Portuguese
Portuguese at Anglo Portuguese School of London
At Anglo Portuguese School of London, Portuguese is an integral part of our bilingual curriculum from Reception to Year 6. Our aim is for every child to develop confidence in Portuguese, deepen their understanding of the language and culture, and make meaningful connections across their learning.
Our Portuguese curriculum reflects the school’s wider pedagogical approach: learning that lasts, values that shape and preparing children for life. It is carefully sequenced so that knowledge, vocabulary and skills are revisited, built upon and deepened as children progress through the school.
A curriculum connected to learning across the school
Where appropriate, Portuguese learning is aligned with the English curriculum so that children can make connections between subjects, concepts and prior knowledge.
Literacy is at the heart of the curriculum, with children developing their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills through a wide range of texts and learning experiences. Portuguese lessons also incorporate elements of history, geography, literature, culture and the arts, particularly when these provide meaningful links to Portugal and the wider Portuguese-speaking world.
Children explore Portugal alongside countries and communities across the Lusophone world, developing their cultural knowledge and understanding of the diversity of Portuguese language and culture.
This connected approach allows children to revisit familiar concepts through another language, strengthen their vocabulary and develop an increasingly rich understanding of the world.
Different pathways, shared ambition
Our pupils come to Portuguese with very different linguistic experiences. Some children speak Portuguese regularly at home with their families, while others begin school with little or no previous knowledge of the language.
Our teaching recognises these different starting points while maintaining high expectations for every learner.
Portuguese-speaking and heritage-language learners follow a curriculum designed to extend and enrich the language they already possess. Teaching develops increasingly sophisticated vocabulary, reading comprehension, grammar and written expression, while broadening children's knowledge of Portuguese literature, history and the Lusophone world.
Learners of Portuguese as an additional/foreign language receive carefully differentiated teaching, with an emphasis on building vocabulary, comprehension, confidence and spoken communication. Visual support, modelling, repetition, structured language practice and opportunities for purposeful conversation help children gradually become more independent users of Portuguese.
In the early years and Key Stage 1, children learn together wherever appropriate, with teaching adapted to their individual language level and needs.
A tailored pathway from Year 4
From Year 4, pupils who are learning Portuguese as a foreign/additional language follow a more specifically tailored pathway. This recognises that their language-learning needs increasingly differ from those of children who already use Portuguese confidently at home.
This pathway is supported by SOMA, our structured programme for developing Portuguese language proficiency.
SOMA provides a clear progression in high-frequency vocabulary, sentence structures, comprehension and communication. New language is introduced systematically and revisited regularly, enabling children to build secure foundations before moving towards increasingly independent speaking, reading and writing.
The programme is designed around the principles of the school's spiral curriculum: children revisit, build, deepen and apply their learning over time.
Communication, culture and confidence
Across both pathways, Portuguese is taught as a living language. Children are encouraged not simply to learn about Portuguese, but to use it to communicate, think, question, explain and express themselves.
Oracy and vocabulary development are central to our approach. Through stories, discussion, drama, songs, literature, collaborative activities and purposeful writing, children develop the confidence to communicate in Portuguese at a level appropriate to their stage of language development.
As they progress from Reception to Year 6, we want our pupils to leave us not only with stronger Portuguese language skills, but also with curiosity about languages, pride in multilingualism and an understanding of the cultural richness and diversity of the Portuguese-speaking world.
Two pathways. One shared goal: confident, curious and culturally aware learners who can use Portuguese with purpose.
