primary progression

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












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 ....??!

Ready,steady,go! Setting off together with Primary Language Learning

Making first steps to progress together in primary languages. A report from the chalk face 

It's a case of Ready! Steady !Go!

This morning I have had the great pleasure of helping a school to set off on their Spanish learning journey.

Here is the picture so far .....
The school has a Year 3 teacher who has a degree in Spanish and has decided to embark on Spanish for this reason plus the fact that the school feeds to a local High school which offers Spanish.
The audit of staff skills showed that there were that other staff had a limited knowledge of Spanish and would need support to deliver a programme of study With support the school is about to set off on an exciting language learning journey where class teachers will deliver the language learning and draw support from each other.


We have begun to put some simple tools in place today to help school to set off on this journey!



Step One: 
Getting to understand the new PoS from the DfE for Primary Languages and unpicking the Purpose of Study section to create a school vision.(This has already happened and the POS was used as a discussion tool today to forward plan)

Step Two: 
A clear and simple guide by the subject coordinator during staff CPD time to set the staff and children off on their learning journey together (after half term) 

Step Three: 
A shared learning experience
School will hold a celebration of the World Cup using the games and activities from the JLN World Cup Football Seasonal Specials with a focus on the World Cup PE games  downloadable folders with lessons with support sound files in Spanish for the staff , using limited language in a familiar curriculum area- Sport. What a gift this year too as the World Cup focus moves to South America!

Step Four: 
Follow up discussions
How did the children react to PE in Spanish?
How quickly did the children remember the language?
How easily could the children lead the PE games ?
How did the sound files support the staff?
These discussions will pave the way to a simple understanding of how teachers can develop- their language lessons in the early stages and how they can be learners alongside the children, facilitating learning too.

Step Five
Planning for a European Day of Languages Celebration in September.
We felt one way of stepping off and setting out what be to look at languages around us  as way to support the children , mainly mono-lingual, to appreciate languages around them. The coordinator will ask the staff to investigate some of the Commonwealth  languages materials (Welsh, Manx, Gaelic and the Scots reading of Peter Rabbit) plus investigate the target language country of their chosen language- Spain

Step Six
Establishing tools to help the school progress together.
I love these! The ideas developed from the discussions between the subject coordinator and myself and are so simple, so primary and so effective!
Suitcases to pack and unpack

This idea came from our conversation about my blog A journey worth the taking……………… (otherwise known as Miss Hilton’s suitcase. 

Creating real suitcases per year group or stored as a virtual class memento suitcase on the school VLE, that can go up with the children to the next year group and can be unpacked by the next  teacher. 
So for instance KS1 children learning songs and rhymes in the target language can share threes with the Y3 teacher at the start of the year.
Year 3 moving into Year 4 can unpack their Year 3 songs, games and memories with their new Year 4 teacher. 

Effective transition and a time to reflect and learn with or from the children as they move into a new year group! 

Step Seven
Building knowledge of grammar together. 

The new POS asks us to teach all four skills of listening,speaking,reading and writing and to develop the children's understanding of basic grammar. 

We discussed how this could be seen as a  big challenge but how really the grammar that young learners  meet in the target language is that of SPAG (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions). 

The first focus we identified are NOUNS! 
Simple – let’s have treasure boxes for each KS2 class , linked to my grammar blog about noun collectors.

Each lesson or when appropriate,a child that has worked well, joined in well, shared etc can be asked to draw a specific noun they have met in the lesson as picture treasure record and place it in one of two class treasure boxes.The boxes are for either our masculine or feminine nouns (and of course neuter if you are working in German). In return for the picture the child receives in  a card paper gold coin – for work well done!
It’s important right from the start that the staff and the children understand that masculine and feminine don’t refer to male or female and that these are “tags” to help us to use the nouns in messages in the target language in different ways( el/la in Spanish mean "the" which are referred to as definite articles by you and me!). 
Guess what half way through the year in the treasure boxes the  coordinator will add “un “ and “una”   stickers on the inside lids of the boxes.The challenge from the coordinator will be to ask the teacher and the children in the class to spot when and how these words are used …. Hence they will explore indefinite articles. Later she can change or add two new boxes for plural masculine nouns and plural feminine  nouns. everyone moves forward together and the coordinator can support.The year one , stage one grammar target will be to work with the children on their knowledge of target language nouns.
Step Seven


Ah I hear you ask …. But what about the teachers and the children when they get stuck in their language explorations! Well the coordinator is going to put up a Spanish letterbox outside her classroom – indeed she showed me the spot- and  the teachers and children can post her questions to ask, thoughts the class have had to check , good work done, creative ideas, facts they find out! Simple, effective and this helps to be able to access the school coordinator as a point of reference!


Step Eight
QR Codes!
The school wants to celebrate the fact that their children are developing the WOW factor (liberation from insularity!).This is a mainly mono-lingual school so the QRs help the mums, dads, carers and wider community get the WOW factor too – by being able to hear their children speak on displays that are 2D but become talking walls! 
Simple greetings to start with on a picture linked to Spain and Spanish culture in classrooms and in the foyer.
Everyone has to start at the beginning and build on solid foundations.



I look forward to going back to school to help them build some more !

Stepping Stones to Grammar : The Child's Voice

Stepping Stones to Grammar : The Child's Voice 

 This week I have been busy in all sorts of ways discussing with colleagues KS2 and progression 
One thorny issue which has been cropping up is grammar at KS2. 

 Within my network we have been trialling approaches to grammar and ways to engage the learner and support specialist and non-specialist teachers at KS2. Something we keep reminding ourselves about is ,that is primary language learning and that we are working with young children who want a structured and creative programme of learning that allows them as children to explore and grow in confidence as young language learners. They are not frightened by structure and grammar , they just need to have time to enjoy exploring it and playing with it like its code or a puzzle or a pattern!

 I have been watching, observing and listening  to the children themselves! And I have come to the conclusion that we need to take small steps and let children stay on a stepping stone to explore before rushing them to the next level . We need to help them to stand up and feel confident on that stepping stone and then hold their hand as they make their way to the next stepping stone and we need to let them think about and connect grammar in a new language to structures they are already investigating in Literacy.

 Here are three PDFs with their children's voice to guide us , laid out as in "stepping stones" starting from the child , explaining how they progress as language learners that are  not frightened but excited by new learning , how they become inquisitive and  interested in structure  and maybe intrepid explorers..... ready for secondary languages and the care and attention of linguists at KS3.

 If we listen to the voice of the learner and we acknowledge their stages of development as young language learners then in my opinion we will progress with the children and not try to force  progression

The subtitle of the PDFs is simple" from a beginner to an interested and "want to know more young language learner" and that's what I hope I will create by planning for progression using the voice I can hear on these stepping stones . 
Stepping Stones Grammar Nouns Child Voice 

Stepping Stones Grammar Verbs Child Voice

Stepping Stones Grammar Adjectives Child Voice