MFL - Languages Curriculum

Spanish: Our Subject Vision

In Spanish, our vision is to ignite a passion and promote a love of learning languages by developing a wide range of skills, preparing lifelong learners and enabling them to be well-rounded global citizens. MFL prepares students for the cosmopolitan world, developing them as global citizens. We work hard to develop the multicultural capital and build on the multilingualism of our cohort. We strive to deliver the best language teaching, ensuring that our curriculum offer focuses on the building blocks of language: phonics, vocabulary and grammar. Our curriculum helps students make connections between sounds, words and sentences and they produce and understand ever more complex sentences and texts. These ‘pillars’ of phonics, vocabulary and grammar contain much of the knowledge that students require. We have developed our teaching sequences to ensure that this vision is at the forefront of what we do.

Which qualifications do we offer at KS4?

For GCSEs taking place from 2026 (teaching from 2024), we offer the AQA Spanish (8692). The AQA GCSE Spanish specification is divided into three main themes. (People and lifestyle, popular culture and communication and the world around us.) The GCSE is studied over 2 years with examinations at the end of the course. The exam is divided into 4 skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking. All skills are weighted equally.

GCSE Spanish (8692)

What enrichment and extra-curricular opportunities do we offer in Spanish?

We currently offer intervention and enrichment for Year 11 every Monday lunchtime and Wednesday after school.

We have been lucky to have Mingalaba in school to enhance students learning of Spanish outside the classroom and last academic year we took a group of GCSE students to Barcelona where they embraced the Spanish culture and language.

Every year we celebrate European Day of Languages and we are keen to develop more opportunities for our students, such as a film club this year!

Where could this subject ultimately take you?

Spanish can open doors to a broad range of careers, including, but not exclusive to, being a pilot, a teacher, an interpreter, a translator, a tour guide, an air hostess, politician, a journalist, doctor, actor, footballer. It can also create opportunities to go to university, work abroad, travel and meet new people.

Languages are about broadening your horizons, creating opportunities, improving communication and listening skills and building resilience. Here at Temple Learning Academy, we take great pride in what we do and how we can create the best opportunities for your future.

Temple Learning Academy (18)

What will students study in Spanish?

Key Stage 3

Year 7

Students will cover all 4 key skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing. The curriculum is grammar-based around key topic areas. Students will develop a solid foundation in conjugating verbs and grammatical accuracy such as adjectival agreements. This linked together with topics such as family, school, sports and hobbies, students will have a good understanding of the language by the end of Year 7.

Year 8

Students will cover all 4 key skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing. They will cover the following topics:

Food and drink with opinions
Healthy living and body parts
Holidays, accommodation, transport, activities, weather
Holidays in the past
Sports and hobbies
New technology, TV and film
Culture including Día de los Reyes, San Fermín

Year 9

At the end of KS3, students can choose whether to continue to study Spanish into KS4 and gain a qualification. For those that do not continue to study Spanish we hope they continue with their education with a lifelong love of languages, a greater understanding of their own language(s) and an appreciation of other cultures. We also hope that they will have developed skills such as broadening their horizons and their cultural capital, being able to pick out key information in texts and be able to communicate simply in Spanish.

Key Stage 4

Year 10

Students will build their knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, and their confidence in tackling listening, reading, writing and speaking tasks and assessments. The curriculum has been adapted around the new GCSE topics, but we have a focus of grammar, particularly on conjugating verbs and tenses accurately.

The topics taught are:

Free-time activities
Holidays
Family, friends and relationships
Foods, healthy living and daily routine
School
Town and local area

Year 11

Students will continue to build their knowledge and their confidence in tackling listening, reading, writing and speaking tasks and assessments. They will have several ‘mock’ exams to prepare them for the external GCSE exam taking place in June, where all 4 areas are assessed. The curriculum includes:

The environment, both local and global
Plans for the future
Preparation for the speaking exams, including coverage of questions relating to the 3 themes
Revision of all areas