Spanish

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT: Mrs C Salisbury EXAMINATION BOARD: AQA SPECIFICATION CODE: 7692 ENTRY REQUIREMENTS: GCSE Spanish Grade 7

A Level Spanish helps students develop confident, effective communication skills in Spanish and a thorough understanding of the culture of countries and communities where Spanish is spoken. It develops an enthusiasm for language learning and encourages students to consider their study of the language in a broader context.

“If I hadn’t chosen to study A Level Spanish at Freemen’s I would definitely not have had the Spanish skills or guts to spend a month, volunteering at an orphanage in Mexico!” - Conrad Parks, former Freemen’s student.

COURSE CONTENT The course is designed to inspire all students who have an appreciation of the language, literature, film and culture of the Spanish-speaking world. There are four engaging themes, which address a range of social issues and trends, as well as aspects of the political and artistic culture of Spain and Spanish-speaking countries. For more information click here.

TEXTS AND FILMS Students study one film, El Laberinto del Fauno by Guillermo del Toro and one literature text, Como Agua para Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

ASSESSMENT Terminal assessment takes place at the end of the second year. Paper 1: Listening and reading comprehension and translation into English and Spanish, 2 hours 30 mins, 50% of A Level. Paper 2: Essay paper on film and literature text, 2 hours, 20% of A Level. Paper 3: Oral. Discussion of a card (based on a theme) and an independent research project, 20 mins, 30% of A Level.

STAFFING A Level Spanish is taught by Mrs Salisbury, Mrs Willis-Jones and Ms Willis. All staff members are very experienced and well qualified and include a bilingual speaker, a native speaker and an Oxbridge graduate.

CO-CURRICULAR OPPORTUNITIES Students have the opportunity to take part in a language and cultural visit to Barcelona and are also helped to organise work experience in Spain with the reputable Halsbury Travel Company.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS Two Spanish A Level students were awarded the United Wards’ Club Bursary for Modern Languages to allow them to further their study of Spanish.

WHO SHOULD STUDY SPANISH? Students need to show real enthusiasm for communicating in Spanish and should have a sound grammatical awareness, including tenses and key structures. A willingness to learn by rote is important, as is a curiosity to find out more about Hispanic countries through independent research.

HIGHER EDUCATION AND CAREERS Languages combine well with a range of social science, humanities and science subjects. The range and combination of courses available is very wide from Spanish with Music at Royal Holloway to Biochemistry with Spanish at Imperial. Spanish is increasingly becoming an important global language and is growing in demand by businesses that operate in Europe the U.S and South America. The most recent CBI survey puts Spanish in the top three languages required by British companies.