Spanish
The vision of MFL here at Riverside Primary School is broad in subject and an essential part of enriching the lives of our pupils, leading them to opportunities for a bright and successful future. We aim to develop an understanding of our Spanish speaking world in both the cultural and geographical sense, but also give our children the opportunity to access a secondary language. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world, ahead of English in third place, making it an extremely important and worthwhile international language to study.
Key features of our curriculum:
Asides the four core principles of studying a modern foreign language in speaking, listening, writing and reading, the features of the Spanish curriculum offer a comprehensive package.
· English & phonics - In studying a modern foreign language, we are constantly referring to the vocabulary and grammatical structures of the English language.
· Maths – By learning cardinal and ordinal numbers in Spanish, numeracy eventually becomes a factor, including basic arithmetic (+ mas, - menos, x por, ÷ dividido por)
· Geography & history – in discussing the diversity of Spanish speaking nations around the globe, it is necessary to refer to maps of the world and historical references to clarify geographic positions and facts.
· Music & art – We are a firm believer that music and art build a solid foundation to a child’s ability to cognitively learn another language. That is why music and songs are essential, as well as utilizing the catalogue of work by Spanish speaking artists available to us.
· SMSC – MFL in particular Spanish, offer a treasure trove of work and reflection in the field of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. This is mainly by comparing the faiths of Spanish speaking nations with our own, learning about different traditions and practices, the sense of achievement of children in speaking a second language (in all attainers) and finally, the ability to compare and contrast cultural identities.
Whole School Curriculum Events
Despite MFL being taught in Key Stage 2 only, Spanish is being implemented all over the school by the use of bilingual signage (with phonetic spelling) as well as whole school Spanish days! Our whole school events have celebrated the culture of both the home of the language Spain, but also the Spanish speaking nations of Latin America.
In the last few years, we have had two significant events: including our Mexican Day Of The Dead Spanish speaking day and our ‘Feria Española’ (Spanish fair) to celebrate traditional mainland Spain.
MFL Progression and Curriculum Overview:
