Languages

We have made some exciting changes to our language provision. At the very bottom of the page there are useful resources for supporting language learning at home. To explain how we teach languages, we have broken this page into three broad sections: 

Intent: the knowledge and skills that pupils will gain 

Implementation: how the curriculum developed or adopted by the school is taught 

Impact: the outcomes that pupils achieve as a result of the education they have received

Our most significant news is that we are phasing out French and now studying Spanish in key stage two. The reasons for this are outlined in greater detail under the heading implementation. 

Curriculum Vision Statement:

'By the time children leave Navigation they will be learners who have developed an appreciation for other cultures and languages and develop deeper knowledge and use of another language.'

Intent: 

Our curriculum vision statement outlines our broad goals for languages, whereas our whole school curriculum progression map gives a detailed breakdown of what each year group is taught.  There is also an overview of the different units of work that each year group covers. Go to the bottom of the page and you can open these documents and take a look.

Our progression of skills document shows the different strands of speaking, listening, reading and writing, whilst grammatical features are found in all of these strands. Years 3, 4 and 5 are learning Spanish and year 6 continue to learn French. The units, objectives and themes for both languages are the same. At the bottom of the page, under files to download, you can find the National Curriculum statements for languages and a document that cross-references where these are taught. 

Implementation: 

We have reviewed and updated  our approach to our language teaching. This was done with two broad goals in mind. The first of these was to raise the attainment and progress of the children and the second was to increase their engagement and enthusiasm for languages. We now follow a scheme of work developed by the Primary Languages Network. This scheme has been constructed by teachers of languages and is highly regarded. We are phasing French out; years 3, 4 and 5 are learning Spanish and year 6 is learning French, as we wanted all children to reach a suitable level by the time they leave Key Stage Two. 

Here are ten reasons we changed to our current approach:

1. By having a more substantive change we hope to raise the profile of the subject and improve our whole school culture with regard to the teaching of languages.
2. All pupils in KS2 were surveyed, 78% were in favour of changing. Children will often favour novelty or a change but the majority of responses indicated different reasons for wanting to change. Most of our pupils have been to Spain, whereas they have not been to France and pupils’ perceptions revealed that they considered it more useful. They also thought it ‘sounded nicer.’
3. In th epast Navigation had a teacher skill set that was tailored to French. As staff members have moved, this is no longer the case and therefore, we have chosen a scheme of work that features native speakers and does not rely upon the linguistic expertise of staff, therefore delivery and learning will not be impacted by any staff movement.
4. By having a more systematic approach, we think that attainment and progress will improve and by the end of Key Stage Two the proficiency of the children will have improved.
5. All of our local secondaries teach Spanish and we aim to establish languages links with them.
6. This scheme of work reduces staff workload and allows them to focus on how to make lessons engaging for the children.
7. As it is a very commonly spoken language, there are copious resources available to help supplement any pupil learning in school or support at home.
8. Globally, twice as many people globally speak Spanish than French and the cultural relevance of Spanish is felt globally.
9. We considered a variety of other schemes and approaches and they were not as suited for our school.
10. As another Indo-European language, there are a high number of cognates (words that are the same/similar/discernible) and the phonetic structure is relatively easy, making it less challenging to read and spell.

Promotion of languages:

There are a variety of means we use to promote languages throughout the school. There are extra-curricular Spanish Clubs on offer for children in years 1 and 2. There is also an extra-curricular club on offer for one term in the year for children in key stage two. Children are also encouraged to develop an appreciation of different languages throughout the day, for example by answering their names in the register with different greetings. We have bought a range of bilingual books with 'talking pens', which are electronic devices used to help children read the books in English and Spanish. These books are often some of the children's favourites, for example Aliens Love Underpants (A los marcianos les Encantan los Calzoncillos). They are available in the library and are there for all children to encourage a love a reading and exposure to other languages.

Every year we have a languages day which features links to other schools abroad with different languages and lots of exciting activities in the classes. Our language ambassadors are children who have volunteered to work with Mrs Booth to come up with ideas to help develop languages. 

Looking ahead, we are currently considering how best to display languages around the school to increase the exposure the children have to language learning and how best to promote languages in our assemblies. 

Impact:

Each subject is driven forward by a member of staff who monitors the attainment and progress of our children. We do this in a variety of ways including speaking to children, looking at their learning in their books, observing lessons and using data gathered from our school’s assessment system. This analysis can then be used to provide support and resources where needed to maintain high standards across all subjects.

Supporting at home:

Languages are formally studied from year 3 onwards, but we think that children are never too young to start. Here are some ideas to support at home. Please note with any online resources we advise parents to ensure children are monitored online. 

• Click on each topic on the documents below and a powerpoint with the key vocabulary and some sounds of the correct pronunciation will load. This will help the children improve their pronunciation and learn new vocabulary. Year 3 and 4 are learning Spanish and years 5 and 6 are continuing with French, but anyone can have a go at either. You can also find the powerpoints for the Spanish vocabulary below in the 'files to download' section.

• Below, in the 'files to download' section, there are also some home games scan to play. These are QR codes that link to different games related to what the children will learn.
• Interactive Language Games - click for a link developed by the Primary Languages Network. 
• Youtube is a fantastic resource that children can access and it has a lot of free materials that they can use. There are many great channels targeted at children of different ages e.g. Rock and Learn
• Duolingo is a commonly used app with different sentences and games that children can learn. It's free too!
• Drops is another app children use 
• Rosetta Stone is a paid-for app/online program but uses emersion teaching so is very effective in helping learning to make rapid progress in their language learning
• Netflix etc - try putting on some programs in Spanish with English subtitles. This is a great way for children to acquire the sounds of the language and will help them develop a range of language skills. It also does not cost any more. 

Files to Download