Spanish

Curriculum Intention  

Students are taught how to: 

1. Read and pronounce the Spanish alphabet

2. Use personal pronouns 

3. Give simple opinions

4. Describe 

5. Use the present tense regular verbs 

6. Use the immediate future tense

7. Negate verbs

By the end of Year 9, students will be able to: 

1. Read and write in Spanish

2. Conjugate all regular and key irregular verbs in the present

3. Give information about themselves, their families and school

These are the foundation skills of Spanish – at this stage, students need to be able to construct simple accurate sentences and reflect on syntax making links with English or their native language and with the French they learnt in Year 7 (both are derived from Latin). We offer an accelerated course for students in Year 8 who wish to start a new language. They use their knowledge of French to cope with the challenges of Spanish.  

Students are developing their communication skills at KS3. This is a Life Skill that students will take beyond DIS giving them the ability to communicate in a foreign language. From KS3, students are exposed to the IB Learner Profile – displayed in MFL classroom in French / Spanish – teachers support students developing these qualities.   

Some examples of IB profile approaches: 

Reflective: reflection done after each written assessment with a clear individual target to act upon. 

Communicator: a variety of speaking / conversations / role-plays undertaken in lessons. 

Open-minded: discovering French and French-speaking culture and traditions. 

Curriculum Implementation  

1. Redrafting to improve writing – using teacher’s feedback and successcriteria to improve writing and speaking skills.   

2. Authentic project – students draw + describe their family and classroom – digital learning.

3. Flipped learning – use of Education Perfect for independent learning of topic vocabulary.   

4. Investigating links between romance languages – students have learnt French at KS2 and in Year 7 – how are the two languages linked? What are their similarities and differences?

5. Researching- using reference materials – online and offline reference materials to apply learnt grammar rules to new language.  

Grammar is the most challenging element of language learning. It is taught through the enquiry based approached along with questioning. 

Assessment  

At the end of Term 1, students are assessed on their productive skills of speaking and writing. At the end of Term 2 and Term 3, students are assessed on all 4 skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. 

Listening: students complete the listening assessment on Education Perfect in examination conditions. They answer a range of multiple-choice questions on the topics covered in the Term.  

Speaking: students independently prepare a presentation on questions given by the teacher and record it on Flipgrid. They are not allowed to read from a script. 

Reading: students complete the reading assessment on Education Perfect in examination conditions. They answer a range of multiple-choice questions on the topics covered in the Term. 

Writing:  Students respond to a range of questions on the topics covered in the Term. The assessment is handwritten and uploaded on OneNote. 

Wider Curriculum 

Outdoor opportunity:  

Cervantes Institute: watching a Spanish movie in the original version. 

Cross-curricular link: 

Maths: counting, mental arithmetic, telling the time, using money, calculating change 

Drama: role play conversation: introductions 

Geography: European countries and capital / cardinal points.  

Curriculum Impact  

Term 1:  

1. To give a basic personal information about themselves, including their names, age and birthdays 

2. To use a range of different regular verbs in the present tense accurately to describe what they do immediately after school and adapt this in various contexts. They will develop a sound knowledge of singular pronouns making links with English and their own native language.

3. To enquire about the formation of negative sentences to describe what they and others do not have in their school bags.

4. Students will be able to pronounce phonics accurately understanding and applying the rules around pronunciation and therefore would be understood by a Spanish native speaker. 

5. To ask and give information about the contents of their school bags using the key verb tener

Term 2:  

1. Students will reinforce the description skills seen in Term 1 to accurately describe their town and will learn how to justify opinions. 

2. Students will be able to use the main irregular verbs tenerand ser to give information about their timetables and teachers. 

3. Students be able to conjugate regular verbs in the present tense, transferring patterns to newly encountered verbs.

4. Students will use their knowledge of numbers and use of quererto ask and pay for food at the canteen. 

5. Students will reinforce their knowledge on how to give opinions and how to justify them in different contexts, school subjects, teachers and timetable. 

