Spanish Department

Super Spanish...

La Casa de Bernarda Alba

First performed in 1945, ‘Casa de Bernarda Alba’ is set a decade earlier, before the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. The play, performed at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre, follows the Alba family. In the events proceeding the death of her husband, Bernarda Alba, an uncompromisingly domineering and powerful woman, prolongs her own mourning period to eight years, before inflicting the same, strict regime on her five daughters, aged between twenty and thirty nine years. The women thus become enthralled in a tangled web of jealousy and secrecy, the consequences of which prove to be devastating! ‘La Casa de Bernarda Alba’ is an interesting and intricately woven play which featured outstanding performances from its all-female cast. We found it to be of great use in comparing it to our chosen novel of study, ‘Como Agua para Chocolate’ and we would highly recommend this play whether you study Spanish or not! Victoria Cramer Year 13

Spanish Flash Fiction

Congratulations to Anna Clark in Year 10 who has won joint first place in the Year 7-11 category of the inaugural Oxford University Spanish Flash Fiction Competition! Her story is about someone losing a member of their family in a tragic accident, and she wrote each sentence in English before translating it into Spanish. The judges were impressed by the combination of linguistic accuracy and creative inventiveness. They reported that the concentration on a single moment via the character’s highly-focused gaze, combined with glimpses and suggestions of a broader story and more painful memories, made the piece particularly evocative and compelling.

Mona de Pascua

Year 8 pupils studying Spanish celebrated Semana Santa by designing their own “Mona de Pascua” (Easter Cake) and Holly Stevenson rose to the challenge by actually making her design, which was delicious.

Valencia Independent Study Trip

During February half term, three of us travelled to Valencia in order to take part in an intensive Spanish course in the city. Having organised the whole trip ourselves and having each received a sum of money from the Scott Trust in order to take part in this experience, we were anxious for it to begin. Due to the fact that our classes ran from two until six in the afternoon, we were free to explore Valencia every morning. It was during these mornings that we took part in a bus tour of the city, visited La Plaza de Virgen and Valencia’s renowned Cathedral, as well as numerous other historical sights. The classes themselves were taught solely in Spanish and we studied diverse topics such as individuality and sibling relationships. The teachers were extremely helpful and we all got along with our fellow classmates, with whom we could only speak Spanish as their nationalities varied from Japanese to Korean. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and feel as though our fluency has improved greatly; therefore we would recommend this experience to anyone planning to study a language at a higher level.

Writing in Spanish

Year 8 did research on the Spanish Royal family. Year 10 used their grammar creatively to describe an ideal home. Year 9 have been creative with language describing their dream holiday destination, creating a biography for their favourite singer, writing a short story for entry to the Oxford competition and producing their own adverts, many of which starred their pets! Watch Faatima Adam’s advert on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6VnTEB_ V9SY

La casa de mis sueños

“Esta casa lujosa está en el campo por lo tanto está lejos de las tiendas. Tiene veinte habitaciones amplias, cuatro balcones impresionantes, dos terrazas, tres jardines preciosos y una piscina muy grande. También hay vistas al bosque donde hay muchos árboles altos y unas flores. Finalmente lo bueno de la casa es que se prohíbe tener mascotas y así se puede dar un paseo tranquilamente por la mañana.” Ammarah y Imane Year 10

Había una vez una chica guapa que se llamaba Sofía. A Sofía le encantan las delfines. Un día fue un paseo de delfín, inesperadamente un pirata apareció y la secuestró. Pero Sofía era inteligente. Mató al pirata. ¡A Sofía es la capitana de la nave ahora! El fin.