistakes in a supportive environment.
Cultural knowledge is broadened through the study of other countries’ cultural priorities and traditions. Children learn about festivals, identifying similarities and differences between how countries and cultures celebrate. In the Year 6 unit Yo En El Mundo, children learn about the many countries that speak Spanish, different festivals (religious and non-religious) around the world, that we are different and yet all the same and that we can all help to protect our planet.
How to help at home
For children who wish to continue this learning at home, there are a range of websites, some of them free, which contain games and activities that will allow children to practise and develop their language skills and extend their vocabulary in the language of their choice.