Although all Pate’s students start their language journey with French and /or German and Mandarin the start of year 9 offers them the opportunity to widen their linguistic horizons and take on the challenges that studying a new language offers. Spanish is an exciting, accessible and beautiful language spoken by more than 400 million people worldwide as their mother tongue and many more millions as learners. Our students at Pate’s are enthusiastic about joining this large and growing community. By the end of year 9 we want students to have acquired a basic knowledge of the three time frames and the most frequently used words so they have laid the foundation to be able to go and study successfully at GCSE and beyond. We aim to teach students about the inter connectedness of languages and help them build on the skills they have learnt studying French and German to super charge their acquisition of basic Spanish.

In years 10 and 11 we will develop this understanding of basic tenses to include the imperfect, the present/past perfect, the simple future and conditional, the passive and the subjunctive so students can begin to speak and write with increasing sophistication. Topics to be studiedat GCSE widen out from ‘me and my world’ to include global and social issues in the Spanish speaking world and customs and festivals in Spain. The course becomes more outward looking as we progress through the Key Stages. Students will be encouraged to develop their spoken language skills through the use of role plays and discussions and the acquisition of transactional language. A year 10 language trip to Spain will provide the opportunity for students to apply their learning in a real-life setting.

Studying Spanish at A level will allow students to develop fluency and a much more sophisticated knowledge and understanding not just of the language but also of the culture of the countries in which Spanish is spoken. Students are encouraged to strive for mastery of the different voices and tenses of the language. Texts are increasingly taken from real sources such as newspapers and magazines, TV footage and novels / plays and students are encouraged to develop a range of strategies for decoding unseen texts. The study of a film and literature is also introduced at A level. Students have the opportunity to do their work experience in Spain so they can put into practice what they have learnt in the classroom and immerse themselves inthe culture and traditions of the Spanish way of life. This helps to inspire some of our students each year to continue to enjoy the study of Spanish, whether that be on a gap year travelling round South America or by taking up a place on a pure language / combined language course at university.