KS3 Spanish

Course Introduction

Spanish at Holy Catholic School is the study of both the Spanish language and culture of Spanish speaking countries. During the course. both the vocabulary and grammatical structures that feature the Spanish language will be studied. The cultural aspect of the course allows students to see themselves as global citizens. they will also be given the opportunity to travel to Spain during key stage 3 to experience the Spanish culture and language first hand.

Spanish is an academic subject, where the abilities to see patterns and apply them are particularly useful. Students will be required to reflect on Spanish vocab and grammatical structures and be able to use them to be creative in their Spanish speaking and writing. Students will also develop their reading and listening skills, to enable them and identify key pieces of information in a variety of authentic texts. They will also be encouraged to compare and contrast their experience of the English language and culture with that of Spanish speaking countries.

Student Objective

Develop a good working knowledge of key Spanish vocabulary across a variety of relevant topics, which can be presented in written or spoken form.

Understand how sentence structure works in Spanish and to be able to use and adapt this to create their own pieces of creative and factual writing.

Improve their pattern spotting abilities to be able to see and apply grammatical rules that are standard in the Spanish language.

Be able to converse in Spanish across a variety of relevant topics and levels, for example being able to talk about themselves and their interests, transactional conversations, such as shopping for souvenirs or eating in a café.

Develop their own reading abilities to be able to read authentic Spanish texts for gist or to infer meaning, as well as looking for clues in the language used to inform this.

Become more familiar with how the Spanish language sounds when it is spoken so that information becomes easier to understand, as well as using these sounds to improve the students’ own Spanish accents.

Use the knowledge and skills developed in Spanish to complete several types of tasks that replicate events and activities that are commonplace in day to day life.

Begin to see themselves as citizens of the world and gain insight into how people in Spanish-speaking countries live and behave. Students will be able to see parallels and differences between these cultures.

Course Content

Year 7

Autumn 1: Introducing yourself and others

Autumn 2: Hobbies and free time

Spring 1: School life

Spring 2: Family and friends

Summer 1: My town

Summer 2: Creative use of Spanish

Year 8

Autumn 1: Going on holiday

Autumn 2: More about me

Spring 1: Ordering food

Spring 2: Going out

Summer 1: Holidays

Summer 2: Spanish culture project

Year 9

Autumn 1: Preferences/What we like doing

Autumn 2: Booking a hotel

Spring 1: Healthy eating

Spring 2: Young people’s rights

Summer 1: An adventure in Madrid

Summer 2: Vocabulary and grammar preparation for GCSE

 

Assessment

The students will be levelled at the end of each unit of work. This will be completed in line with the school policy. Feedback will be given to the students verbally and a record is made of this by the students, who will then reflect on their own strengths and areas for development for the next unit of work. At the end of each unit, the students will complete an assessment and this will be levelled and written feedback and targets for the students will be produced.

What it Leads to in KS4

The Spanish department offers the GCSE Spanish course at KS4. This course allows students to continue to develop the skills and vocabulary gained in key stage 3 and take them a step further, allowing students to become more fluent in Spanish. The skills tested at GCSE level and reading, writing, listening and speaking in several types of tasks and topics that reflect and develop the themes covered in key stage 3.