On the road to bilingualism
Two years old: setting out on a big adventure
At two years old, your little one undergoes crucial physical and intellectual development. This stage is especially important because it arrives as your child encounters new routines, friends and surroundings. This new journey is exciting, and we would be delighted to guide you and your child every step of the way with Early Years: the British Council School's educational programme for children from two to five years old.
What is Early Years? How can we work together? And what sets our programme apart?
The importance of play in child development
Play is fundamental to whole-child development because it is the means through which children experience and understand life. That is why our Early Years programme focuses on providing your child with a safe, friendly and stimulating environment which welcomes them to play.
How is this achieved? Our classrooms are specifically designed for children to invent, explore and discover. ‘Open-ended play’ allows children free and creative expression through activities which encourage teamwork and negotiation, among other life skills.
Experts in Bilingualism
We have been providing bicultural and bilingual education for eight decades to young learners, with excellent results. Our methodology sees the progressive strengthening and consolidation of children’s linguistic and communicative skills.
How does our bilingual approach work? With a wide variety of learning spaces, and through individual attention, your child will discover meanings and expressions organically and progressively, in an environment rich in resources and stimuli.
Each child is unique: individual attention
As every child is unique, we take an individualised approach to each student: we consider and measure each individual’s circumstances and rate of cognitive development. Our curriculum is designed specifically to arrive at a profound understanding of each child.
We achieve this goal through individual observation and evaluation.
Experienced, motivated and qualified teaching staff
Each class – with a maximum of 14 children in Pre-Nursery – is assigned a team of three highly-qualified professionals specialising in early childhood education: a teacher trained in the British education system who teaches the entire class following the English national curriculum, along with a Spanish teacher and a bilingual teaching assistant. In short, children learn through the English education system adapted to the Spanish context.
What are the advantages of this approach and how does it benefit your child? This multidisciplinary approach enriches your child's outlook in line with our values of equality, diversity and inclusion, by offering multiple accents and different points of view. This multifaceted team also reinforces our commitment to individual attention for each child.
Collaboration with parents and the educational community
At the British Council School, we take a child-centred approach to learning, where each child takes a leading role in their education. Key to the success of this approach is your involvement and participation in co-ordinated collaboration with the entire educational community.
How does this work? This approach involves the development of motivating activities, so that you can continue building on your child’s progress at home; it also involves specialised workshops for parents, as well as forums for exchanging experiences, among other events and activities.