School teachers
28 Mar 2025
By Ellen Raphael, Teacher of Year 6 in charge of Teaching and Learning for Writing
When I first visited Caxton College what struck me most was how British it was. Walking into the primary school for the first time, I felt that I had been transported back to England - apart from the gloriously blue skies outside of the windows! The classrooms looked exactly like the primary schools I knew back in Surrey and as I toured around I heard the babble of English conversation in the classroom between the teachers and students alike. Displays were in English and, I later discovered, in the dining room there were British dishes mixed amongst the Spanish fare.
This level of immersion into the English language and culture is how our students develop such an in-depth understanding of the language, which allows them to communicate confidently from a young age in a language from a country that often they have no real experience of.
The difference between being a British school and a bilingual school is that - apart from Spanish or Valencian language and Sociales - all the instruction for compulsory subjects is in English, from art to science to maths. The teachers are also native speakers of English, who have been trained in England.
What we aim to achieve with this language immersion programme is for the children to develop strong bilingual skills. Many of the children at Caxton also speak a third or fourth language - making them truly international citizens!
Bilingualism is on the rise, with one research paper stating that perhaps one in three people are bilingual or multilingual.[1] The science behind the effects of a bilingual education is still growing - in part because it is difficult to codify the extensive nature of the global bilingual experience but what we know anecdotally is that being secure in a second language increases employability and opens the door to the wider world.
Developing strong English language skills through an immersive educational curriculum helps children to become strong and confident language users, enabling them to take on the world!
There are ways that parents can also help children develop a secure understanding of the languages they are learning:
● Reading to your child every day (or alternate days for each language)
● Watching television in English with English subtitles to help reinforce word recognition
● Listening to audiobooks or podcasts for children in the car
● Introducing new vocabulary to your children in any language to encourage a curiosity in language and words
[1] Byers-Heinlein K, Lew-Williams C. Bilingualism in the Early Years: What the Science Says. Learn Landsc. 2013 Fall;7(1):95-112. PMID: 30288204; PMCID: PMC6168212.
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