The MFL curriculum at TCA provides an opening to enjoy and celebrate other cultures. It is designed to enable students to develop their ability and ambition to communicate confidently for practical purposes, expressing their own ideas and opinions in the target language in speech and writing in their own and other countries, whilst enjoying the experience. Studying a foreign language will broaden students’ horizons and foster their curiosity to encourage them to step beyond familiar cultural boundaries and develop new ways of seeing the world with a deeper awareness of the culture and identity of the countries and communities where the language is spoken.

The main aims of the MFL curriculum are to:

• Show students that, with practice, anyone can learn a language and express themselves.
• Develop a fluent working knowledge; develop the 4 skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) and an understanding of structures to appreciate how a language works and is built up over time and use this knowledge in practice.
• Apply different techniques to solve problems of comprehension.
• Reason linguistically, make deductions and inferences and draw conclusions.
• Comprehend, interpret, infer and communicate in a variety of forms appropriate to information, register and context.
• Provide a strong foundation for further academic and vocational study and for employment. 
• Bring enjoyment, enable participation and instill a desire to learn a language other than their own.

Key Stage 3
From September our students begin their journey in languages with either Spanish or French. This pattern continues in Y8 with students continuing the same language. All students have 4 hours per fortnight of French or Spanish. In Y9 students are offered the opportunity of studying Urdu as their MFL if they already have a basic knowledge.

The curriculum at KS3 is designed to support and develop the 4 skills with an emphasis on Listening, Speaking and phonics, embodying an enjoyment of learning and an attention to detail.

Why study Spanish at GCSE?
It will give an international dimension to your GCSE choices. After all, 94% of the world does NOT speak English as their first language. 

• You already have a solid base in Spanish with 3 years' of learning already completed.
• Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the world (320 million globally).
• Do you visit Spain? It is, after all, a country which lots of people visit for holidays.
• A language increases employment prospects – ¾ of employers want foreign language skills.
• A language connects cultures and breaks down barriers.
• You will be more successful at communicating.

Description of the course
You will study the language in relation to 3 main themes across all 4 skill areas of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing:

• People and lifestyle
• Popular culture
• Communication and the world around us

At Key Stage 3 you have developed important language skills. The GCSE will build on these skills, develop them and introduce you to a wider range of themes, structures and vocabulary in the target language.

How the course is assessed
Paper One - Listening - 25%
Paper Two - Speaking - 25%
Paper Three - Reading - 25%
Paper Four - Writing - 25%

All 4 skills of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing are examined at the end of the 2 year course.

Other information
Where will this lead me next?

• Study for further language qualifications.
• Employers are always asking for candidates with language skills. A GCSE in languages will place you in a strong position with interesting career opportunities e.g. Media, Law, Marketing, Medicine, Fashion, Business, Travel and Tourism, ICT, Sport and Leisure and Journalism.
• It will give you job security in a changing and developing world. Learning another language can help you find a job in business, engineering or fashion and give more opportunities for further education.
• It will open up new opportunities.

The curriculum plan for Spanish can be viewed from the link below.