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Spanish

Why Study Spanish?

At Beaulieu, we intend to encourage all pupils to develop the skills, knowledge, and cultural understanding necessary to become confident and capable communicators in a foreign language. Our curriculum aims to ignite curiosity, promote cross-cultural awareness, and prepare students for global citizenship by equipping them with practical language skills for real-world use. Our Spanish teachers have lived, studied and worked in Spanish-speaking countries and are passionate about sharing the diverse culture and their experiences with students.

Cultural awareness: Students learn to appreciate and respect different cultures and know where Spanish is spoken.

Communication skills: Students develop the ability to speak, write, read, and understand Spanish. 

Academic achievement: Students gain language qualifications that will support their future opportunities.

Global citizenship: Students become more confident, culturally sensitive, and prepared for an interconnected world.

Year 7

All Year 7 students have a one-term introduction to Spanish to help them choose which ‘second language’ they might prefer to study in Year 8, and possibly as a GCSE. 

Topics covered during the term include: the alphabet; numbers (1-31), days, months, greetings and introductions, birthdays, ages, colours, classroom objects and basic opinions. Students will also learn about Spanish and Latin American culture and seasonal celebrations. 

Year 8

In Year 8, students can choose whether to learn Italian, Spanish or German alongside their French lessons. 

Year 8 Spanish lessons develop and build on the basic vocabulary and skills learned in Year 7. Pupils continue to develop skills in Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, as well as learning more about Spanish and Latin American culture and festivals throughout the year.  The topics covered in year 8 include: numbers (1-100), animals and pets, describing appearance and personality, family, free time, the weather, some Spanish/Latin American musicians and celebrities, the area where you live, school and telling the time. Grammatical concepts are introduced throughout the course. At the end of each topic, students are given end-of-unit assessments in different skills to help consolidate learning and monitor progress. 

Year 9

In Year 9 Spanish lessons, we further develop the skills learned in Year 8 by starting to follow more specifically the AQA GCSE specification and coursebooks. Students will cover the four skills of Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing and continue to build their Spanish and Latin American cultural awareness throughout the year. At the end of each topic, students are given end-of-unit GCSE-style assessments in different skills to help reinforce learning and monitor progress. 

In Year 9, we cover Theme 1 and the topics of identity and relationships, healthy living and lifestyle, education and work and parts of Theme 2, including free time activities and some customs, festivals and celebrations. The main grammar points covered this year include: verb tenses (present, reflexive, immediate future, future, present continuous), time phrases, adverbs of frequency, adjective agreement, possessive adjectives, comparative adjectives, irregular verbs, connectives and prepositions.

Year 10

In Year 10, we focus on following the AQA GCSE Spanish Specification as we prepare students for their exams the following year. Students continue to hone the four skills of Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing through regular practice and end-of-topic GCSE-style assessments.  At the end of the year, the aim is to complete a full set of GCSE exam papers so that students know what they are working towards in Year 11. We focus on the following GCSE topics this year: celebrity culture, travel and tourism, media and technology and some additional customs, festivals and celebrations.  Students will also continue to develop their grammar and will be introduced to the preterite, imperfect,  conditional and the past continuous tenses.  They will spend time recognising past, present and future tenses in a variety of contexts and further develop time phrases. 

Year 11

In the first term of Year 11, we aim to finish the GCSE course and cover the topics of the environment and where people live. The focus for the remainder of the year is exam revision and preparation, as well as revisiting topics and grammar points when necessary. Students will complete GCSE-style assessments during the year, but the main assessments are the mock examinations in January and the real examinations in the summer. Speaking exams take place before the rest of the official exams begin.

In order to prepare for the GCSE examinations, students will regularly practise the four skills of Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing using practice exam papers and GCSE resources. At this stage, students should be developing their use of Spanish by applying the grammar and topic vocabulary that they have learnt over the last two years to different situations and exam questions.