Term 3:  

1. Students will be able to describe themselves and their family members.

2. To accurately and fluently conjugate tenerand ser in the present tense. 

3. Conjugate regular AR, IR and ER verbs in the present tense.

4. To understand and apply the rules of adjectival agreements.

Curriculum Intention  

Students are taught how to: 

1. Make links between personal pronouns and more complex subjects of the sentence

2. Use present, past and future tenses

3. Use complex opinions followed by a variety of justifications

4. Use irregular verbs for 3 tenses

By the end of Year 9, students will be able to: 

1. Use negative structures and idiomatic expressions

2. Talk about a range of topics including 4 tenses

3. Develop spontaneous speech

At this stage, students are building up skills over the last year that would enable to achieve a strong grade B low grade A at IGCSE. They are working on developing all four languages skills of speaking, reading, listening, and writing.   

Students are developing their communication skills at KS3. This is a Life Skill that students will take beyond DIS giving them the ability to communicate in a foreign language. From KS3, students are exposed to the IB Learner Profile – displayed in MFL classroom in French / Spanish – teachers support students developing these qualities.    

Some examples of IB profile approaches: 

Reflective: reflection done after each written assessment with a clear individual target to act upon. 

Communicator: a variety of speaking / conversations / role-plays undertaken in lessons. 

Open-minded: discovering French and French-speaking culture and tradition. 

Curriculum Implementation  

1. Presenting – usecreativity to describe a recent visit to the cinema. 

2. Reasoning and deducting- use of existing knowledge of the present tense of reflexive verbs and the preterite tense to work out how to describe daily routine in the past.  

3. Modelling- making links with English to reflect on how Direct Object Pronouns are used in Spanish.  

4. Debating about the importance of learning languages. 

5. Redraft to improve writing – using teacher’s feedback and SuccessCriteria to improve writing and speaking skills. 

Grammar is the most challenging element of language learning. It is taught through the enquiry based approached along with questioning. 

Assessment  

At the end of Term 1, students are assessed on the productive skills of speaking and writing. At the end of Term 2 and Term 3, students are assessed on all 4 skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. 

Listening: students complete the listening assessment on Education Perfect in examination conditions. They answer a range of multiple-choice questions on the topics covered in the Term.  

Speaking: students independently prepare a presentation on questions given by the teacher and record it on Flipgrid. They are not allowed to read from a script. 

Reading: students complete the reading assessment on Education Perfect in examination conditions. They answer a range of multiple-choice questions on the topics covered in the Term. 

Writing:  Students respond to a range of questions on the topics covered in the Term. The assessment is handwritten and uploaded on OneNote. 

Wider Curriculum 

Outdoor opportunity: 

Cervantes Institute: watching a Spanish movie in the original version. 

Cross-curricular link: 

Science: describing injuries, symptoms, debating on the importance of keeping healthy.  

Drama: role play conversation: at the doctor’s office 

Curriculum Impact  

Term 1:  

1. To reinforce their knowledge of the near future tense to talk about when they are going to go to the cinema and what they are going to watch.

2. To learn the conditional tense so they can talk about where they would like to do at the weekend.  

3. To accurately use a wider range of structures such as comparative and superlative to describe what they or others like to watch on TV. 

4. To compare movies and TV programmesjustifying their opinions. 

Term 2:  

1. To learn how to use the preterit tense with regular and irregular verbs to describe past holidays, where they went, stayed and who they went with.

2. To talk about the importance of learning about Spanish speaking countries using complex connectives to develop ideas. 

Term 3:  

1. To describe symptoms and talk about illness; to take part in role play conversation at the doctor’s office using ser and estarexpressions accurately.  

2. To reinforce their knowledge of the preterit tense to describe past injuries accurately. 

3. To describe their lifestyle and to use a range of complex negative sentences to discuss / give advice on what to do to keep healthy and why it is important to lead a healthy lifestyle. 

At the end of KS3, students would say that they find learning a language challenging as it is often quite different from their native language. A challenge that is rewarding. They would take pride on their ability to communicate in French or Spanish.