Drawing sketches of animals using target language to link KS2 and KS3 creative learning

I have spent a wonderful couple of days in Germany  have purchased a selection of books.some of the books I have selected have been to support local teachers to develop transition resources between KS2 and KS3. I found this glorious book: "Wir zeichnen Tiere".Before you dismiss this as just to use in German,the ideas are so transferable!

Here is the link to the description of the book by James Kruss the author.

The description is in English and the clues are in this text as to why I think this book could help us primary practitioners to link work by our older children in Year 6 or also as a transition project between Year 7 and KS2 children  

Exactly as the description says the simple instructional rhymes linking letters,shapes,actions and animal sketches allow the children to create a veritable zoo of animal sketches that dance across the page!

The grammar included is present tense, commands, present participles ,use of nouns ...

I can see how the language used to draw the animals  can take young learners of a target language - who have progressed through two,three years of target language learning -on to the next stage of sentence structure, because they want to be able in the first instance to understand certain instructions to draw the animals and then move on to create their own instructions. 

Language focuses I can see in the simple instructional rhymes are as follows:

• sounds of the alphabet (for a practical creative purpose- using the letter shapes to create the animal shapes)
• recognition of sound patterns and  rhyming links to create the rhymes and the rhythm of theses instructional texts
• identifying and understanding commands
• reading comprehension - trying to understand and draw objects from the original text or from a text created and then written or spoken by a partner in the class
• creating simple written rhymes
• recognition and recall of names of animals
• locating and using nouns of different objects to create  new rhymes about different objects e.g clothes items/foods/furniture etc

Transition Idea!

So how can I see such activities being useful ways of developing projects between Y6 and Y7 pupils?

• One year group creates and writes(in the target language) the instructional rhymes to create a series of objects.
• The texts are swapped with the other year group and the children must read ,understand and then draw the creations in the written texts.
• It may be that one year group reads and responds only or maybe that both year groups write,read and respond to texts! 
• Different levels of grammatical challenge can be set for the Year 6 and the Year 7 pupils.
• With Year 6 children can be encouraged to include commands, nouns,interesting and descriptive present tense verbs and pay attention of possible to the rhyme and rhythm.
• In Year 7 the expectation could be that the pupils should have specific structures etc included in their rhymes.

Drama and Art activities 

You may already know that I love Drama and can see opportunities with this book and the rhymes to create performance opportunities:

• A performance of zoo animals that appear before our eyes as the children in pairs or groups become the shapes,actions etc to form their animals 
• Physical drawing in the air as if we are artists at the zoo of the animals - in the style of different artists!
• Spoken presentations that bring the rhymes they have explored or created to life- voice,cadence, rhythm, actions..... 

  

Sounds of a language an important skill in language learning

On Friday last week I met with a small amount of ITT primary education students, who are also specialist linguists.We considered the way we introduce language and language learning skills to new young learners.
What was interesting immediately was that as we become more sophisticated language learners and more competent in a particular language we can easily lose sight of the importance of playing with sounds on a language. 
For example as a Germanist I can quite easily assume that everyone knows how to say "ei" and ie" in German.It's also easy to assume that learners should be able to break an unfamiliar German word down into its component parts and sound it out.But how can they do this if we don't practise the sounds of the language? 
New learners of a language, be they children or adults,need to practise the sounds of a language so that they grow in their confidence to move from the very familiar to less familiar!
(EYFS and KS1 colleagues are often the first at staff CPD to get and understand this message and to come up with games and activities that enable their colleagues to practise the sounds of a new language and to link this learning to communication and literacy skills in English). 

To support linguists to experience new sounds in an unfamiliar language we listened in the session to Swedish numbers 1-10. I asked  the students to practise the numbers so that they could join in with the activities in our number lesson all about growing sunflowers .
Here is a link on quizlet to the numbers 1-10 in Swedish.Have a listen! Listen carefully to the sounds you hear in numbers 2, 3,7 and 8. Can you replicate the sounds? Can you break the spoken number down into its component sounds?
Numbers 1 to 10 in Swedish

The listening and responding activities and the spoken activities we tried whilst trying to remember the sounds in the numbers raised lots of discussion .For example how some of us are visual learners and need to see the word and is this because we are older learners etc? How we needed time to take in the new sounds. How we need to draw pictures in our heads to link the sounds to words in our own language that are similar e.g. 7 in Swedish is "sju" and we could think of a "shoe" in English etc...One lovely idea we generated from the discussion of word association was to make a display of sunflower heads for 1-10 with children's drawing in each sunflower head that prompted us to think of the sound of the number word.

