Foundation level Spanish

[bendmeoverbackwards]

Dd is in Year 11. She used to be good at languages but a combination of lockdown and some mental health problems resulting in missed school means she is struggling now in Spanish. She did very badly in the mock (but I think she missed the speaking part due to absence) and now just wants to pass.

School have recommend foundation level which I agree with. I understand you can only get a 4 or a 5, is that right? And anything lower will be ungraded?

How easy is it to achieve a 4 at foundation level? She doesn't want to do a huge amount of extra work at the expense of more important subjects.

No, that's not correct. On the Foundation tier you can get grades 1-5. On the Higher tier you can get grades 4-9. The risk of being ungraded is if you take the Higher exam and fail to get a 4. It sounds like your daughter should definitely do Foundation.

Higher you can get 3-9
Foundation 1-5

Hi MFL specialist here (not Spanish but hey).

It's a lot easier to gain a 4 or a 5 on Foundation than on Higher. Yes, you have to score a higher mark, but the questions are a lot easier. So not only is a weaker student (or one who has missed a lot of work) more likely to score more highly, they will also have more confidence. I have often seen students totally phased by a question on a Higher paper and write nothing.

The F paper is more accessible and its possible to work out how to do well. For example, the student must write sentences about a picture - it's fine if they all start with "there is" (hay in Spanish).

And yy grades on the F paper go from 1-5; for H anything below 3 is a U.

My DS was in a similar situation this time last year but with Combined Science. Got a 3 in mocks (sitting higher papers), switched to Foundation and got a 5 in actual exams. Boosted his confidence no end as questions were so much easier! All best to your DD

Hello - slightly different situation here but ds has been put onto foundation Spanish and it seems far easier. He got an 5 in his mock with only a little revision.
Apparently half his class got moved to foundation in year 10 (I wasn’t aware of this until year 11 - somehow missed this!). He wasn’t even doing that badly up to that point (his friend who got a U hasn’t been moved to foundation) so it feels that it may have been a bit arbitrary. Anyhow, after feeling a bit peeved on his behalf we’ve decided it’s fine. He’s doing another 10 GCSEs so his 11th being a max of a grade 5 isn’t an issue and means he can focus on other subjects.
Also worth noting that I believe nothing will indicate on their results whether they sat foundation or higher.

Yes that’s correct, the tier is not indicated on their results, it just says 4 or 5 or whatever grade.

Thank you @clary much appreciated. Is the speaking part easier for foundation too?

Hi @bendmeoverbackwards yes it is.

The questions on the role play card are more structured (example F first point: Tipo de película preferido; example H first point: Videojuego – cuándo y dónde comprado) and the photocard questions are easier (example on same picture - F Háblame de una persona de tu familia; H- ¿Con quién te llevas mejor en tu familia? … ¿Por qué?)

The general conversation will be the same as it is open-ended - but crucially, the mark scheme is different. So the F tier for communication - "A speaker who usually gives quite short responses but occasionally gives extended responses" - will gain you 9-10 marks for communication (the highest possible); the same assessment in H tier will only gain you 3-4 marks - for 9-10 marks at H tier you need to be "A speaker who consistently develops responses in extended sequences of speech".

That's followed through for the other AOs as well (range of language, pronunciation and spontaneity). It's there on the website if you want more detail.

So in essence, for the general conversation, you could score 28-30 out of 30 with an effort in F that would score you about 12 out of 30 in H tier. Does that make sense?