İBienvenidos a nuestra página de español!

Language is the road map of culture. It tells you where people come from and where they are going" 

- Rita Mae Brown

Children at St. Patrick's learn Spanish! This is done through embedding speaking the Spanish language into our daily routines; you will find children greeting each other, answering the register and responding to simple questions. Lessons are designed to help our children learn in a fun and inspiring way and teach skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing in Spanish, so the children can use this when visiting other countries and demonstrate cultural respect. Teaching staff are present in classes during this time and support children in embedding skills throughout the school day.

Curriculum Intent

Our Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) curriculum aims to foster a lifelong curiosity and passion for language learning. By introducing Spanish at Primary level, we aim to lay strong foundations for communicative competence, promote intercultural understanding, and develop confident, resilient language learners equipped for Key Stage 3 and beyond.

Through the Kapow Primary Spanish scheme of work, our MFL curriculum is designed to:

• Develop communicative proficiency: Enable pupils to listen, speak, read, and write in Spanish with increasing accuracy and confidence.

• Build foundational phonics, vocabulary, and grammar (PhOV): Embed phonics early to promote accurate pronunciation and decoding, while systematically developing core vocabulary and grammatical structures.

• Foster cultural appreciation: Cultivate an awareness and appreciation of Spanish-speaking cultures across the globe, celebrating diversity and encouraging global citizenship.

• Encourage language-learning strategies: Equip pupils with transferable skills—such as pattern spotting, deduction, and dictionary use—that support learning across the broader curriculum.

National Curriculum & Scheme Alignment

The Kapow Primary Spanish scheme fully aligns with the National Curriculum Key Stage 2 MFL statutory requirements, structured around five core pillars:

National Curriculum Target	Kapow Primary Implementation
Listening & Comprehension	Regular exposure to native pronunciation, songs, stories, and dialogues with structured listening tasks.
Speaking & Fluency	Phonics-first spoken drills, partner talk, role-plays, and short conversational presentations.
Reading & Decoding	Early focus on sound-spelling correspondences (SSCs), guided reading of adapted texts, and short authentic passages.
Writing & Grammar	Scaffolded sentence building progressing to short independent paragraphs, introducing nouns, gender, adjectives, and verb conjugations.
Intercultural Understanding	Integrated cultural strands in every unit exploring traditions, geography, food, and daily life in Spanish-speaking countries.

Implementation

The Kapow Primary Model: A Spiral Approach

The Kapow Spanish curriculum is built upon a spiral model, ensuring that key linguistic concepts—Phonics, Vocabulary, and Grammar—are systematically revisited, reinforced, and deepened year-on-year.

Key Pillars of Learning

1. Spanish Phonics

Phonics instruction forms the bedrock of our language curriculum to build confident, independent decoders:

• Key Sound-Spelling Correspondences (SSCs): Focused explicitly from Year 3 (e.g., j, z, ll, ñ, c/g variations, silent h, rolled r).

• Pronunciation & Intonation: Regular recap of vowel sounds ($a, e, i, o, u$) to prevent English-phonic interference.

2. Functional & High-Frequency Vocabulary

Vocabulary selection prioritises utility and relevance:

• Concrete Topics: Greetings, family, numbers, colours, animals, food, school, weather, time, and hobbies.

• High-Frequency Words: Connectives (y, pero, porque), opinions (me gusta, prefiero), and determiners (un, una, el, la).

3. Grammar Progression

Grammatical concepts are introduced explicitly and contextualised through practical tasks:

• Nouns & Gender: Understanding masculine/feminine endings and definite/indefinite articles.

• Adjective Agreement: Position of adjectives following nouns and matching gender/number.

• Verbs & Conjugation: Introduction to high-frequency present tense verbs (tener, ser, estar, vivir, gustar) and subject pronouns.

Lesson Design & Delivery

• Frequency: Weekly 30–45 minute lessons in Key Stage 2.

• Scaffolding: Use of sentence stems, visual dual-coding, physical gestures (TPR), sound boards, and model texts.

• Native Audio Support: Native audio built directly into Kapow resources guarantees accurate phonetic exposure regardless of non-specialist teacher confidence.

• Active Engagement: Incorporation of interactive games, paired speaking drills, songs, and physical movement to keep learning engaging and memorable.

Impact

Measuring Pupil Progress

Impact is assessed continuously through informal classroom checks and structured end-of-unit evaluations aligned with Kapow assessment frameworks:

• Formative Assessment: In-lesson observation during paired dialogue, oral feedback, mini-whiteboard checks, and targeted questioning.

• Summative Assessment: End-of-unit speaking and listening tasks, short diagnostic writing checks, and Kapow progress trackers.

• Self & Peer Assessment: Pupils regularly evaluate their own pronunciation and sentence-building capabilities.

Pupil Outcomes & KS3 Readiness

By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils leaving primary school will demonstrate:

1. Phonetic Confidence: The ability to accurately pronounce unfamiliar Spanish words using learned SSCs.

2. Communicative Ability: The capacity to initiate and sustain short conversations, express opinions with reasons, and ask simple questions.

3. Grammatical Foundation: An understanding of gender, adjectival agreement, basic verb forms, and sentence structure.

4. Cultural Curiosity: Respect, curiosity, and awareness regarding Spanish-speaking communities globally.

5. Transferable Skills: Advanced meta-linguistic awareness that eases transition into Key Stage 3 secondary language learning (Spanish or other modern languages).