Programme Design

The school offers a dual language partial immersion programme and the structure is as listed below:

• Early Years have a language input of 50% English and 50% Italian.
• Transition have approximately 60% of their lessons in English and 40% in Italian.
• Grade 1 have approximately 60% of their lessons in English and 40% in Italian.
• Grade 2 have approximately 65% of their lessons in English and 35% in Italian.
• Grade 3 have approximately 70% of their lessons in English and 30% in Italian.
• Grade 4* have approximately 75% of their lessons in English and 25% in Italian.
• Grade 5* have approximately 80% of their lessons in English and 20% in Italian.
• Grades 6 to 8 have approximately 50% of their lessons in English and 50% in Italian.

The delivery of the curriculum in two languages

The curriculum is delivered in two languages, in accordance to the percentages of teaching time in each language listed above. In the Early Years and elementary school sections there are 2 main teachers assigned to each class, one is an Italian mother tongue speaker and the other is an English mother tongue speaker. In the Middle school there is one English multi-subject teacher and a series of specialists for the Italian part of the curriculum. The two languages are kept distinct in the Early Years by teachers attaining to the principle one person one language and by colour coding displays and other classroom signs. Both teachers teach to the same curriculum, plan in a collaborative manner and with shared learning objectives in mind. Curriculum coverage and progression takes place in all areas of learning regardless of what language the subject is taught in. Teachers do not repeat the same lesson in both languages but they do ensure that pupils develop the necessary linguistic skills to express key concepts in both languages. Pupils feel free to use whatever language they are comfortable with when engaging in interactions as they negotiate and construct meaning. The teachers’ role, besides being a “language model”, is to also monitor language use in the classroom environment and through appropriate strategies to encourage students to use the target language.