"No dejes camino viejo por sendero nuevo."

(don't abandon the old road for a new one)

Subject Lead: Ms S Zammit Assistant: Mr M Bossino

Spanish at KS3 and KS4

Spanish is a compulsory subject and it is taught from ab initio (beginners’ level) from Year 7 to Year 11. All students will sit the GCSE examination at the end of Year 11.

At KS3 (Years 7 to 9) students are given a levelling test at the very start of Y7 and are placed into groups according to previous knowledge of Spanish.

In Years 7 and 8 we follow the Claro 1 and 2 textbooks.  Students follow the basics and cover different topics such as describing themselves and other family members, describing where they live, the weather, hobbies, talking about film and television programmes and learning about different Hispanic-speaking countries. 

At KS3 students have two lessons of Spanish per week.

In Year 9 students start the GCSE course proper.  click here to go to GCSE Spanish 8692

The three themes covered during the course of Years 9-11 are:

·       People and Lifestyle

·       Popular Culture

·       Communication and the world around us

Students will be assessed in the following skills. They will already have started covering the GCSE course content in Year 9.

Teaching time: two lessons per week in Y9 and three lessons per week in Years 10 and 11

Paper 1: Listening

What’s assessed

Understanding and responding to spoken extracts comprising the defined

vocabulary and grammar for each tier

Dictation of short, spoken extracts

Paper 2 Speaking

What is assessed

Speaking using clear and comprehensible language to undertake a Role-play

Carry out a Reading aloud task

Talk about visual stimu

Paper 3: Reading

What is assessed

Understanding and responding to written texts which focus predominantly on

the vocabulary and grammar at each tier

Inferring plausible meanings of single words when they are embedded in

written sentences

Translating from Spanish into English

 Paper 4: Writing

What is assessed

Writing text in the language in a lexically and grammatically accurate way in

response to simple and familiar stimuli

Translating from English into Spanish