Teaching Spanish

I have been teaching Spanish in 3  Primary Schools in St Helens. I had 21 different groups, about 550 pupils aged from 4 to 11 years old. All of the groups were whole class.

In St Thomas of Canterbury, I had 8 groups: 2 of year 3, 4, 5 and 6. I taught each group half an hour a week. The ratio is about 24 per class. I was in this school on Mondays.

In St Peter and St Paul, I had 7 groups. Reception, year 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. I taught each group half an hour a week. The ratio is about 30 children per class, except Reception and year 1.

In St Teresa, I had 6 groups. Year 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. I taught  year 1 and 2 for 30 minutes, and year 3, 4, 5 and 6 for 40 minutes. The ratio is 30 children per class.

Although I haven't any complaint about the schools, I found it exhausting teaching in 3 different schools. I have made a great effort to teach properly every group of children. In the schools there were no Spanish materials, books, games... You needed to bring everything with you. And because  every school decides how and when to start learning Spanish, in my case, I found that there were mixed levels of knowledge. That means that you can't do  the same activity  with all the groups ( year 6 for example.)

I based my methodology in developing listening and speaking skills, introducing  lots of vocabulary and some writing. I used English mostly at the beginning to inform and clarify the activity and Spanish to carry on the lesson. The smart board, that most of classes have, helps me a lot to introduce vocabulary, structures, stories. Finally, we moved on to a writing activity, game or song.

I found very useful the CD's from the Educational Department. I used them a lot in my classes. I  made my own worksheets and they are recorded for the use of other teachers. Among other presentations, I made one from my school Jaume Ferran i Clua showing the different parts of the school, classes, children... They liked that very much and talked about similarities and differences between a school in Spain and a school in England.

I proposed the 3 schools in St Helens to make an exchange of letters to students from my school in Valldoreix. I chose one group from each school, St Thomas year 6, St Teresa year 3 and St Peter year 2. They enjoyed reading Spanish a lot, writing  real letters, sending photos and pictures.

Looking backwards, I'm happy with the amount of the Spanish work children made. Most of them were excited with Spanish and the general standard of behaviour was good and in some cases excellent.