We teach in English - Why?
Be a Thinker - Stay up to date - Invent the future
We teach in English and then, in Portuguese. We teach mostly in English because of ACCESS. English means more ACCESS to publishings, books, up to date information, opportunities later in life, sociability highly increased at an early age, besides all the advantadges of bilingualism to a child's brain.
Most of our students are Brazilians. Therefore, we teach mostly in English from ages 2 to 6, because their second language needs to be well developed before other language skills as reading and writing are acquired.
Our resource center will work individualy with students who do not have Portuguese as their native language in order to achieve academic success in the Brazilian curriculum.
We teach Math, Science, Social Studies, English, Arts, Physical Education, Coding & Robotics, in English.
We teach Portuguese, Literature and Social Studies in Portuguese.
As you walk through our gates, English is in the air. Our teachers and teacher assistants, except for our nursery, are bilingual and bearer of proficiency certificates of the English Language. The language of instruction is English and we take every opportunity during play time to help them acquire a better understanding of English during their first year at school and throughout their routines here.
The environment sets the tone for cultural pluralism and that is key to global access later in life.
In most cases, Portuguese will be the mother tongue as our students come from Brazilian homes, but the acquisition of a second language in a bi-lingual environment happens naturally at young age and the instructional language grows on them because of "how" and "how often" they are exposed to it. The comprehension comes first and they start to speak back to us in English around the 2nd year at school. That is not dependent on which grade level.
As from GRADE 3, once doors are shut, only English is spoken during subjects where instruction happens in English.
Students can easily transfer skills they develop to any area of knowledge and the original instructional language places little value to the learning process. They will transfer what they have learned to every language they speak in the future.
Time percentages for each Language are as follows:
PRIMARY YEARS - GRADES 1 TO 5
SUBJECTS WHICH THE LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION IS ENGLISH
Math, Science, Arts, Physical Education, Geography, Reading, Coding.
SUBJECTS TAUGHT IN PORTUGUESE
PORTUGUESE
LITERATURE
HISTORY & GEOGRAPHY
LANGUAGES MATTER AT VILLAGE BECAUSE OF ACCESS.
ENGLISH IS OUR LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE is just for new students to whom the English Language is still not a natural language of communication.
PORTUGUESE is also a language of instruction to comply with BNCC, the brazilian national curriculum which is mandatory. We teach History, Geography, Literature and Reading in this mother tongue. PORTUGUESE is also available in the resource center as second language skills may be an issue to international sutudents while in Brazil.
GERMAN - We had to decide which 3rd language to teach and German easily became our 1st choice. Germany is a country that boasts strong market in technical areas, also in the Arts. It makes scholarships available to international students at University level. We start teaching basic German at Grade 3.
MEASURING KNOWLEDGE - TESTING
Assessments happen at regular intervals throughout the Primary Years in four different ways that converge;
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weekly assessments
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self assessments
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diagnostic assessments
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tests
This way we can ensure no special ability will go by unnoticed and any individualized atention needed can be addressed.