Spanish

Think how many more employment options that gives you! And if you want to take a trip to Spain or Latin America, a little knowledge of Spanish will go a long way.

• Spanish is the third most widely spoken language in the world, after English and Mandarin.
• Spanish is the official language in 21 countries (Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and most of South America).
• Spanish is the second world language as a vehicle of international communication and third as an international language of politics, economics and culture.
• In the USA, Spanish has become the unofficial second language with 1 in 10 US residents above the age of 5 speaking Spanish at home.

A Level Spanish

We follow the EDEXCEL specification for A Level Spanish. 

Year 12 topics include: 

• Spanish grammar 
• Culture
• Society
• Politics
• World of work
• Tourism
• Festivals
• Music and media of Spain and Spanish–speaking countries. 

We also study a Spanish film in detail. 

A firm understanding of grammar is essential in Year 12 and dedicated grammar lessons are an integral part of the course. This enables students to use Spanish independently and creatively. Increased contact with our foreign language assistant helps students  with their oral work and keeps them on top of current affairs.

Year 13 topics include: 

• Immigration, integration and multiculturalism, both within Spain and the Spanish-speaking world.
• History of Spain, including the Civil War, Franco’s dictatorship, the transition to democracy, the role of the monarchy and a Spanish novel. 

At the end of the course, students are assessed on their listening, speaking, reading, writing, translating and research abilities. The skills developed during the course prepare students thoroughly for academic life at university. Indeed, many of our students go on to combine Spanish with another subject at university, such as English, Economics, Marketing, History, European studies, Politics, French, German, Law and Medicine.

Co-curricular Activities:

• We offer an exchange jointly with King Edward VII and Birkdale Schools to Palma de Mallorca in December. Students stay with host families and reciprocate the following January welcoming Spanish students to Sheffield.
• We can also help students to arrange work experience in Spain to complement their Sixth Form studies.
• Our foreign language assistant helps to run clinics to support girls at all stages of their learning.
• We enter Hispanic national and regional competitions such as the Sheffield University Herbert Hughes Memorial Prize.
• Language Prefects are able to provide experiences and activities for our younger Junior language learners throughout the school year and work with other senior students to offer language clubs.
• Every September we provide a range of activities to celebrate Languages Week and the European Day of Languages.
• We host a city-wide translation bee competition annually and our A Level French students can choose to compete or support the event in other ways.

Learning Spanish at A Level is a great way to extend prior learning from GCSE, focusing on the key communication skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing in this fantastic language. During the course we immerse our students in Spanish culture, current affairs and history.

Our dedicated foreign language assistants help to bring language learning to life and support our A Level students to achieve amongst the top academic results in the region.