Here are some of the games to play with the children on a regular basis to practise the sounds of the language being learnt.

Crocodile Paths -listening and responding- can the children make a marching rhyme of their favourite sounds. Create stepping stone cards om the floor of the sounds - repeated several times so for instance if we are using 6 sounds then we can have 4 sets of each sound so that there are 24 stepping stones. Ask the class to march across the stepping stones and say/sing their marching rhyme.Call "crocodile" and the children must freeze. Pull a one of the sounds written on small cards out of a bag or a box and say the sound for the class. any children stood on that sound stepping stone must sit out ...as the "crocodile has caught them!

Magical potions- spoken activity.Can the children in groups create magical nonsensical words out of a sequence of target language sounds that the class know? Can they say their magical nonsensical words for the class and can the rest of the class jot down on whiteboards the component parts of these words?Ask the group to write up their nonsensical word and say it pointing to each component sound- did anyone in the class write it down correctly?

Sound nets,remembering and revisiting written sounds - collect new sounds as the written sound on cards and keep them in a pretend "butterfly net" in the classroom - as if they were precious butterflies- and have special sound times ,when we pull out cards from the net and look at the sound cards and try to remember the sound we must make.

Air writing- as simple as can be. Can the children make a running dictation of a sequence of sounds that you say - just writing them in the air  

A Class Word Invention- creative speaking and writing activity.
Why not invent a new class fruit, vegetable ,sweet or toy and then ask the class to use their sound potions to create a suitable name and share their ideas with the class as a written and a spoken word with the class? Do their sound word's reflect the type of fruit, toy , sweet that  the class has created 

Beginning with languages blog 1

Across our network we work with schools who are all at different stages of setting up and delivering primary language learning and each year we welcome new schools who want to set off on their own individual school's language learning journey.

This year these specific "Beginning with languages " blogs will try to offer "bite size chunks" of indirect help and support to schools, who are doing exactly that .... just setting off and implementing  a language learning curriculum 

Sept - Oct (first half term) Checklist
It's all about establishing a whole school support system for all your staff
It's about small steps and simple language learning
It's about children and staff beginning to enjoy language learning!

• Do you have a nominated colleague who is leading in this new school focus?
• Have you accessed and read the DfE POS  for KS2 language learning?
• If you have a specialist teacher or a teacher in school that is delivering most of the language learning ,are all your staff informed of the language learning focus?Are all your staff supporting and encouraging the language learning?( possible ways may be through class teacher display/ children feedback/ revisiting a song with sound support/investigating the country and the culture)  you sharing with the children information about how to learn languages and are you beginning to establish a infrastructure to support the language learning as the children progress?

Blog support! 
Maybe these blogs can help you to find ways to implement the bullet points above
Setting out our language learning approach
Ready Steady Go!




Beginners language learning
This half term focus on all the children and the staff being able to:

• sing a simple song/songs  in the target language (a traditional song,a greetings song, a song from a CD or resource pack)
• participate in simple games such as Simon says / hot and cold / thumbs up /bingo
• see written target language such as greetings on the class door or 
• help to create written number banners or display boards with greetings and name phrases
• share facts that interest them about the target language country
• share with their  parents and carers some simple  target language phrases and some facts about the country/ countries of the target language
• say hello and goodbye
• ask how someone is feeling and give their own response
• ask and answer their names
• listen and understand numbers 0-10 ,count to 10 in the target language and recognise numbers in written form
• listen and understand the target language words for  six common colours ,practise saying the colours.

Blog support! 

Maybe these blogs can help you to find ways to implement the bullet points above
Greetings and feelings
Greetings and simple questions
listening sticks
Numbers and activities for all staff
Colours and activities for all staff
Colour mimes and word association
Abstract Art colours and display
Authentic playground games
                                  Getting started with rocket mobiles

A whole school celebration this half term?

Well this half term we like to celebrate European Day of Languages.It's on 26 September, but in schools where a specialist teaches  languages then the day during that week that languages are timetabled is often chosen.
Take a look at the links here for some ideas
European Day of Languages
Some of our schools will be having a themed day this year 
We are having "A Grand Day Out!"

