Spanish

Spanish

Key Stage 3

Does the Spanish Department follow the National Curriculum ?

Yes

We are passionate about language teaching and learning at Cockermouth School. Lessons are taught mainly in the Target Language, and students have a real sense of progress as they move through Key Stage 3. Students are encouraged to speak Spanish in the lessons, and this is reinforced through our many classroom routines. The lessons are fun, and varied, and focus on recycling previously learnt language in new and different contexts.

Year 7

Spanish is new to most of our students in Year 7, so we start with the topics that will allow them to talk about themselves – their name, age, birthday. Following on from this we learn about describing yourself physically and your character – this now includes talking about your family too. The students enjoy describing their family and saying who they get on well with and why! Throughout Year 7, students are regularly assessed by their teacher through Low Stakes retrieval assessments, vocabulary tests and verbal feedback following answers on their mini whiteboards. Students are always supported in their first year of Spanish, with booklets containing sentence builders and plenty of scaffolding on the board.

Year 8

Our Year 8 students grow in confidence this year and begin to get a real grasp on verb conjugations, including an introduction to the future tense at the end of the year. We cover a very popular topic at the beginning of Year 8 – food! This allows us to revisit adjectival agreements and regular present tense verbs that were introduced in Year 7. We move on from food to discuss clothes, weather, free time activities, daily routine and finally look at future holiday plans just in time for the summer holidays.

Year 9

Year 9 is a time for our linguists to flourish. With focus on the past, present and future tense, students are stretched to be creative with the language and enjoy the feeling of fluency whilst still being supported. We study topics in Year 9 that the students enjoy - looking in more detail about saying where you live, talking about school life, learning how to instigate real conversations with Spanish people and then end the year looking at the Spanish speaking world focusing on Hispanic festivals. This rounds off an exciting, challenging, motivating and varied start to Spanish in KS3. We hope to see you all in KS4!

Key Stage 4

Students follow the AQA GCSE specification if they opt to take Spanish at Key Stage 4. The course allows students to develop their skills and knowledge in the 4 key areas of the language; listening, reading, speaking and writing, and each discipline is worth 25% of their overall grade. In Key Stage 4 we build on the good routines that have been established in Key Stage 3. Regular recycling and solid routines ensure that students develop a good knowledge of key structures and high frequency phrases in Spanish. We have regular End of Unit assessments that inform the students of their progress and what they need to do to improve.

Year 10

The Year 10 course prepares students for the AQA GCSE examination. Topics covered this year include: me, my family and friends, technology in everyday life, free time activities, customs and festivals in Spanish-speaking countries/communities, my studies, life at school/college, education post-16 and jobs, career choices and ambitions. The assessment takes place in the Year 10 exam period and involves a past GCSE examination. Students have a real sense of progression through the topics as their fluency and confidence grows.

Year 11

Year 11 completes the AQA course and covers the following topics: global issues, travel and tourism, home, town, neighbourhood and regional/social issues. There is a mock examination in January and the final examinations take place in May/June.

For further information on the GCSE Spanish Specification use this link.

Key Stage 5

We are all about encouraging a love of the language at Key Stage 5. Students are encouraged to immerse themselves in the culture, history and current affairs in the Hispanic World. We encourage students to take an interest in Spanish films, series, novels, gastronomy and music, alongside following the curriculum.

Year 12

Year 12 starts the AQA course and follows the following topics: aspects of Hispanic-speaking society covering traditional and modern values, cyberspace, sexual equality, and artistic culture in the Hispanic world covering the influence of our idols, regional identity in Spain and cultural heritage. Towards the end of Year 12 we start our two cultural topics: Guillermo del Toro and Como Agua para Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Over the summer holidays, the Year 12 students start preparing for their Independent Research Project.

Year 13

Year 13 completes the AQA course and covers the following topics: multiculturalism in Hispanic society covering immigration, racism and cultural integration in Hispanic society, and aspects of political life in the Hispanic world covering youth of today, monarchies and dictatorships, trade unions. Students also complete studying the cultural topics that they started studying in Year 12, and work independently on their Independent Research Projects. By the end of Year 13, we have confident, fluent and passionate linguists that we are very proud of. The journey to this level of competency starts in Year 7.

For further information on the A Level Spanish specification use this link.