Why Spanish?
The course gives students the opportunity to reach a high degree of competence in Spanish and explore the culture of both Spain and Latin America using the language through a variety of authentic sources. Our state of the art digital laboratory allows for practising a variety of tailor made listening programmes and internet based material. A link with Reading University has been set up for up-to-date conversation opportunities with undergraduate students from Spain. There is a trip to Barcelona, Spain, at Easter time to follow an intensive language course that complements class work.
Course Overview
Spoken and written sources will include material that relates to the contemporary society, cultural background and heritage of one or more of the countries or communities where Spanish is spoken.
The topic areas for the AS are media; popular culture; lifestyle and relationships. We follow the AQA syllabus for AS.
The topic areas for the A2 are Aspects of society; the environment; Science and technology; and the arts. We are currently following the OCR board, but this will change to AQA from Autumn 2012.
Assessment
At AS and A2 Level speaking, listening, reading and writing are assessed in a final examination. There is no coursework component.
Trips
In Lower VI (Year 12) IB and AS students go to Barcelona, Spain for a week during the Easter holidays. They stay with local families and attend lessons and workshops tailored to their needs.
Beyond A-Level
At the end of the course we hope our students will have a much more international outlook and all-round awareness of the Hispanic language and culture shared by almost 400 million Spanish speakers worldwide. Spanish on its own or as part of a degree opens up innumerable career opportunities in the UK, the European Union and beyond.
We are changing specification from our current Lower Sixth onwards. For this new spec please click here.