Setting out our language learning stall for 2014 2015

Today the associate language teachers and assistants met for our CPD Day.Part of our discussions where based upon how we are going to set up effective environments for primary language learning this academic year.

Here are some of the tools,approaches and resources we will begin to implement or use across all year groups in KS2 in the next couple of weeks.

The rights of the language learner
You can access the PDF from Bsmall publishing here.

The rights of the language learner

The poster reminds children about respecting others, taking risks and having a go and allows us to think of some of our own important learning strategies for the year! Brilliant to have in the classroom and to refer to when children are struggling or not sure how to approach a challenge or just as a prompt when required. We are sure that the children will want to add strategies and pictures of their own.

Creating a whole school supportive language learning environment 

We identified the need to support the whole school staff to feel a part of the language learning taking place in school and loved the idea of the " target language postbox"

great to post and share successful activities, questions or requests around language learning.Maybe this blog will help.....

Ready steady go!

Welcome back! 

We identified how important it is to welcome children back or for the first time into our language learning classes and how we can link this to the idea that all children are going back to school right now across the target language countries. We want to share with the children greetings in the target language pertinent to "returning to school" on the IWB or as individual cards just like these in French:

A memorable learning journey 

If we use individual cards (welcome back) then these can be stuck in to our learning journals. This year we will have learning journals that are personal to the children created along the lines of the one described in the blog below:

A journey worth taking

We want the children to keep a growing record of the experiences, sights,sounds,smells and creative activities along their language learning journey and individual or class learning journals just like these seem a good way to create a  memorable journey!

Unpacking our suitcases from last academic year 

With some of our children we will be unpacking their virtual language learning suitcases from last academic year to remember and to revisit some of their favourite activities and stories . Take a look at emilie's blog and see the suitcases she packed with her classes...

Our suitcases of learning

A child's record of how much they grow in language learning and knowledge across the academic year.

How does your garden grow?

We discussed the elements we see the children developing across a year of language learning (language content , structure ,all 4 skills, links between language and other subjects, cultural knowledge etc). I suggested the " how does your garden grow record" for Year 3 and Year 4 but colleagues felt that this was still a valid and age appropriate activity for UKS2 too! This will be kept in the children's journals or learning logs (see above) and we intend to start these pictures in October.

Exploring culture and celebrating languages through creative and imaginative work.

We discussed  ways this year we will use Art,literature,poetry ,song, music, Drama to explore  both language skills and the culture of the target language country.We are setting off on a " a grand day out"  in the week of the European Day of Languages ( 26 September) with this in mind!

Transition in a suitcase

And at the end of the year we hope to be able to pack those virtual suitcases again with memories , games, creative outcomes ,songs, stories and poems that we want to share at the start of the next new academic year of learning!

Transition in a suitcase between year groups

Primary Language Learning and practical primary pedagogy using the new POS 2014

Primary Language Learning and Strategic Focus for September 2014 and beyond.
 So this is my final blog of the Summer term and it's all about readiness and starting off on the right foot with primary languages. How can schools build successful strategic teaching and learning focuses for the individual school/ and understand and build toward successful primary language learning embraced by the whole staff within the school?

First a little context to my ramblings ..........
This academic year the JLN subject coordinators and I have spent our coordinator CPD sessions considering how we can prepare , use and move on with the new DfE POS for KS2 primary language learning.

51 colleagues(divided in to two smaller groups ranging from established, building or just starting off schools) and I have met one afternoon per term to discuss the new POS. The new DfE POS is not so "new" now as we have had sight of this for at least 12 months ,certainly 12 months in its completed state). It's the official document from which we must all work in state education and has to support beginners , moving on and established primary and KS3 language learning school programmes.

Who should teach primary languages? 

We discussed delivery and sustainability and came to the conclusion that schools find their own delivery models - in school PPA, visiting teachers, language assistants ,experienced and target language speaking HLTAs,class teachers supported by SOW and sound files etc. all of these have value and should be valued! What is key is that there must be a strategic vision in school, a long term overview, medium term planning and appropriately selected next steps are in place. why? The role of coordinator is a vital one.We felt  that there is staff buy in and a collective feeling that the school values primary language learning when it is an integral part of the whole school learning programme not seen as an "add on "! 

