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Spanish

“A different language is a different vision of life.” Frederico Fellini (Italian Filmmaker) 

Curriculum Principles

‘Success for Everyone’ is our school motto. Within the whole-school focus on success for everyone, the MFL department seeks to take this one step further by ‘Opening Doors to the World for Everyone’. Our vision in the Modern Foreign Languages department is that all language students develop the skills and confidence to consider themselves as citizens of the world who belong in a multicultural, mutually respectful world which communicates and lives through different languages and cultures.

We aim to support students to understand other countries and cultures so that they can be more open and adaptable to new experiences; in MFL lessons students are taught about cultural references to not only the target language country, but the wider Francophone and Hispanic world. In MFL we focus on developing strong, lifelong linguistic skills and on encouraging students to become curious, interested and active citizens in the World. It is our passion to transmit a love and appreciation of languages; we aim to achieve this by nurturing a linguistic curiosity and an intrinsic motivation to explore and respect other cultures and people. Despite English being a common language of communication worldwide, in not studying other languages and cultures we risk limiting our young people’s opportunities for development, discovery and understanding of the wider, globalised world in which they live.  

With a well-mapped out curriculum in every year group, KS3 and KS4 journeys are sequenced following three components - phonics, vocabulary and grammar - at the heart of language acquisition.

2024-25 also brings an exciting new development to the Spanish Curriculum at Rossett School, as we start to adopt the collaborative Red Kite Trust Languages scheme at KS4.

In Spanish lessons we use a variety of authentic materials, for reading and listening purposes; we encourage our students to speak with increasing confidence, fluency and spontaneity, through discussion and asking questions, so that they continually improve the accuracy of their pronunciation and intonation; we provide writing opportunities, for different purposes and audiences, using a variety of grammatical structures; we help pupils to discover and develop an appreciation of a range of Hispanic writing.

Curriculum Journey

At Rossett, our Spanish curriculum journey develops excellent communication skills, and equips students with the confidence, resilience and knowledge to view their language learning as a lifelong journey. Through their learning of Spanish, our students gain a rich cultural capital whereby they value the diversity of Hispanic communities, their customs, history and literature.

Curriculum Intent

Our Spanish curriculum is carefully designed to ensure success at all levels. The ambitious curriculum we use clearly outlines the skills and knowledge that students gain at each stage of their learning journey. We have high academic ambitions for language students at Rossett, and we adapt this curriculum, so that all pupils make progress during lessons and over time. The curriculum is carefully sequenced and is built using the following three components: phonics, vocabulary and grammar.

Key Strengths of the Curriculum

The deep, broad and high-quality provision that we offer means that:

all students study either French or Spanish language from Y7 and have four lessons per fortnight through to Y9

a large number of students opt for a language at GCSE and meet the criteria for EBACC

GCSE results are strong and each year a small number of our students continue to study Spanish at KS5

we have subject specialists in MFL, including a native speaker Foreign Language Assistant

we run a highly popular cultural trip, with a focus on food and culture

we have high-profile events within school such as European Day of Languages, and we produce a languages magazine at a thriving Languages club

our planning, with well-sequenced lessons, is very strong

Career Relevance  

“We will need to reach out, within and beyond Europe, to maintain and improve our economic position, to build trust, strengthen our international influence and cultural relationships, and to keep our country safe. The extent to which we can do this in the long term depends greatly on the ability of our young people to understand and connect with people around the world. International and intercultural awareness and skills are crucial for the UK success on the world stage yes, but also in enabling the UK’s next generation to play a meaningful role in the global economy and in an increasingly networked world. The ability to communicate in more than one language is central to this.” (British Council, 2020).

Spanish Curriculum Sequencing Rationale

Rossett - Ipads - 2023

Curriculum Maps