Hello, Hola and Bonjour from everyone here at Finchale!

Statement of Intent - What do we intend to do?

The core languages taught at Finchale Primary School are basic Spanish in Key Stage 1 and French in Key Stage 2. Our planning for Key Stage 2 is based on the Durham County Council progression of skills document. In Key Stage 1 the intention is to expose children to language learning and to develop interest and curiosity through an introduction to the Spanish language. It is the intention that all children in Key Stage 2 will access first quality teaching of French in order to prepare them for Key Stage 3. We aim to provide all children with the skills, knowledge and understanding to learn a new language enabling them to develop their oracy and literacy skills as well as their understanding of their own culture/s and those of others. Language lies at the heart of our curriculum and through this, we celebrate ideas about individual identity and community. We hope that learning another language will do a great deal to shape children’s ideas about language learning as well as giving them a new perspective on their own language and a better understanding of their own cultural capital.

Key Stage 1

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MFL in school- Take a look at some ways we implement this!

Miss Johnstone and Mrs Lennox recently spent their half term holiday in the beautiful city of Salamanca, in Spain. We worked hard each morning from Monday - Friday at 'Colegio Delibes' immersing ourselves in the Spanish language and we were also given the opportunity to develop an understanding of the culture and way of life in Salamanca. Whilst we were in Salamanca, not only did we learn some of the Spanish language but we saw lots of amazing sites, tried many different traditional foods and met some amazing people. This week was a fantastic opportunity for us to develop our knowledge of the Spanish language and it has made us both feel a lot more confident to now transfer our knowledge and understanding to the classroom and to our pupils. We both now have a passion for language learning and will continue to develop our knowledge of Spanish. Miss Johnstone created a blog of our time away in Salamanca and you can view this blog by visiting the link below. Please feel free to take a look at this. 

https://salamancadurham.travel.blog

KS1 Language Focus - SPANISH

Starting from September 2019, Key Stage 1 have begun accessing weekly Spanish sessions. In these sessions, all children are exposed to the Spanish language through songs, activities, rhymes, role play and more. All children in Years 1 and 2 have the opportunity to become immersed in the Spanish language whilst accompanied by a fluent Spanish teacher. Our Spanish teacher models basic Spanish, appropriate for both their age and abilities, encouraging all children to copy her. The sessions are fun and interactive and learning is incidental!

KS2 Language Focus - French

From September 2019, we have moved to have a French speaking language specialist deliver weekly French sessions in all Key Stage 2 classes. Language teaching and learning at Key Stage 2 is compulsory and at Finchale, we ensure that all children are provided with an appropriate balance of both the spoken and written language, preparing all children for further language exposure at KS3. These sessions enable all pupils to communicate ideas effectively, to use facts and feelings in speech and writing and to use their existing knowledge of phonology, grammatical structures and vocabulary. From this, our children should begin to become more confident and fluent language speakers who discover and develop a love and appreciation for language learning.

Finchale’s language of the month

AUTUMN TERM

September - Spanish

October - Spanish

November - Italian

December - Italian

January - French

February - French

This year, on our annual celebration of European Day of Languages, as a school we celebrated 7 different European languages. These included; Spanish, Italian, German, French, Greek, Hungarian and Polish!

Take a look below at some of the fun we had participating in this celebration.

Did you know?

Listed below are some fun language facts about Finchale Primary School!

• Did you know, Miss Johnstone and Mrs Lennox are in the process of learning the Spanish language?
• Did you know, Mrs Whitton studied Latin and Greek at school? These are both 'dead' languages, so don't ask her to speak them, although she can read Greek!
• Did you know, there are 10 different languages spoken by pupils at our school?