These are our conclusions (from coordinators ,young and old, experienced and new to the role, specialists and non-specialists) and we hope that they may be useful and support our schools and other networks and individual schools and teachers to develop or tweak sustainable and successful language learning models.In our opinion ,after reflection ,the POS may be brief (in amount of paper) but it is not a fluffy document.You need to look for the opportunities within it too! We know there will be other points to be raised and discussed etc but hopefully here are some good starting points!

A school vision 
Firstly we took a look at the "Purpose of Study".The first sentence talks about the "liberation from insularity" ! 
What a phrase. We deliberated..... and then Robert (a wonderful Spanish coordinator) declared it's the "WOW" factor! It's the moment a child speaks a word in the target language for the first time or tells his/her carer/ parent about the facts s/he has learnt in school about the country etc today. For us,it's the conversations we have with target language speakers and the adventures we can have too.We felt that from here we could all begin to tweak, maintain or build our picture of the school vision from Sept 2014 onwards. This picture inspired us!

.
We identified in the paragraph core focuses for the coordinators and core challenges that needed to be unpicked back at school to create a school vision statement:

• High quality teaching and learning 
• Culture
• Preparation for future language learning

We unpicked the phrase "new ways of thinking and great literature " and with our practical hats on decided that in exploring the culture of the target language we would need to consider why and how festivals, traditions, cultural approaches,story,poems,daily routines occur in the way they do.We felt that the phrase(no longer a learning focus of language learning)"inter-cultural understanding" would still help us to explore with the children new ways of thinking and great literature.

We could see how we may want to explore the simple stories for example next year about WW1 or evacuees during WW1 and WW2 and how therefore we would need to encourage our children to empathise with circumstances and emotions that may be very unfamiliar.

We pondered long and hard over "great literature" and what that word "great " really meant. We talked a lot about all the lovely stories we have been using to colour in the learning in languages that is already taking place. 

We can not throw away our story books such as "grand monstre vert" even if it  is written by an american author nor can we not read "The Hungry Caterpillar" or "Going on a bear hunt" in the target language because they too are by non target language speakers. The children  love these stories and it's the light bulb moments when they realise you can access, buy and read these  stories in other countries and languages that is too precious! We will continue to share rhymes such as itsy bitsy spider in the various target languages with our very young learners too. we already explore authentic poetry and we  know  for example that we have already used poetry Jean de la Fontaine (le rat de ville et le rat de champs) in very much abbreviated form when for instance we have looked at my town your town and my house your house. We look forward to the challenge of simple poetry in the target language and  building on the authentic rhymes, songs and simple poetry we already use  from the target language.We want to offer the children "great " learning experiences and this will involve familiar stories and also new and exciting explorations of authentic and respected literature from the target language! We look forward to this challenge but will always try to work with texts that are learner age and stage of learning appropriate or have age and stage appropriate activities to unpack the text! During our conversations it was very clear that we are about inclusive learning and seeing all children progress in their communication skills.

Making substantial progress,using bi-lingual dictionaries are already part of the school  focus and on the agenda in lots of the schools I work with 

Substantial progress makes language learning more valuable and respected in our opinion.(We aren't just singing a song or repeating numbers 1-10 ... we are going on a learning journey,often revisiting familiar language but also trying to build upon it or use it in a new way).Schools find that long and medium term planning gives them the bigger picture and allows them the opportunities to weave new activities and resources through their language learning year, still ensuring progress in content and skills. 
It seems sensible and good practice to the teachers that they share with the children tools that make learning more accessible and this links so well with phonology and independent use of language. Indeed lots of the co-ordinators identified that some simple staff CPD input about pronunciation,intonation,rules of phonology in  the target language and then very importantly how to use and access the bi-lingual dictionary help staff buy in as well! Stumbling blocks for staff are often not knowing where to access language and sound files, uncertainty about  pronunciation or not knowing how to use a bi-lingual dictionary and as they progress not being sure about which definite article they should be using and how to find this out.Simple in- school teacher led or consultant/trainer led CPD input can allay the fear factor and then all staff can embrace to a certain level language learning!  

Grammar 
Grammar is a challenge not an obstacle for teachers.Once they see how it links to the need to structure sentences accurately to develop competent clear communication skills and they recognise that this is what they are already promoting in literacy then it becomes an exciting challenge.In fact I think it allows primary language learning to become more meaningful and powerful for lots of primary class teachers - it's not just a lot of words or a silly rhyme,but there is point and purpose and sometimes the teachers learn alongside the children and feel more and more confident in their use of language. I have spent a lot of this academic year creating resources and materials to explore grammar  and structure appropriately and creatively with young children and can get very excited about what we really can achieve with the young learners and grammar! Again there is need for staff CPD and there is need for a guiding hand and making those links between literacy and language learning and how they are all part of exploring language and communication,which helps to  remove the fear factor.  

