Curriculum Aims

“Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things but learning another way to think about things.” Flora Lewis

Students become increasingly confident in their ability to understand and express themselves in Spanish. Through in-built retrieval practise they can recall the grammar and vocabulary pertinent to the Kay Stage 3 and GCSE curriculum. They also learn about geography, culture, problem-solving, patterns and logic as well as developing a greater understanding of the English language.

Key Stage 3 Curriculum Overview

In Year 9, students have the opportunity to opt into studying Spanish.

The Year 9 Spanish curriculum provides the foundations for further study in Years 10 and 11. We look at phonics and some essential rules as grammar such as adjectival agreement and positioning. We learn about sentence-structure and how to listen for gist and for detail. We do all of this through studying topics about me and my family, free time and school, allowing students to give and receive key information about themselves and others.

Students study the following topics: introducing oneself, talking about family members including age, descriptions (both physical and personality), numbers 1-100, describing relationships with family members and friends, talking about jobs and the pros and cons of different types of job, describing leisure activities and giving opinions on these.

Key Stage 4

Course: GCSE Spanish (8698 – Y11, 8692 – Y10)

Exam Board: AQA

Final Assessment: Four equally weighted papers: listening, speaking, reading, writing

Curriculum Overview

Year 10

Students begin to follow the VIVA coursebook scheme of work, starting with a unit on holidays, and then moving on to looking at life at school, talking about family and free time activities. The topics are delivered via the Conti method, with a lot of emphasis on modelling before moving towards spontaneous use of language.

Year 11

Students study the final topics of the GCSE curriculum: home town and local area, customs and festivals, current and future study and employment and finally social and global issues. Once there has been full coverage of the GCSE curriculum, revision of the GCSE content and preparation for the speaking exam will be the main features of lesson time. Topic based revision is complemented by skill-specific exercises.

Y11 Spanish GCSE Spanish Specification Specification for first teaching in 2016 (sanity.io)

Y10 Spanish GCSE Spanish Specification for first teaching in 2024: Specification (aqa.org.uk)