The Spanish department strives to develop and stimulate pupils’ interest and enjoyment in the process of learning Spanish whilst achieving their full potential. We believe that the learning of Spanish, not only supports the achievement of our pupils in other subjects but also enhances a vast number of further education career paths.
We are very proud to offer Spanish as our modern language option. It is estimated that there are more than 560 million people who speak Spanish worldwide, it is the official language in 21 countries and is also the most popular second language learned in the United States, where more than 15% of the total population speak it.
Key Stage 3
The topic areas covered in KS3 are:
- Family life
- Free-time activities
- Local area
- Eating Out
Key Stage 4
Throughout Key Stage 4 our pupils are encouraged to take an active interest in the Spanish speaking world in order to gain wider cultural awareness and give the language a real life context.
We use the AQA examination board and the three broad themes covered are:
- Identity and Culture
- Local, national, international and global areas of interest
- Current and future study and employment
Through the learning of Spanish our pupils develop a range of skills such as; effective communication, deductive and thinking skills as well as reading and listening comprehension. We aim to provide students with a vast range of authentic texts in the target language to stimulate their interest in the life and culture of Spanish speaking countries and communities.
During Year 7 our pupils are able to take part in a popular 5-day visit to Las Cortas de Blas school farm in Valladolid, Spain. Year 9 and 10 pupils can also take part in a 6-day Language Exchange with students from our partner school in Madrid, Colegio San Buenaventura.