This is an A4 two-page document of a compilation of useful phrases and sentence starters to improve writing but also speaking skills. There is no English translation and this might be more targeted at the top band of Higher Tier GCSE and A-level. Teachers will have to either ask pupils to work on translations and equivalents at home, or do it in class with pupils, before the latter can use the mat/hand-out independently. It can be copied double sided and laminated as a mat or simply copied on one single sided A4 (two pages on one) and stuck in books. Any constructive feedback will be welcomed as I always wish to improve my resources.

In the Writing paper of Spanish GCSE, pupils will be required to write in formal register/style using the Usted form. They might need to write to a single person using Usted (Vd.) or to a group of people using Ustedes (Vds.) while writing a simple formal email, an online report or an online magazine article addressed to a teacher before an exchange, to a future employer or to unknown readers. In some cases, they will also need to convince the reader(s). This pack contains resources to teach the Usted form for the new Spanish GCSE writing exam (also useful for the speaking exam role-plays). It contains: a double A4 handout (that could be double sided for a mat or simply reduced to one A4 and stuck in books) on sentence starters to write a formal email/report/article using the Usted and Ustedes forms, with English translations. It contains also phrases to end the email/report/article as well as phrases to convince the reader(s). PDF doc. a double A4 handout (that could be double sided for a mat or simply reduced to one A4 and stuck in books) on sentence starters to write an informal email/report/article using the tú and vosotros forms, with English translations. It contains also phrases to end the email/report/article as well as phrases to convince the reader(s). PDF doc. a PPT to teach the Usted form in the context of a higher tier task of the Edexcel writing exam paper. To teach how to understand the instructions of a writing task when written in the Usted form. Normal PPT format for you to amend as you wish. The accompanying worksheet to this PPT. Word format for you to amend as you wish. Any constructive feedback will be welcomed as I always wish to improve my resources.

The new national curriculum emphasizes the need to teach the cultures of the Spanish-speaking countries. In order to meet this requirement as well as to motivate pupils into the learning of these amazing cultures, we ask our pupils at KS3 to pick un país de habla española (or a city/comunidad if there are more pupils than countries in a class) and research about it. However we set criteria in order to ensure quality. We also show previous years’ work as WAGOLLs so pupils know what they actually can do. We like it to be done in the exercise books and to be handwritten to make sure this will be their work. Here you will find two documents, the hand-out we give to pupils and the one we keep with the pupils’ names to know which pupil will be doing which country. *What a good one looks like