Spanish at Corpus Christi School

‘The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.’

Learning a foreign language provides an opening to other cultures, fosters children's curiosity and deepens their understanding of the world. All children regardless of their background and ability are encouraged to develop their full potential in Spanish. 

Corpus Christi teaches Spanish to all KS2 children, Year 3 to 6, through our specialist Spanish teacher who works with pupils and class teachers to deliver an exciting and stimulating curriculum across the school.  We provide  high quality language education, teaching through rhymes, songs, videos, games, interactive activities and lessons based on a practical communicative approach. Spanish is ingrained in our day to day,  through register roll calls, classroom instructions and greetings and we are blessed with many Spanish speaking staff members. We also celebrate all things Language and Culture on a special day once a year and host a Spanish themed Carnival in the summer term. 

Our aim at Corpus Christi is to ensure that children develop a sound understanding of Spanish,  inherit a life-long love of Spanish and other languages and cultures and most importantly, grow up experiencing cultural diversity so they understand that our differences make us unique and make us better humans. We are partnering with Colegio Montfort , a British School in Spain, to give children the opportunity to be exposed to other cultures. We help them acquire the building blocks for further foreign language learning as they transition to Secondary School, where languages are compulsory and Spanish is becoming increasingly popular. We endeavour to enable our pupils to express their ideas and thoughts fearlessly in another language by beginning to master the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing. Excellent accent and intonation are reinforced in every lesson since we believe in a “Talk for writing approach” and we have a specific phonics focus lesson every couple of weeks.

As part of our journey to achieving the Artsmark award, each class has Spanish-Art/Music lessons once a term, as well as their weekly Arts lessons (Spanish, Art and Music). These lessons link the thematic learning that takes place in the classroom to art, music and Spanish. We make these links to allow children the opportunity to apply their Spanish skills across a range of contexts. Our Arts Council meets regularly to discuss ways in which we can further improve our Arts provisions. We also offer an after school Spanish club for Year 5 students to continue to develop their language skills.