Students in KS4 will now be studying for the new GCSE. You can find the syllabus for this here:
http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/spanish-8698
Here you will find a list of GCSE vocabulary as well as the content and expectations of the course. There are also practice papers for students to gain exam practice. It is vital that students are regularly revising grammar and topics throughout the course and completing additional work on key areas such as verb formation. The links below will be very useful for GCSE students in consolidating the work covered in class:
www.espanol-extra.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/spanish/
https://conjuguemos.com/list.php?type=fillin&division=grammar&language=spanish
http://www.languagesonline.org.uk/Hotpotatoes/Index.htm
Prior to starting the course there are a number of things that parents and students can do Please see below the text of the letter sent to parents regarding how students can prepare between Year 9 and 10:
Our exam board is AQA and there are some useful resources and information on their website. The course we use is the Viva GCSE course, which gives students access to online practice and homework through the Activelearn service. All students will have their own login details for this site. There will often be tasks set for them to complete but they can access all tasks at any time in order to go over something again, practise some grammar or vocabulary, or even to learn vocabulary and grammar in advance of studying the topic in class.
Another very helpful website is www.espanol-extra.co.uk. This site covers Spanish topics and grammar from beginners through to A-level. As well as using it to consolidate what we do in class this is also a very good resource to revise work covered at KS3 that students may need to recap.
It would be useful if your child had a Spanish dictionary (there were some in The Works for £2!) and grammar guide at home and students should be learning/memorising vocabulary weekly. A key area in order to achieve higher grades at GCSE is knowledge of verbs in the different tenses. Your child will be starting in a strong position if he/she could use espanol-extra or another website, www.conjuguemos.com, to work on the present, preterite and future tenses before starting the course in September. One of the best ways to ensure that you know something is to teach it to someone else so you could get them to try to explain to you what they have been working on. When they have vocabulary to learn you could test them on it – you do not have to be able to speak any Spanish to be able to help with this as, on the whole, it is easy to link Spanish words in writing to what you hear.
Finally, one of the best ways to build vocabulary, improve pronunciation and accent, and develop listening and reading skills is to find authentic material on something you enjoy – encourage your child to find songs, adverts, sports commentaries, cartoons, films, news articles, blogs or anything else that sparks an interest and see how much they can understand. It may only be one or two words to begin with but the more they do the more they will increase their knowledge of Spanish and Spanish culture.