Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) at Cotsford
At Cotsford Primary School we believe that learning a new language is a way of liberating children and provides an opening to other cultures. It is our intent that through Spanish we will increase children’s respect and tolerance of different cultures and, through a high-quality languages programme, should foster pupils’ curiosity and deepen their understanding of the world. Children are introduced to Spanish in EYFS, year 1 and 2 through games, songs and stories focusing on new vocabulary and cultural awareness. This enables the children to develop early language acquisition skills that facilitate their understanding of the patterns of language and how these differ from, or are similar to, English. In KS2, each class has a weekly Spanish lesson. The teaching should provide an appropriate balance of spoken and written language and should lay the foundations for further foreign language teaching at key stage 3.
Please click the link for Modern Foreign Languages National Curriculum Information
Autumn 1
The children in EYFS and Key Stage 1 have been learning about Spain and the basics of the Spanish language. They have started with simple greetings, such as ‘hola’ and ‘adios’. Year 2’s favourite phrase is ‘hasta manana’, which means ‘see you tomorrow’! They have listened to Spanish stories, attempted repeated phrases and sang simple songs in Spanish.
In Year 3, the children have also been learning the basics of the language. They focussed on greetings and the Spanish alphabet. They talked about what they might see if they went to Spain, including their culture. The children then created a poster about Spain, using everything they’d learned.
Year 4 have focussed on the weather. The children have learnt 10 new weather phrases to describe everyday weather. They used these phrases to have a conversation with their partner and write a simple question and answer. The children enjoyed learning more new vocabulary associated with the seasons and describing what the weather is like in different parts of Spain.
Year 5 have been learning the seasons and months of the year. They have also been developing their understanding of instructions in the classroom, to try and immerse themselves in the language as much as possible. They found it so interesting that in Spanish, months of the year do not use capital letters, unlike in English, where all proper nouns do!
Year 6 have revised months of the year and can now recite these with confidence. They moved on to ordering the months of the year into seasons and know some words related to each season. They have started to learn different weather types and are having fun learning how to pronounce these correctly.
