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Languages - Spanish

Introduction

At QKA we understand the value of languages, and how meaningful they are in our social interactions and welfare.
The Languages department is a successful department in the academy, and our classrooms are often full of students involved in some kind of extra activity related to language learning. We count currently with four members of staff, Jose Ros, Subject Leader MFL, Bogdan Ivascu, Spanish Native speaker; Carmen Santos, Spanish teacher and native speaker; and Helena Ground, our French and German specialist and also a skilful Spanish teacher. But we also count with the invaluable support of other linguists across the school that cooperate and support us in several occasions.

All students arriving at QKA in Year 7 will study Spanish.
Our aim is for students to develop the necessary skills to become independent language learners and efficient communicators: to be intuitive, to take risks, making mistakes and learning from them, to respect and listen carefully what others have to say; to learn from each other’s and enjoy sharing and communicating.
 
We are a creative team, trained and thoughtful of the new GCSE and A-level specification, continuously developing new exciting resources to adapt our lessons to the updated outcomes, and create an enjoyable and respectful environment to promote success.

But definitely the stars of our department are our extra clubs and competitions. From the Language Eurovision contest at the beginning of Y7, to the Foreign Language translation bee in years 8 and 9, and our Erasmus + Projects for KS3 and KS4, we offer a wide range of extra activities to motivate students learning, and we have so much fun with them! 
Our vision is clear: Promote language learning and provide students with the skills to become independent language learners; guide their learning acquisition process as far as students aim to get; and promote the value of languages as the communication tool that joins us together.
 
 
Key Stage Three
We use resources based on the textbooks ¡Viva! 1, 2. The resources are consistently referred to the requirements of GCSE, to ensure success in following years.
 
 

Year 7 Topics

  1. My life
  2. My Free Time
  3. My School
  4. My family and friends
  5. My city

Projects & Extracurricular activities: Eurovision, Spelling Bee, Mother Tongue Other Tongue, LinguaMaths

 

Year 8 Topics

  1. My holidays
  2. CLIL: Dark Tourism
  3. All about my life
  4. Let’s go and eat!
  5. What shall we do?
  6. Summer Plans

Projects & Extracurricular activities: Translation Bee, Mother Togue Other Tongue, Language Beatz, Poetry Strictly Speaking

 

Year 9 Topics

  1. Family, friends, and Relationships
  2. Project: Voces Inocentes
  3. Festivals & Life in the Hispanic world
  4. CLIL: Gastronomy in the Hispanic world
  5. Holidays (Past & Future)
  6. Language Beatz Project

Projects & Extracurricular activities: Translation Bee, Mother Togue Other Tongue, Language Leaders, Language Beatz, Poetry Strictly Speaking

 

Year 10 Topics

  1. My Holidays
  2. My life in school
  3. My people
  4. Interests and influences
  5. My city

Projects and Extracurricular: Translation Bee, Mother Tongue Other Tongue, Language Leaders

 

Year 11 Topics

  1. Customs and Festivals
  2. Let’s go and eat
  3. To a better world

Projects and Extracurricular: Translation Bee, Mother Tongue Other Tongue

 

Year 12 Topics

Students may study all sub-themes in relation to any Spanish-speaking country or countries.

  • Modern and traditional values (Los valores tradicionales y modernos)
    • Los cambios en la familia
    • Actitudes hacia el matrimonio/el divorcio
    • La influencia de la Iglesia Católica
  • Cyberspace (El ciberespacio)
    • La influencia de internet
    • Las redes sociales: beneficios y peligros
    • Los móviles inteligentes en nuestra sociedad
  • Equal rights (La igualdad de los sexos)
    • La mujer en el mercado laboral
    • El machismo y el feminismo
    • Los derechos de los gays y las personas transgénero
  • Modern day idols (La influencia de los ídolos)
    • Cantantes y músicos
    • Estrellas de televisión y cine
    • Modelos
  • Spanish regional identity (La identidad regional en España)
    • Tradiciones y costumbres
    • La gastronomía
    • Las lenguas
  • Cultural heritage (El patrimonio cultural)
    • Sitios turísticos y civilizaciones prehispánicas: Machu Picchu, la Alhambra, etc
    • Arte y arquitectura
    • El patrimonio musical y su diversidad

 

Projects: Language Teaching Assistants

Year 13 Topics

Students may study all sub-themes in relation to any Spanish-speaking country or countries.

