Summary

St Laurence's is a state primary school of 520 pupils in a small town near Dublin, Ireland. Following a successful bid for government funds in the year 2000 a teacher of Spanish was appointed to teach the two top classes of the school as part of the Modern Languages Project in Primary School Initiative in Ireland . A Spanish language assistant is also employed and Spanish children from a local Spanish private school enhance the amount of contact time with native speakers. Spanish is now integrated into the life of the school at all levels and a user friendly curriculum exists for all classes which enables  teachers, including those with very little Spanish, to teach Spanish to their pupils. The success of the initiative has encouraged the local secondary school to start the teaching of Spanish to provide continuity.  The pupils are proud to show off their competence in Spanish at school functions, such as school assemblies, Christmas celebrations and Europe Day. The initiative won an award under the European Award for Languages Scheme in Ireland.

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