In NSW high schools, languages is a key learning area.
Language study allows students to develop communication skills, learn about languages as systems and explore the relationship between language and culture. Students engage with the linguistic and cultural diversity of societies and reflect on their understanding of social interactions.
The study of a language is compulsory for 100 hours in one continuous school year from Year 7 to Year 10, but preferably in Years 7 or 8.
In Years 11 and 12, NSW schools offer a wide variety of languages, catering for beginning students to background speakers.
At Coffs Harbour High School our students study Spanish in Year 8. Over the four terms students learn how to greet people and introduce themselves. They also learn how to describe their friends and family and talk about whether they get along with people and why. They finish by learning how Christmas is celebrated around the Spanish-speaking world.
Our students also have the options to choose Spanish as a 200-hour elective studied through Years 9 and 10. Over the two years of study, they have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the language by studying units on our home town, free time and hobbies, daily routine, holiday plans, shopping, and future plans and aspirations.
Coffs Harbour High School also offers Spanish classes at the HSC level. Students who have only studied Spanish in the Year 8 course, or who have come to CHHS from a school where they studied a different language in junior school, can study the Spanish Beginners Course. Students who studied Spanish in Years 8, 9 and 10 can study the Spanish Continuers Course. This more challenging course reflects the deeper level of learning students have already completed before starting.
In Years 11 and 12, NSW schools offer a wide variety of languages, catering for beginning students to background speakers.