Spanish

Spanish is taught in all of our associated Primary Schools and pupils study Spanish in the Broad General Education (BGE) up to and including S3 at St Aidan’s High School. Pupils then have the choice whether to study for National Qualifications in Spanish at National 4 or 5 or beyond at Higher or Advanced Higher.

National 4 & 5 Spanish

National 4 and National 5 Modern develop literacy skills by giving learners opportunities to read, listen, talk and write in a modern language and to reflect on how this relates to English. These courses enable learners to understand and use the modern language, to apply their knowledge of a modern language in real life contexts including that of Employability.

National 4 is entirely internally assessed. There is an external examination at National 5 which comprises a Reading and Writing paper, plus a Listening paper. Talking is internally assessed and is worth 25% of the overall N5 grade.

The National 4 course is made up of three mandatory Units:

Modern Languages: Understanding Language (National 4). The purpose of this Unit is to provide learners with the opportunity to develop reading and listening skills in the modern language and to develop their knowledge of straightforward language in the contexts of society, learning, employability and culture.

Modern Languages: Using Language (National 4). The purpose of this Unit is to provide learners with the opportunity to develop the productive skills of talking and writing in the modern language, and to develop their knowledge of straightforward language in the contexts of society, learning, employability and culture.

Added Value Unit: Modern Languages: Assignment (National 4). The purpose of this Added Value Unit is to provide learners with the opportunity to apply their language skills to investigate a chosen topic in a familiar context in the modern language. Pupils are required to read, research, present and talk in the Modern Language in order to achieve the National 4 Added Value Unit.

The National 5 course is made up of two mandatory Units:

Modern Languages: Using Language (National 5)

The purpose of this Unit is to provide learners with the opportunity to develop talking skills in the modern language, and to develop their knowledge and understanding of detailed language in the contexts of society, learning, employability, and culture.

The writing assignment allows candidates to produce a piece of writing in the modern language based on one of the contexts of society, learning or culture, to express ideas and opinions. This is externally assessed by SQA.

Further information about National 5 Modern Languages can be found here.

Spanish resources

Pupils are recommended to have a bilingual dictionary for use at home to assist in the completion of any homework.

Pupils are advised to use the on-line dictionary site www.wordreference.com as this is reliable.

Homework should be done when given on the interactive resource www.pearsonactivelearn.com used by the Department. Pupils have been issued with their Username and Password to allow access at home.

Past papers can be accessed here.