  • Immigration (La inmigración)
    • Los beneficios y los aspectos negativos
    • La inmigración en el mundo hispánico
    • Los indocumentados - problemas
  • Racism (El racismo)
    • Las actitudes racistas y xenófobas
    • Las medidas contra el racismo
    • La legislación anti-racista
  • Integration (La convivencia)
    • La convivencia de culturas
    • La educación
    • Las religiones
  • Today's youth, tomorrow's citizens (Jóvenes de hoy, ciudadanos del mañana)
    • Los jóvenes y su actitud hacia la política : activismo o apatía
    • El paro entre los jóvenes
    • Su sociedad ideal
  • Monarchies and dictatorships (Monarquías y dictaduras)
    • La dictadura de Franco
    • La evolución de la monarquía en España
    • Dictadores latinoamericanos
  • Popular movements (Movimientos populares)
    • La efectividad de las manifestaciones y las huelgas
    • El poder de los sindicatos
    • Ejemplos de protestas sociales (eg. El 15-M, las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, …)

Projects: Language Teaching Assistants

 

Extracurricular:
 
The Language Magician workshops
In June 2019, QKA held half-day Language Magician workshops for local primary schools in French and Spanish to promote KS2 language learning. Sessions were delivered by QKA Language Leaders and QKA students who are native speakers of French.

Foreign Language Spelling and Translation Bee
National competition created by QKA Head of School, Jane Driver. QKA has also hosted the Regional Finals of the competition. Furthermore, QKA has produced a two-time national champion in the Translation Bee competition.

Language Leaders
Student leadership scheme in partnership with the University of Cambridge and Routes into Languages East. Participants attend a training day at the University of Cambridge and meet weekly to prepare KS2 Spanish lessons for primary school classes. Further into their roles, leaders deliver these lessons to groups at local primary schools.

Mother Tongue Other Tongue

Poem competition in partnership with the University of Cambridge and Routes into Languages East. 

Sixth form Voluntary Language Assistant opportunities.

Student leadership scheme where Sixth Former students support and teach languages in KS3 and KS4. 

Juvenes Translatores

The contest aims to raise young people's awareness of how language skills help Europeans to communicate better and work towards a common understanding. It also points out the importance of diversifying the languages we learn in order to increase multilingualism and intercultural understanding, and highlights the benefits of studying translation, given the ever-growing need for translators in Europe.

 


In Key Stage 3 our focus in Spanish, through which we encourage students to appreciate and value languages as a practical and fun skill to learn. We aim to spread the necessary basic skills to become an independent language learner, hoping that, despite their path choices being related to languages or not for KS4, they will have enough knowledge to acquire languages in the future if they desire so.

 
Links

Below is a link to our Soundcloud and YouTube channel for languages? Here you can find languages podcasts and YouTube channel videos. 

The sound cloud is here:

https://soundcloud.com/user-295762134

And the YouTube is here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5weukd6ig8WtjbN-zYoQ2w

 

2020 PTI Subject Leadership Mark for MFL

QKA Languages is delighted to share the news with you that we have been awarded the 2022 PTI Subject Leadership Mark for MFL . This is thanks to the hard work of our staff and our students' ongoing enthusiasm for language learning

2022 PTI Bernice McCabe Award shortlist nominee

We are delighted to share with you that we were awarded ‘commended’. Out of 300 departments we made it to the final 3, so we are immensely proud of being recognised for the work that the Languages Department has done.

Read the full story here: QKA MFL 22 | The PTI (ptieducation.org)

PTI BMC Award

MFL Department

 

 

Staffing

Carmen Santos - Subject Leader and Roma Leader

Irene Gallardo - Spanish teacher
Fransico Aguirre - Spanish Teacher

 

 

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