Subject Content 
In considering the subject content,we had to consider also the Aims of the new POS. We found them pivotal to both the school vision, strategic planning and to the meat of the week on week lesson planning.They helped us to look at what we should access and use and how we should plan for teaching and learning activities.We saw opportunities for shared learning tools and resources across KS2 and also shared tools and approaches as pathways in to KS3 and beyond.Really important as we had already identified that we need to lay foundations for KS3 learning and that KS3 should pick up and develop further what primary have achieved.Shared learning tools could mean shared pathways to learning and knowledge of prior learning and how and why this has taken place.

Of course the co-ordinators are first and foremost teachers and so the subject content bullet point list was seen as integral to our subject content discussions on planning and progression.
Firstly we reminded ourselves that we must make sure now right from Year 3 September 2014 that there is appropriate balance of spoken and written language and that we practise with the children  all four skills of listening,speaking ,reading and writing. This may seem like a big change for those of us who remember the early stage focus on listening and speaking,but ask yourself how many children need to see words and physically create words and sentences before they are internalised and can be used independently? (I have poor hearing now at 51! I am not certain I have ever had wonderful hearing but I do love languages and exploring the structure of language and definitely have always needed more than just listening and speaking to access language .)We did feel though that in the early stages there is bound to be more listening and speaking and those that teach languages as KS1 want to continue and see singing , joining in and listening and speaking as integral to that KS1 language learning.We all felt that writing must once again be planned as age and stage appropriate and that we have to find creative ways to write- in the air/ as a game writing with a finger on backs,writing in sand, using IT to record writing, "painting writing" etc.We are keen to remember as we plan for writing next term that scribing with a pen or pencil is often just the final product - what is happening inside the brain is the mechanics of writing and reading and listening are integral to how this all comes together.

The bullet pointed subject content in the POS embraces listening ,speaking ,reading , writing and grammar. Colleagues such as Clare Seccombe and Rachel Hawkes have collated and drawn up really useful lists of the five key elements on their blogs.Those of us who worked with or trained people with the KS2 Framework,know that we need to break down these lists and points into stages of learning to learn how to ....listen, speak , read, write , use structure and we identify the KS2 Framework objectives as the climbing frame upon which to achieve this. Great thing with climbing frames is you can go up,down , over the top, start again from the bottom or take a rest half way up and admire the view! We are going to try to remember that language learning skills spiral up and spiral down (very much like Maths can do) and our learners need to climb at their own best speed.  

So after spending the year in CPD sessions, on email with colleagues,in meetings with local coordinators and SLT,training our local teachers and working with the associate language teachers what do I think currently about primary languages from September 2014 and the new POS? Clare Seccombe (@valleseco) asked us to describe the new POS in one word recently on Twitter and unusually for me it took me quite a while to decide upon my word but then I tweeted "opportunity".Why? We need to take this opportunity and help all the children in KS2 to become confident in their ability(at whatever level) to operate in a new target language.On Twitter recently I received this cartoon from @PatriciaDunn71

Let's try to help all our young learners to explore the skills of language learning ...  "speaking  with increasing confidence,fluency and spontaneity, finding ways of communicating what they want to say ..... and  learning how "to write at varying length ,for different purposes and audiences ". We need to combine this with the "liberation from insularity" and encourage all our children to have the confidence to develop enquiring minds that want to explore "great literature" and also understand different cultures, languages and "ways of thinking" 

Time for a holiday I think - sorry for rambling on!   

The sounds of a "positioning rhyme" in French

A positioning rhyme in French

Why is this necessary?

Last week Emilie and I delivered CPD where the teachers had to listen to words that describe the position of an object in French.

• The two words sous- under and sur - on caused challenges , as said quickly they sounded quite similar to the untrained ear.
• En haut (above )was also interesting because of the aspirated sound for "h" and the close connection of "en" and "au" remembering too that the "t" is a silent last letter.
• Another teacher pointed put that you can't anticipate whether the action required is in front or behind until you hear the second syllable of the words devant (in front) and derrière (behind)

So below are activities that I have been using for many years to practise these key words and the sounds contained within them. 

