KS3 Subject Intent
The KS3 Spanish curriculum has been designed to cover the National Curriculum in an order that facilitates consistent understanding and knowledge retention for Redbridge modern foreign language students. Furthermore, it offers students the opportunity to experience hispanic culture and nurtures students’ interest in the wider world.
It has been organised to be logical for learners of a variety of abilities; namely, to consolidate knowledge for lower attainers and to develop independence and linguistic creativity for higher attainers. The curriculum allows for grammar points to be revisited throughout the course in order to ensure students are able to use and manipulate a range of grammatical structures. By the end of KS3, students’ core grammar knowledge is well established, allowing for further development during KS4.
The curriculum revises the basic vocabulary that students should have acquired during KS2. More complex vocabulary is also introduced to ensure that all students are better equipped for further skill development in Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing.
Students will feel confident in combining their vocabulary and grammatical knowledge so that they are able to use their skills in a variety of contexts. By the end of KS3, students’ fluency and spontaneity when using Spanish will have increased across both Speaking and Writing, and they will have more confidence in understanding and responding to authentic sources when Listening and Reading. This will form a strong foundation for further study and equip the students with the necessary skills to use the language in ‘real life’ situations.
KS4 Subject Intent
The KS4 Spanish curriculum consolidates the knowledge of grammatical points obtained in KS3, and more complex grammatical rules are introduced and practised.
All tenses are covered and revisited in detail, and an emphasis on cultural awareness is introduced to develop students’ interest in the hispanic world and to encourage higher attainers who are passionate enough about languages to want and continue with them in higher education.
Students learn to understand grammar structures alongside topic based vocabulary so that they develop the confidence and the independence to manipulate the modern language successfully. This allows for greater creativity in all of the four skill areas.