Spanish

Subject leader

 

Eva Marcos:
eva.marcos@swale.at

Curriculum Intent

At The Turing School, the Spanish curriculum is designed to provide students with the cultural capital and skills needed to succeed in today's interconnected world. Through our Spanish curriculum, students gain a deep appreciation for other cultures, develop their communication skills, and challenge the notion that "everyone speaks English." 

Our curriculum demonstrates that learning a new language breaks down barriers and broadens horizons and is a gateway to new life experiences, both personally and professionally. The Spanish curriculum fosters pupils' curiosity and understanding of the world, enables them to express their thoughts in another language, and provides opportunities for practical communication and literary exploration. Ultimately, our Spanish curriculum equips students with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in an increasingly globalised economy and society.

Curriculum implementation 

Learning journey

KS3

Allocation of time, brief overview of skills and knowledge 

During KS3 students will have 2 sessions of Spanish a week.

In KS3 students develop their knowledge of Spanish phonics (sounds), high frequency vocabulary and simple grammatical structures to enable them to speak, understand, and write using past, present and future tenses as well as express their opinions on a range of topics related to themselves and the world around them (family, school, free time, holidays, town)

Year 7

In terms 1&2 students will learn to introduce themselves in Spanish, describe their family and express basic opinions. Students will be introduced to the concepts of masculine and feminine, the notion of cognates and how they can use patterns to recognise new vocabulary. Students will also begin to understand the importance of Spanish in the world by looking at where it is spoken and some of their traditions such as  Christmas or The day of the dead.

Year 7 students will carry out a creative research project to celebrate the European Day of Languages and learn more about the origin of different languages.

 

In terms 3&4 students will learn to use the present tense to describe the town where they live and what they like doing in their free time. Students will also learn how to give directions and ask for directions and tell the time.

Students will also look at how the Carnival festival is celebrated in the Canary Islands.

 

In terms 5&6 students will learn to describe their house and use reflexive verbs to talk about their daily routine.

We will be looking at how Easter is celebrated in the Hispanic world and compare routines in Spain and the UK such as mealtimes.

Year 8

In terms 1&2 students will learn to compare their town in the past and now as well as rural vs urban life. Students will begin to use the future tense to describe their weekend plans. Students will also develop their role-play skills by learning how to order food and drink at a restaurant as well as express their opinions on the food they like/dislike and describe their diet.

In terms 3&4 students will learn how to describe their health, give advice on how to have a healthy lifestyle and learn how to talk about health problems when going to the doctor’s. Students will also practice role plays on how to shop for food/drink as well as clothes.

In terms 5&6 students will learn to talk and compare transports, buy public transport tickets, describe a journey in the past and talk about their plans for a future holiday.

Year 9

In terms 1&2 students will study the topic of technology and media. They will learn to talk about the social media they use, how they use it and express their opinions. Students will also learn to talk about their school life and their future plans regarding their education.

In terms 3&4 students will learn to talk about their future plans regarding their future jobs/careers. Students will look at how to write a CV in Spanish and how to write formal cover letters for a job application.

Furthermore, students will learn to talk about their worries about a range of issues such as the environment, the future of the planet and human rights.

In terms 5&6 students will explore the Spanish-speaking world, its traditions and some important artists. They will expand their knowledge of tenses and learn some idiomatic expressions to be able to produce more interesting and authentic pieces of writing.

KS4

During KS4 students will have 3 sessions of Spanish per week.

In KS4 students build on the skills and grammatical structures acquired in the previous stage to produce and understand more complex language structures in more demanding topics:

  • Theme 1: Identity and culture;

  • Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest;

  •  Theme 3:  Current and future study and employment.

 

Our exam board is AQA. 

See specification here: https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/spanish/specifications/AQA-8698-SP-2016.PDF

Year 10

In terms 1&2 students will deepen their knowledge of vocabulary and structures in the topics of family and friends and technology. Students will learn to use more complex language to talk about relationships, compare technologies, talk about  how they use technology/social media and describe how relationships and daily interactions can be affected positively and negatively by technology

In terms 3&4 students will revisit the topic of free time and develop the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary to talk about their interests (music, cinema, TV, sport) and role models. Students will also study Spanish and Latin American festivals and compare some Hispanic and British traditions such as The day of Dead and Halloween.

 

In terms 5&6 students will expand their knowledge on the topic Home, town, neighbourhood and area.

Students will learn to use more complex structures and tenses to describe where they live, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of living in the countryside or in a town and discuss environmental problems as well as some global issues such as poverty and homelessness.

Year 11

In terms 1&2 students will build up on their existing knowledge of the topic Holidays and Travel where they will develop their knowledge of vocabulary about Social issues. 

Students will learn to talk and solve problems that may arise during a holiday, and discuss social issues including any charity work and/or voluntary work they do.

In terms 3&4 students will strengthen their knowledge of the topic School Life and Careers. Students will review how to talk about their current school, their work experience and discuss plans for the future (education and/or employment)

In term 5 Students will focus on preparing for the Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing exams.

Homework

Allocation, frequency, expectation, examples of tasks

In KS3 students will be set 1 piece of homework per week. 

Homework tasks will include a combination of vocabulary learning (using the self quizzing method Look/Cover/Say/Check), research projects, creative tasks and online activities.

 

In KS4 students will be set 1 piece of homework per week.

This will be centred around GCSE exam practise questions, learning high frequency vocabulary, grammar, idiomatic expressions and completing online activities using Senecalearning,  GCSEpod or Teachvid

Additional websites and resources

Useful websites:

www.languagesonline.org.uk

www.duolingo.com

www.videoele.com (videos with a range of interactive activities. Different levels from Beginners A1 to advanced B2)

www.rockalingua.com (songs to learn the basics in year 7-8)

 

Useful Revision Guides to purchase

KS3:

  • CGP. KS3 Spanish Complete Revision & Practice with Free Online Audio

 

KS4:

  • Pearson REVISE AQA GCSE (9-1) Spanish Revision Guide

 

  • Pearson REVISE AQA GCSE (9-1) Spanish Revision Workbook

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.

If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”

 by Nelson Mandela.