The positional words and the rhyme

Teach the children the positional language below. Some of the words are similar sounds in the target language and the children will need to listen very carefully .

En haut,devant,derrière

Devant et sous et sur.

Sous,sur,sous,

Devant, derrière.

En haut , en haut , en haut!

Pass the parcel sous and sur

• Sit the children in a circle and  play music whilst the children pass an object around the circle. 
• Pause the music and the child holding the object must listen to you carefully as you ask them to put the object “sous” or “sur” an upturned box that is in the centre of the circle.
• Each time encourage the rest of the class to show thumbs up or thumbs down as the child places the object on or under the box.
• Play the game a second time and this time allow the child to the left or right of the child holding the object when the music stops to determine if the object goes “sous” or “sur” the box.
• 
  

A question of concentration

• Practise all the key position words
• Ask the children to stand up and add actions – slowly and carefully as if they were Tai Chi actions.
• Now put together the rhyme and the actions as a Tai Chi performance.
• Ask the children to close their eyes and just listen (they can’t then rely on anyone else) and ask them to perform the rhyme.
• Now muddle up the order of the words- can the children listen and concentrate and perform the correct actions in the correct order.

What’s the sound ?

• Break the words down into key sounds:

Sous (ou)

Sur  (u)

Devant (ant)

Derrière (ère)

en haut  (en/au)

• Call a sound .Can the children think of the word and perform the correct action.
• Place the key sounds as written sounds on the floor as a path of stepping stones- you need six paths so all children can work at the same time.
• Ask the children to divide themselves into groups of six and to form a line. 
• Ask the children to move across the stepping stones to read the written sound on each stepping stone and as they step on the stepping stone they must perform the action they associate with the sound e.g ou = sous

The secret treasure hiding journey

You will need space for this activity- the hall or the playground would be best.

• Ask the children to think of something very precious to put in to a special casket that they can imagine holding.

• Ask the children to place their precious object in their casket and lock the casket.
• The teacher should explain that they are going to hear the rhyme several times and they need to go on a secret treasure hiding journey in their imaginations to hide their caskets.
• Ask the children to move around the room- reaching high, looking under or going under something or climbing on top or placing the casket on top of something imaginary as they make their secret treasure hiding journey in unison with the rhyme.

The progress we are making,an account from the teachers.

We are drawing toward the end of another busy year for our network .It’s time to review progress and see how our children are developing as young language learners. Of the 90 school within the network 32 of the schools are supported by either a visiting teacher or a language assistant teaching from our SOW . It seems pertinent to ask these colleagues what progress looks like to them in their schools across both key stages.

 I have the great pleasure of working with these enthusiastic, passionate and highly committed colleagues every academic week of the year.I asked some of my colleagues to write several sentences on progression they have seen this year ,all with a specific focus across three languages (French, German and Spanish

We meet on a very regular basis to discuss and practise language activities and as a unit of colleagues we have established a sharing and networking community....often pushing each other on!

What is very important here is that the progress described is a true simple reflection of what the children are demonstrating and achieving  at different learning stages.The comments are those of  practitioners who take ideas and put them in to primary practice.

We are certain that many of you will be able to say and identify very similar points.That’s reassuring isn’t it? 

What I identify as I read these comments is that we have gone past simple words and repetition and the learners are becoming interested young linguists,confident that they can listen, speak read and write and therefore communicate in another language! Hurrah! 

Key Stage One Learners: Spanish

Ana (Native Spanish speaker, QTS Primary with Early Years’ specialism). Here's her end of year report on the  specific noticeable progress she sees in KS1 this year. Ana teachers KS1 in 5 of the 6 schools where she also teachers KS2) . 

Greetings in Reception

In KS1 the main progress I can see is in the children, who  have learned Spanish for a couple of years- so Year 1 and 2 .

• They are confident.
• They link and use previous knowledge in new topics.
• Their minds are open and receptive, they enjoy and don’t feel shy to try.
• Some of my children in Reception after doing Spanish previously in nursery, can independently say their names, how they feel ,their favourite colour, the weather, days of the week, animals, numbers up to 20, body parts and follow a lesson where I mostly only speak Spanish.
• These children show how important is to start teaching a foreign language in early years as their little minds are more than ready! 

