Welcome to Spanish
The Modern Foreign Language Team aims to:
- Develop students’ skills to become fluent and spontaneous speakers in the language taught through the 3 pillars of vocabulary, phonics and grammar.
- Give students a feeling of success with small, structured activities to develop self-confidence and to give them an awareness of the nature of language.
- Encourage students’ written and oral skills for practical purposes, for their immediate needs, interests, to express and justify opinions and to boost their literacy skills.
- Enable students to develop personalised learning, thinking skills and strategies such as memorising, analysis, communication and research.
- Help students to achieve skills and qualifications that will be of benefit when looking for employment or that will enable them to study further.
- Have a positive learning environment in classrooms, recognising different learning styles so that all students can achieve to the best of their ability.
- Broaden students’ horizons to accept that our society/culture is not the only one and to consider the importance and relevance of other societies. We aim to develop a positive attitude to diversity within the British Isles, the European Community and the wider world.
- Promote careers in language lessons across all key stages to raise aspirations and educate students about the variety of career paths that use languages.
Key Stage 3:
Year 7 and Year 8 students are taught in ability groups and students study Spanish for 2 hours a week.
The Y7 course teaches students the vocabulary to talk about themselves, their school, where they live, what the watch on TV, how they use technology, organise a meeting and talk about a future holiday. Students will develop their understanding of Spanish grammar in order to share their ideas and express their opinions. Students will learn regular verb endings and a group of irregular verbs, the immediate future tense and opinion starters as well as a range of adverbs of frequency, quantifiers and connectives. Phonics are embedded into the course and many opportunities are given to students to practise their pronunciation and productive skills in speaking. Hispanic cultural differences are shared throughout the year and all students learn the lyrics to a song in Spanish to compete in our annual Linguavision competition.
The Year 8 course builds upon the Year 7 course. The preterit and imperfect (description) tenses are introduced and the present and immediate future tenses are retrieved throughout the year. Students begin to use 3 tenses by the end of the year. Students will also develop their knowledge of connectives and time phrases. Students will be taught the vocabulary to be able to order food at a restaurant, buy items at the market and shops, talk about music and festivals, write a story and share their experiences on the topic of sports. Phonics are explicitly taught and retrieved within the course to develop students’ confidence when speaking and spelling. Hispanic culture is embedded into the units such as La Tomatina festival and San Fermín as well as Spanish music and stories.
In Year 9 students can choose to focus on Spanish and complete the 3 hour per week course or 1 hour per week course. All students have the possibility of choosing Spanish as a KS4 option at the end of Year 9. The Year 9 course continues to builds upon and retrieves the grammar points in Y7 and Y8 so that students can transfer and apply their knowledge into a variety of scenarios. Students are introduced to modal verbs and the imperfect tense. Students are taught the necessary vocabulary to discuss their health, festivals, family life and their career ambitions.
Students will communicate with our partner school in Cataluña by sending them a Christmas card. Phonics are explicitly taught and retrieved throughout. Hispanic culture is embedded into the course through the teaching of Day of the Dead, Día de Reyes, Latin American countries and Spanish family life.
Our Classroom resources are supported by a vast range of in-house and bought in additional materials including authentic material from newspapers, magazines, leaflets and the internet. We are constantly updating topical, real life TV and ICT resources.
Students can consolidate their learning by using the Memrise website and app. Students should ask their teacher for the log in details. Students are also encouraged to use Seneca learning, BBC bitesize and GCSEpod.
Key Stage 4:
GCSE Spanish follows the AQA Exam board covering different topics from three main themes:
Theme 1: Identity and Culture
Theme 2: Local, National, International Global Areas of Interest
Theme 3: Current and Future Study and Employment.
Students continue to build on their knowledge of grammar and widen their cultural understanding of Hispanic countries. The course is assessed by four exams all worth 25%: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Spanish Trips
The department believes that it is vital that students learning foreign languages spend some time in the target country. We feel this is an important part of the ‘languages experience’, one that makes the learning process come alive.
We run a Spanish Exchange with a secondary school in Badalona, Spain. In our last visit, students attended lessons at the school, visited a science museum, explored the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona and spent time getting to know their exchange partners and families. In recent years, the return visit has included trips the The National Space Centre, York and a tour of the Nottingham City Centre.
Plans are in place to run an education visit to Spain in summer 2023.
We have also participated in the Business Language Champions events in recent years which challenges students to use their language skills in a vast range of contexts.
Useful Links/Apps:
- Memrise – https://www.memrise.com/
- Quizlet GCSE – https://www.quizlet.com/bwa-mfl/folders/year-11-spanish/sets
- Duolingo – https://www.duolingo.com/
- AQA Spanish – https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/spanish-8698
- BBC Bitesize – https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/examspecs/z4yyjhv
