St Charles' Primary School is committed to implementing the Scottish Government’s policy Language Learning in Scotland: A 1+2 Approach aimed at ensuring that every child in Scotland has the opportunity to learn a modern language from P1 onwards. The school has identified that in order to embed the Spanish in our school it is essential to have staff who are fully trained in the language and methodology of delivering lessons in additional languages. As a result, the school has nominated one member of the teaching staff, Helen Deeny, to take part in this immersion week project. Our colleague, is an extremely committed staff member who is currently part of MLPS Spanish training run by LFEE with the support of South Lanarkshire Council. As a secondary pupil, she studied French and has also studied some Scottish Gaelic and enjoys using what she has learnt throughout her daily teaching. Our Objectives for our project are to: - improve staff competence in terms of language knowledge and understanding. - increase cultural awareness for all pupils and staff - help in the development of new teaching practices through e.g. immersion techniques - build cultural links with similar schools in Spain and within Europe - build up language competence & cultural awareness in pupils & parents - create a network with other schools in South Lanarkshire, Scotland & Europe where good practice can be exchanged, particularly through GLOW in Scotland - improve conversational skills of all staff, pupils, parents and the wider community - find new techniques to embed Spanish into the life of the school across all stages - increase confidence & motivation of staff within the school in the learning, teaching and speaking of Spanish - raise parents’ awareness - raise awareness of EU when teachers exchange with other European partners met on course. A Description of Activities are: - to expand and enhance the current Spanish language programme - to develop Spanish throughout the local community. - to set up a calendar of events agreed with and delivered by the whole school staff - to develop Spain as an interdisciplinary topic within the Social Studies area of the curriculum across early, first and second levels - to team teaching with our secondary language colleagues in both primary and secondary classes. Methodology to be used in our project: - online learning and use of ICT - personal study - individual & group research - group tuition - practical application - cultural immersion Envisaged Results & Impact: - greater confidence in, ability to teach and cultural awareness of Spanish at Early, First and Second levels - a mentor to colleagues teaching Spanish across the curriculum - to improve the teaching methodology of Spanish and all language - to embed Spanish across the curriculum - to teach Spanish in a more relaxed way - to develop a whole school approach in the teaching of Spanish - to develop and share new resources Our anticipated potential longer term benefits are: - greater language skills for all pupils; - higher uptake of Spanish in our secondary school; - to become a centre of excellence for Spanish in our own learning community; - closer links to Spanish schools of similar profile to our own; - teacher exchange visits