“If you speak to people in words they don’t understand, how will they know what you are saying? You might as well be talking into empty space.”  1 Corinthians 14:9

Vision    

With Christ at the centre, the Spanish department at Mount Carmel aims to provide all pupils with a valuable educational experience which broadens their horizons and gives them skills for life beyond school.  By studying a foreign language, pupils are provided with the opportunity to develop communication skills, whilst simultaneously learning tolerance, acceptance and celebration of different languages and cultures.  

We provide opportunities for pupils of all abilities to develop the necessary skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar to meet the requirements of the national curriculum and the demands of key stage 4 language study, and we are committed to ensuring that each pupil meets their full potential by embedding these across topic areas.  

We want pupils to enjoy learning a language and look forward to their lessons with self-belief and a can-do attitude, knowing that they will receive a high-quality learning experience and be encouraged to get involved, persist and be resilient.

At Mount Carmel, pupils receive two hours of language lessons per week in key stage 3 and three hours per week at key stage 4.  In addition to lessons, we supplement curriculum time with support, intervention and other activities, in order to enrich pupils’ experiences.

Intent KS3    

KS3 curriculum

At Mount Carmel, pupils study an ambitious Spanish curriculum at key stage 3.  We cover the national curriculum and aim to provide pupils with the knowledge and skills needed to understand and communicate in a foreign language, whilst topic by topic and year by year preparing pupils appropriately for the demands of a challenging key stage 4. We aim to recycle language as pupils progress through the school so that they understand how the same structures can be transferred across topics.

Topics taught 

The topics taught at key stage 3 are the foundations of a range of broader themes, carefully selected to allow pupils to experience a range of language structures that they will regularly need.  We aim to build up pupils’ use of phonics, vocabulary and grammar points across topics, and deal with the topics most relevant to our younger pupils.  We are also aware of the varying experiences that our pupils have of other languages and cultures, and aim to provide them with the cultural capital they need to become good world citizens.

KS3 pupils at Mount Carmel will study the topics of:

Year 7:  Self, family and friends; hobbies; school
Year 8:  My life and free time; technology, music and film; where I live; relationships and celebrations
Year 9:  Tourism; future jobs and where languages can take you; helping the environment

How will the subject be assessed?

At key stage 3, assessment takes place formatively through low-stakes testing, such as vocabulary tests and translation tasks, and both summatively and formatively in the form of end of unit assessments.  We aim to tackle misconceptions as and when they arise.  All four skill areas (listening, speaking, reading and writing) are tested across the year, and assessment in the two productive skills requires pupils to use different tenses and opinions.  Summative assessment is used formatively to inform future planning.

Intent KS4   

KS4 curriculum

At key stage 4, all pupils have the opportunity to opt for a modern language, and those that study one work towards the Pearson Edexcel GCSE in Spanish. The scheme of learning ensures that pupils build upon the skills and knowledge gained at key stage 3 so that they can understand and communicate ideas in greater depth and with increasing complexity.  They will also begin to study themes that are of greater relevance to older pupils.  Listening, speaking, reading and writing are practised regularly as we cover the five main themes of:

  • Identity and culture
  • Local area, holiday and travel
  • School
  • Future aspirations, study and work
  • International and global dimension

How will the subject be assessed?

At key stage 4, assessment is ongoing through class work and homework tasks. Pupils sit listening, reading and writing papers in formal conditions on at least two occasions throughout key stage 4 (PPEs) and also have full PPE speaking assessments in July of year 10 and December of year 11.  These assessments not only allow pupils to experience the unique nature of languages GCSE examinations, but also allow teachers to identify areas for improvement so that appropriate strategies can be put in place to help pupils to improve further, both in and out of lessons.

Where possible, we also allow pupils with a home or community language to sit the appropriate GCSEs.  In recent years, Mount Carmel pupils have celebrated exam success in Italian, Portuguese and Polish, and we welcome a teacher of Polish into school each year to deliver Polish lessons and to ensure that our pupils fill any gaps in their knowledge.

Enrichment and / or extra-curricular activities    

The languages department offers the following enrichment and extra-curricular activities:

  • Year 7 ‘European Day of Languages Bake-Off’
  • Support and revision sessions (year 11)
  • Year 9 visit to see a Spanish play
  • Trip to Spain (July 2023)

Next steps (College, University, career)    

What can the subject prepare me for?

Languages skills are considered invaluable by many employers. Being able to communicate in a foreign language opens doors to the wider world and not only offers pupils the possibility of living or working abroad in the future, but also allows them to develop self-confidence and awareness of other countries and cultures.  Knowing a foreign language can give you the edge in a competitive world of work and can expand your horizons.

Languages skills can be used in almost all areas of work, including:

  • Translation and interpreting
  • Education
  • Travel and tourism
  • Engineering
  • Business and finance

In addition, some university courses in a range of subjects require knowledge of a foreign language to GCSE level or above.

Additional resources   

Edexcel GCSE Spanish specification

https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/Spanish/2016/specification-and-sample-assessments/Specification-Pearson-Edexcel-Level-1-Level-2-GCSE-9-1-Spanish.pdf