4-7 Years
St Faith's Prep
Modern & Classical Languages
The aim of the Languages department is to inspire a love of languages, both ancient and modern.
At St Faith’s all pupils learn Spanish from the age of four and we seek to integrate Spanish into the everyday life of the School; something that has been recognised by the Spanish Embassy in the UK. We introduce French into the curriculum in Year 6, which builds on the pupils’ already increasing knowledge of how language works and further broadens their horizons.
We believe that the academic discipline of modern languages is underpinned by Classics; which is why our pupils begin learning Latin in Year 5 helping to sharpen powers of logic and discrimination as well as increase all-round linguistic competence. Knowledge of ancient civilisations gives depth and perspective to the discussion of contemporary issues.
Specialist teaching mixes original in-house materials with published resources to ensure tailored and creative provision for all. Residential trips to Salamanca in Spain for Year 7 pupils and Rome and Pompeii in Italy for Year 8 pupils take the learning beyond the classroom and offer exciting opportunities for first-hand language experience and adventure.
Below gives a brief idea of what our Languages curriculum includes:
| Spanish | Classics | French | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre Prep | Greetings, colours, numbers (up to 100), body parts and animals. All learning is done orally through the use of flashcards and songs setting up the building blocks for future learning. | ||
| Year 3 | Describing people and animals in greater detail in Spanish. Introducing yourself and your family, colours, numbers and food. Adjectival agreement and word order, gender and number of nouns and extended sentences. | ||
| Year 4 | Talk about ‘where I live’, classroom, school subjects, Spanish-speaking countries and culture, clothes and learn basic Maths in Spanish. Word order, adjectival agreements, plurals, conjugating verbs. | ||
| Year 5 | Building up knowledge on family, the world around us and sports and hobbies. Time, weather, food and drink. Using dictionaries, adjectival agreement, question words, present tense (regular verbs). | Start of the 5th edition of the Cambridge Latin Course; the lives of Romans in Pompeii. Latin word order, noun declensions, telling stories using past tenses. | |
| Year 6 | The world around us, free-time activities and describing where we live. Using irregular verbs and extending language skills. | Roman beliefs, the bath houses and education in the Roman world, comparing the Greeks and the Romans. Forms of the present tense, plural noun spellings, superlative adjectives, irregular perfects. | Greetings, the French alphabet, describing yourself and family, talking about hobbies and free time activities, sports and music |
| Year 7 | Food and drink and eating out. TV and films. School subjects and clothes and daily routines. Present and future tense and use of comparatives and superlatives. | Government and elections in Pompeii, the destruction and rediscovery of Pompeii, changes to rural life in Britain following the Roman invasion. | Daily routines, telling the time, describing where you live, food and eating out. |
| Year 8 | Body parts, illnesses, healthy living and giving advice. Preterite/imperfect tenses, using time phrases, sequencers, quantifiers and connectives. Languages Carousel – an introduction to different languages. |
The invasions of Britain; client kings in the Roman Empire. The development and archaeology of Fishbourne Palace; the development and social history of Alexandria in Egypt. Adjective agreement, Latin subordinate clauses, pluperfect tense. Languages Carousel – an introduction to different languages. |
Key opinions and reasons for wanting to do a job, describing a past holiday. TV and Music and expressing opinions. Using 5 tenses (Past, Present, Near and Simple Future, Conditional), gender and number of nouns, adjective agreement and focus on pronunciation. Languages Carousel – an introduction to different languages. |
Stephanie O’Reilly
Head of Modern and Classical Languages