Spanish: Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 Curriculum
Spanish is an exciting, global language and its popularity within the School is growing steadily year on year. The Spanish Department offers great opportunities for pupils to make the most of their language learning experience at the same time as widening their horizons by achieving excellent results. Lessons are conducted largely in the target language and good use is made of numerous audio-visual and IT resources to help bring Spanish to life within the classroom. In addition, girls in Years 9 and 10 are invited to gain first-hand experience of the language on our cultural trip to Santander which typically takes place in the spring term.
In Year 7 pupils begin with the Listos 1 textbook, progressing onto Listos 2 in Year 8. By the end of Year 9, pupils are able to communicate information about themselves and others in at least three tenses and using a range of vocabulary. Topics include: personal descriptions, family and hometown, hobbies and leisure time, holidays, school and daily life. Focus is placed on the four key language areas of speaking, listening, reading and writing, creating a solid foundation for further study at GCSE level.
In Years 10 and 11 pupils follow the Listos 3 textbook in preparation for the GCSE set by the Edexcel examining board. Pupils widen their vocabulary and grammatical understanding to be able to produce and decipher information relating to the broader topic areas of travel and tourism, sport and leisure, media and culture and business, work and employment. Alongside these, consideration is given to various cultural aspects of the Spanish-speaking world providing pupils with a wider understanding of the subject. Year 11 pupils meet regularly with our native-speaker assistant to improve their oral competence and extra clinics are run to provide further support when necessary.