MFL Rationale

Intent

A high-quality languages education deepens children’s understanding of the world, God’s creation and the diversity of His people. At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School, we are committed to ensuring that competence and enthusiasm in learning another language enable children to interpret, create and exchange meaning within and across cultures. Rooted in our Catholic mission to see and celebrate the dignity of every person, we guide our children to grow as confident global citizens who respect different faiths, traditions and ways of life, and who develop skills that will open further opportunities in later life. The teaching of Spanish across EYFS, KS1 and KS2 provides an ambitious and coherently sequenced curriculum that builds incrementally across the four key skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (writing from KS2), so that children secure the strong foundations they need to access, and thrive in, their next stage of language learning at KS3. Both our feeder secondary schools, Broughton Hall and Cardinal Heenan, offer Spanish as their MFL choice, ensuring continuity for our children as they move on.

Implementation

Children are introduced to Spanish from the EYFS and receive a weekly lesson (EYFS–Y1: 30 minutes; Y2–Y6: 45 minutes) delivered by a native-speaking specialist in every year group. This consistent, expert subject teaching enables children to develop early language-acquisition skills and to notice the patterns of language, comparing how Spanish is similar to, and differs from, English – laying secure foundations for later, more complex learning. Our curriculum is planned and sequenced around six recurring themes (Self, Family & Friends; School Life; The World Around Us; Animals & Home Environment; Leisure; and Summer), revisited and built upon year on year so that vocabulary, grammar and phonics knowledge are consolidated and extended cumulatively – from greetings, numbers and colours in EYFS and KS1, through to opinions, verb conjugation, tenses and independent sentence construction by the end of KS2. Across the key stages, lessons develop the following skills:

• Listening and speaking: Children listen attentively to spoken Spanish, join in with songs, rhymes and stories, and are taught to engage in conversations, ask and answer questions and express opinions with increasing confidence and accurate pronunciation.
• Reading: Children develop their ability to read and understand words, phrases and, in KS2, increasingly complex sentences, using their growing knowledge of phonemes to predict pronunciation and meaning.
• Writing: (KS2). Children progress from copying modelled language to writing independently from memory, applying their understanding of grammar, gender and word order.
• Intercultural understanding: Children develop an appreciation of the traditions, celebrations and everyday life of Spanish-speaking countries, comparing these with their own experiences (for example, comparing Christmas customs, greetings and social conventions in Britain and Spain).

Spanish lessons are complemented by the SIL scheme of work, which supports careful planning, assessment and progression.

Impact

We believe our children will:

• • develop a genuine enjoyment, appreciation and life‑long love of languages, recognising the value of communication across cultures and communities.
  • build confident, resilient attitudes towards language learning, showing increasing independence when tackling new vocabulary and structures.
  • demonstrate awareness of the cultures, traditions and languages represented within our school family and beyond, deepening their understanding of global diversity.
  • leave St. Cuthbert’s with secure foundational knowledge and skills that prepare them well for the next stage of their language learning at secondary school.