Subject Choices for GCSE Options group one
Opportunities for Playful Scholarship
Skills for the future
The Spanish department values and encourages intellectual curiosity, risk-taking and experimentation as part of the joyful process of learning a language. Therefore playful scholarship is key to our teaching, whether it emerge in the detective-like discovery of a new grammatical structure or the artful production of the longest, silliest possible sentence.
Learning another language provides a very wide range of transferrable skills. Communication skills, including verbal confidence and presentation skills, are acquired through increased fluency. Creativity and flexibility of thought are key to speaking and writing successfully in another language. Tackling grammar, translation and comprehension tasks builds analytical and problem-solving skills. Openness to, and appreciation of, difference and the ability to consider others’ perspectives is crucial to encountering a different language and culture.
Outside of lessons, opportunities abound for further exploration of Spanish and languages. We have invested in a range of Spanish DVDs, magazines, graphic novels and other literature for the school library. Our weekly languages club, Linguine, offers fun cultural activities and the opportunity to learn new languages. Students take the lead in researching and writing articles about language and culture for the termly Linguistica blog. We encourage keen linguists to participate in the Flash Fiction creative writing competition and the Stephen Spender Prize for translation. Our students have enjoyed the challenge of online Ecuadorian and Cuban cookery classes, conducted entirely in Spanish. Our biennial trip to Granada features homestay, language lessons and cultural visits including the Alhambra palace.
The wide skillset that language students develop - ranging from practical communication to increased empathy - is highly prized by universities and employers across all fields. communication, collaboration (team work), analytical thinking and problem solving, numeracy and data-handling, time management, independent and innovative thinking and resilience.
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