Year 3 Spanish Beginners 

Joanne (PGCE QTS Primary Teacher with a primary language specialism ,teaches both Spanish and French) Joanne considered  the specific  progress she has seen in her Spanish Year 3 beginner class .She teaches from Year 1 to Year 6 in a local school. This is her end of year report.

Year 3 Superheroes Autumn Display

The Year 3s are just a joy to teach and the progress they have made this year has been impressive.

In their first year of learning Spanish, “my little Language Detectives “have wholeheartedly thrown themselves into their Language learning and have had lots of fun trying out new sound patterns and words.  

They respond to mimes and gestures and they amaze me with the amount of vocabulary they retain and recall and the inquisitive questions they ask. ('If Spanish has an upside down question mark at the start of a question and an upside down exclamation mark at the start, does all punctuation go upside down?' I ran with a flurry to grab a handful of Spanish stories and books so we could put our Detective sombreros on and investigate.)

Silly songs are immensely popular with my Year 3s (particular the fruit song) and the children even ask me for links so they can practice the songs at home. They have been known to come in the following week with an accompanying full on dance routine!

Year 4 Moving on on German

Barbara Foerster ,Year 4 German (native speaker German , TA and language assistant) Barbara works in a local school as a class TA and also as the teacher of German across KS1 and KS2. Barbara’s focus is upon Year 4 children who are moving on from being “beginner” learners.

My current Year 4 class are really good at German. They are very interested in the language and pick up new phrases very easily. 
I am very pleased with the progress they have made over the last few months - moving from simple sentences, e.g. my name is ... I am feeling good, to more complex sentences and phrases, recalling already known language fairly easily.
They are now able to have a  simple conversation and tell the other person about themselves and also ask questions.

Some of the things they are able to say are: their favourite colour,( and what I really like is that using the same phrase for “my favourite” ... they can translate that knowledge to say other favourite things, e.g. favourite pop group, singer, football star or number), where they live, when their birthday is and how old they are.
My aim for next year is to make them become even more independent !

Progress across LKS2 and UKS2 

Catherine (PGCE QTS Primary teacher with a languages specialism).She teaches four schools, French in two schools and Spanish in two schools. I asked her to suggest one specific noticeable skill step forward in each year group from Year 3 to Year 6  in both languages. This is what she has identified:

Across Key Stage 2, I have seen children become more independent learners. 

• In Y3, children have progressed from repeating words and phrases to holding a conversation with questions and answers. 

• In Y4, I have seen children become able and confident to write simple sentences in the target language.

• In Y5, children are becoming confident in using bilingual dictionaries. 

• In Y6, children have progressed from being able to read sentences in the target language to reading full scripts in the language. 

In general, I have seen children become more engaged and proactive in their own language learning.

What does UKS2 look like this year?

Emilie (native speaker QTS Secondary and Primary French Teacher). She works in 6 schools and across both Key Stages. Emilie was asked to consider the type of progress she is seeing in UKS2 as a platform that can be built upon into Year 7.Here is her report on progress in Years 5/6:

• In Years 5 and 6 children are beginning to understand and read longer sentences/paragraphs made up of familiar language.
• They are producing in writing and speaking longer sentences using simple connectives.
• They have acquired language learning skills such as looking for cognates and strategies to work out new language (i.e using clues, context, etc.)
• They are familiar with a range of structures including talking about likes, dislikes and preferences.
• They are becoming more and more confident in speaking and have become very fluent in talking about themselves (name, age, where they live, etc.)

A view from the bridge between Year 6 and Year 7 

Jayne (Secondary and Primary French teacher) teaching French and Spanish in 6 different schools from KS1 to Year 6.Jayne has considered Year 6 children she teaches now and what they can do that she feels does now need to be acknowledged as they enter Year 7

• Year 6 can remember so much of what they have done before!
• They are keen to reapply knowledge and show what they can do.
• In Year 6 they are beginning to extend their knowledge of sentence structure and  are keen to know more about language and grammar and how to use this to communicate.
• Even in a new context it’s amazing what they can describe and how much new language they can add to their descriptions accurately.
• They want to plan, prepare and use dictionaries to find what they really want to say!

• In Year 7 maybe we should n’t hold the children back but let them explore language more independently and apply their language skills even if it’s in a new language rather than spending a long time re-explaining what they have done or what they can learn quite quickly .

So now we are ready to move on to next year and to enjoy working with our schools and young learners and to see where we get to next year ....??!