Spanish

The Spanish Department at Tile Cross Academy aims to create enthusiastic, independent learners who will be trained to communicate in an increasingly global workforce. We are committed to encourage students to become curious and interested in the world and community they live in.

In addition, as a Rights Respecting School, we believe that an appreciation of other languages and cultures helps to promote tolerance and understanding amongst our students. Ultimately, we want our students to have a love of languages and aim to achieve this by nurturing a linguistic curiosity and an intrinsic motivation to explore and respect other cultures and people.

In years 7, 8 and 9, all students are taught Spanish. Spanish at Tile Cross is a program designed to allow for plenty of opportunities for students to recall, repeat and reuse vocabulary structures in a variety of contexts leading over time to mastery. At KS3 students will explore what life is like for young people in Spanish speaking countries. Activities are structured so that students can encounter and practice language in engaging contexts, with a particular focus on developing students’ cultural capital. Students learn increasingly complex vocabulary and phrases which will equip them to cope with real life situations in Hispanic speaking countries. These foundation years serve as a springboard to further study when pupils can hone their subject knowledge and expertise if opting to take GCSE Spanish.

In years 10 and 11 we follow the Edexcel Specifications and cover the five key GCSE areas of: Identity and Culture; Local Area, Holiday and Travel; School; Future Aspirations, Study and Work and International and Global dimension.

In addition, at Tile Cross, we are proud to promote the importance of language learning with over 30 languages being spoken by both students and staff. We encourage students to seek accreditation in their home languages where possible and provide them with in-house support or individual tuition from outside language agencies to ensure the greatest success. Previously, students have gained a variety of qualifications including Arabic, Bengali, Urdu, Russian, Italian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Mandarin and Welsh.