At Westbourne we are passionate about languages and while practising all four language skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing - we believe that the real purpose of learning any modern foreign language is to communicate!
Our students have the opportunity to attend French and Spanish support classes at lunchtime and a French film club runs in the summer term.
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We also run a trip to the Cantabria region of Spain, enjoy visits to the Showroom Cinema to see films and take our pupils to French and Spanish cafés to visit and sample typical national delicacies.
We also have important links with French and Spanish schools and we have visited and corresponded with students of a similar ages in both countries.
GCSE
Students study all of the following themes; the assessments are based on these.
Theme 1: Identity and culture
Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest
Theme 3: Current and future study and employment
GCSE Spanish has a Foundation Tier (grades 1–5) and a Higher Tier (grades 4–9). Students must take all four question papers at the same tier. In determining the final grade, 25% of marks are awarded for each of all 4 skills; Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. They are assessed in 4 final exams at the end of Year 11 as outlined below. The speaking exams will be conducted by their teacher, not an external examiner.
Trips and other activities
Learning a foreign language develops important life skills enabling us to adapt and cope with change and to deal with unfamiliar and new situations.
Our students have the opportunity to access Spanish conversation classes with students from Sheffield University, attend a French film club in the summer term and correspond with pupils from a school in Cantabria. We also run a trip to the Cantabria region of Spain where pupils meet their penpal at their school.
Locally we pay visits to the Showroom Cinema to see foreign language films and take pupils to French and Spanish cafés to visit and sample typical national delicacies.
Pupils learn best through enjoyment. We prioritise cultural awareness of Hispanic and Francophone countries and enjoy learning about their festivals especially.
We encourage pupils to use Higher Order Thinking skills to analyse language and create their own spoken and written responses; teaching them to become independent learners and manipulate the language for their own purposes.
Pupils are encouraged to use previous knowledge and experience to predict how new language might work.
We applaud our students for daring to make mistakes; it is the best way to learn!
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