Spanish is a popular subject and is taught from Year 7 to Year 13.
In Year 7, all students study French, German and Spanish in a carousel, which gives the students a taste of each language, and they then continue with two languages of their choice.
The aim of the KS3 curriculum is to enable students to understand and communicate in Spanish at a basic level, to build confidence and to instil and nurture a love of all things Hispanic.
Pupils study a range of topics, including Family, Friends, School, Holidays and Hobbies. By the end of Key Stage 3, pupils can conjugate the present, past and future tenses and can express and justify opinions.
In Key Stage 4, students follow the AQA GCSE curriculum, covering a broader range of topics, including Technology, Tourism and Festivals, as well as more complex grammar. All students also have a weekly speaking lesson in small groups with our native Spanish assistant.
At Key Stage 5, students work towards the Edexcel A-Level qualification. Students have the opportunity to study Spanish/Latin American film and literature, as well as more challenging topics (including Immigration, Racism and the Spanish Civil War). Students have a weekly individual lesson with the School’s in-house Spanish language assistant and take on a research project of their choice.
The Spanish department offers a cultural and educational trip to Spain during the Easter holidays, where students stay with host families and attend language classes in the mornings, and activities and trips in the afternoons. This is a fantastic opportunity to experience Spanish language and culture first-hand. We also run a pen-pal programme with students from our partner school in Seville, the Colegio San Francisco de Paula.
As well as the trip to Spain, there is also a Key Stage 3 trip to see a Spanish play locally, and a Key Stage 5 theatre trip to the Cervantes Theatre in London.