Primary Languages

“Learning a language enriches the curriculum. It provides excitement, enjoyment and challenge for children and teachers, helping to create enthusiastic learners and to develop positive attitudes to language learning throughout life. The natural links between languages and other areas of the curriculum can enhance the overall teaching and learning experience. The skills, knowledge and understanding gained can make a major contribution to the development of children’s oracy and literacy and to their understanding of their own culture/s and those of others.”                                      

 The Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages (DfES 2005)

At St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School we believe that the learning of a foreign language provides a valuable educational, social and cultural experience for our pupils. It helps them to develop communication skills including key skills of speaking and listening and extends their knowledge of how language works. Learning another language gives children a new perspective on the world, encouraging them to understand their own cultures and those of others.

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School provides age-appropriate Primary Languages learning opportunities for all children throughout the school. The focus language taught in our school is Spanish from Year 1 to Year 6 and the Scheme of work indicates the units/areas taught throughout the school, although the Government’s statutory requirement only refers to Key Stage 2.

The aims of Primary Languages teaching at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School are to:

• foster an interest in language learning by introducing children to other languages in a way that is enjoyable and accessible to all pupils;
• stimulate and encourage children’s curiosity about language and creativity in experimenting with it;
• support oracy and literacy, and in particular develop speaking and listening skills;
• help children develop their awareness of cultural similarities and differences;
• lay the foundations for future language study by pupils;
• provide an added perspective on first language teaching and learning;
• to add an extra dimension to teaching and learning across the curriculum.

Speaking and Listening

The children will learn to

• listen carefully and recognise sounds and combinations of sounds which are similar to, or different from, those of English;
• understand and respond with increasing competence, accuracy and confidence in a range of situations;
• join in songs, rhymes, raps and stories which enable them to practise the sounds of the language in an enjoyable and non-threatening way;
• take part in conversations at an appropriate level, reacting to instructions and questions and expressing opinions and feelings;
• memorise and recite short texts, and prepare and give a talk on a familiar subject confidently and with regard for the audience.

Reading and Writing

The children will learn to

• remember grapheme-phoneme correspondences and vocabulary directly taught and reinforced through word games and similar activities;
• read stories and rhymes for enjoyment and to gain awareness of the structure of the written language;
• read, copy and write independently familiar words and simple phrases in context e.g. classroom items, display labels, weather chart, date;
• write sentences and short texts independently and from memory.