Spanish
Curriculum Intent – Spanish
“The limit of my language means the limit of my world.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein
Powerful Knowledge
Spanish is an academic subject that is rich in powerful knowledge. It allows students to have a deeper and broader vocabulary and strengthens communication, employability and personal skills, which will help them to not only become high performers within the academy, but push them to soar at an international level.
Powerful knowledge in Spanish:
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In learning a second language, it also deepens your understanding of your first language and improves the overall quality of it.
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Enquiry based learning is used to provide students with the opportunity to boost their brain power as they work out new meaning, endeavour to communicate and develop key listening skills such as cognitive thinking and problem solving
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Students will develop knowledge on real world topics such as the environment, poverty and homelessness, which will give them a deeper understanding of societal and global issues.
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It enables students improve their oracy and literacy as they engage in a variety of discussion based and written tasks, thus becoming more intellectually confidence.
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Learning a language develops open-minded and enquiring learners by introducing them to other cultures, fostering their curiosity and deepening their understanding of the world.
Curriculum Features
At Leeds East Academy we offer a broad subject content that covers a variety of topics that will interest and inspire our students to engage in learning about a different culture and immerse themselves in the language. Students will not only engage in content that is familiar to them such as free time and school, but also develop their knowledge of global and social issues such as the environment, poverty, homelessness and healthy and unhealthy living. This helps to develop students’ empathy skills and encourages them to become more active citizens. Students will become rigorous learners with a high focus on iterative testing and mastery of knowledge being embedded throughout the Spanish curriculum to ensure that students develop the four key skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) that are needed to confidently acquire a second language. Being a high performance learner in Spanish means being able to work with speed, accuracy and automaticity. Spanish is a key part of the communication strand at LEA and therefore we place a high importance on discussion, debate, reading and writing, ensuring that they feature throughout our curriculum.
Year 7: We introduce students to phonics and basic conversations to get them started with Spanish. We then move on to look at free time so that students can discuss topics they have a good understanding of already, such as music and sports. Throughout the year we will also cover “where I live”, “my diet”, “my studies”, “life at school” and “family, friends and relationships”. By the end of Year 7 we aim to have all students using the present and past tense accurately in their spoken and written work.
Year 8: We introduce a future tense in order to develop students’ grammatical skills. During this year students will cover topics such as “my holidays”, “healthy and unhealthy living”, “family, friends and relationships”, “my studies”, “my town” and “free time”. By the end of Year 8 all students should be able to use three tenses accurately.
Year 9: As well as reinforcing the previous three tenses, we will also add a fourth tense in order to improve the complexity of language used. During this year students will cover three topics: “life at school”, “holidays” and “technology”.
GCSE Content:
Year 10: This is where students begin their GCSE Spanish journey. All previously covered tenses will be further reinforced and two more will be introduced with the aim of students being able to use six tenses by the time they sit their GCSE examinations. During this year, students will cover topics such as “free time”, “jobs, careers and ambitions”, “festivals and customs”, “healthy and unhealthy living”, “my town” and “global issues”.
Year 11: This final year of study will be devoted to revision, as all the topics will have been covered from Year 7-10. Classroom teachers will create a bespoke curriculum for their individual Year 11 classes that best supports the needs of those students in order to ensure exam success.
Cross Curricular & Wider Experiences
In order to develop cultural capital and provide students with the opportunity to use their language skills in a real-world situation, the Spanish department provides our Year 9 and 10 students with a five-day trip to Barcelona. This allows students to immerse themselves in the culture through seeing all the incredible sights Barcelona has to offer, experience new foods and speak Spanish in a real life context. We also teach students about different festivals, customs, music and cinema in the Spanish speaking world so that students have a deeper understanding and appreciation of different cultures. Learning a second language will also help students to thrive across the curriculum. Through the content that we teach, we will strengthen their geographical and scientific knowledge through studying the environment. As well as this, we include PSHE links through studying poverty and homelessness, considering what it means to be a good citizen and how we can help people in need through volunteer work. We will also endeavour to deepen their English knowledge through explicit teaching of grammar and literacy. Learning a second language also encourages students to become more analytic through developing their problem-solving skills and working with precision, which will assist in improving mathematical skills. Throughout students’ language learning journey, we also consider where languages can take us and how important they can be for future careers. We help students to see the value in language learning and the positive impact that a languages GCSE can have on their university choices and career paths as it is a highly desirable qualification.
For further information regarding the Spanish offer at Leeds East Academy, please contact Mr Kyle - kyle.a@whiteroseacademies.org
Curriculum Journey - Key Stage 3
Spanish Curriculum Journey - Key Stage 3