Choosing the school can be really difficult and painful in normal circumstances, but for bilingual families it is even more so, as they often have to compare apples with oranges, plus their own personal experience (i.e. their memories about the school they went to) can be of little or no help at all. We spoke about Day Nursery, Kindergarten and language classes, now let’s address the really tough decisions: the REAL school, starting from the primary school.

What we’ll look at is:

• International School
• Bilingual School
• The local school
• How to choose a school

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

The International school, which can be American, English, French, German, ect. follows the programme and methodology of the relative country, and classes are delivered in the corresponding language, which in most cases is a minority language relative to the hosting country.

The majority language, say Italian for people living in Italy, is studied as a second language, although normally there is an understanding that this is the language of the hosting country and therefore there are few hours per week in the language. As a result, it is very common for children to have deficiencies in the majority language, particularly in writing, although this really depends also on the child himself, the support he receives at home, whether parents read to him in the majority language and encourage him to read, and finally from the overall schooling path (will he attend only the International school or will go for the International school first and then move to the local school later, or the other way round?).

The approach to the International School changes dramatically depending on whether the family is of the same nationality of the School or perceives it as foreign. I.e. whether the school is meant to maintain the original language and culture, or to introduce the child to a different language.

• If the school belongs to the parents’ nationality most likely they will know exactly what to expect, the questions for them will regard more the price (more on this later) and some consideration regarding the integration of their children in the local society. It is not uncommon for such schools to be attended by a very specific group of people (international, well off, etc etc) and to be quite remote from the “real  world”. Whether this is OK or not is for the parents to decide, but the recommendation is to give this some real thinking as it has bigger implication for the child’s development than one would imagine. Let me just mention to you that children who grow up in a country other than their original one have been object of extensive research and have been found to have typical behaviours, they have been labelled Third Culture Kids, we’ll come on this later on, it’s a very very interesting matter.
• Different story for majority culture/language families that choose an International School because they want their children to become bilingual, or choose a school from theit own same language but differnt style 9thing British vs. American). The warning there is that School programmes and teaching styles can vary greatly, and this can cause some perplexities among parents. Accept that in some countries some subjects are treated better than others (for instance Italians are traditionally far better at humanistic subjects than scientific ones) and that methodologies can be very different from what you are used to. The language is certainly not the only thing you should consider when you take such a decision. Problem is, it’s not easy at all to gain some clarity about the different programmes and quality of the schools. Some help can come from the OECD reports, see Education at a Glance 2008. Beware though, you’ll find no magic formula but assessments on many different parameters, and making your own choice might prove difficult and time consuming.

BILINGUAL SCHOOL

Bilingual Schools follow the programme of the hosting country, but offer some hours in a second language. It’s important to know how many hours per week there are in the second language, it could be as little as 3-4 ours per week. It’s equally important to understand which classes are taught in the second language, are they only language and literature classes or also different subjects, like history, science and gym just to give an example?

Also this option presents both pro and contra, namely the child will be more immersed in the local culture, but the learning of the second language will be slower. If the second language is the family’s first language, they might not be fully satisfied with the learning of their language, particularly in writing. So again, the family might have to supplement the school’s teachings at home.

LOCAL SCHOOL

Sending the children to a local school might be a difficult decision for expatriates family. The considerations are similar to what we saw above.

The pros are normally the price, which can be become a major concern in families with few children (in most countries these schools are state owned, and in some countries- like Italy- quality is by no means inferior to private schools).

The contras are that the family will have to support the child in learning the family language, particularly for reading and writing, that the parents might not feel at ease with helping the child in a language other than their native one, that the programme and methodology might differ from what they are used to.

Whether full immersion in the local culture is a pro or a contra is for the family to decide…

HOW TO GO ABOUT CHOOSING

We hope one thing is clear at this point, that there is no right or wrong answer, but many considerations that need to be made in order to take a decision. So here is what I suggest you reflect on:

• Try to understand the programme of each school and how it differS from what you are used to. It’s important for parents to trust the school and its teaching methodology
• Second language learning: how many hours per week are taught in the each language? How does this split evolve year by year? Are teachers native speakers? What’s the percentage Of foreign pupils?
• Distance for home. It looks triviaL but it isn’t… Choosing a school far away from home is a commitment you take for few years, make sure the logistics are manageable, for everybody
• Cost, auch… It will depend of course, but make sure you know how the costs evolve over the years, it is not uncommon for costs to start off reasonable and then escalate in few years time. Also make sure you are clear on all the costs involved: fees, meals, uniform, extracurricular activities, trips, etc. Just to give a frame of reference to those living in Italy, in Rome an International School costs around 9.000 to 11.000 Euros per year for a first grader
• Will it be necessary to supplement reading and writing teaching at home for the family/majority language? Does the school offer assistance? Can the family manage?
• How to help children with homework in a language other than your own. In general this shouldn’t be a major issue, but again, it’s for you to know your limits (without underestimating them…)
• School environment. As mentioned some schools have a very strong culture, sometimes quite elitist. Make sure you get a view on this and decide whether it would fit your family and your child or not. In some countries bullysm is also quite a serious problem, so make sure you understand whether this is the case for the school you are considering and how the school is addressing the issue.
• Religion. Quite a few schools, particularly bilingual ones, have a strong religious culture, this is certainly true in Italy, but possibly in other countries too. In some cases the school might even be associated to a religious movement, think Opus Dei just to make an example. This link is not always obvious, but is important parents are aware of it early on and decide whether it fits their values and objectives, so ask the question, and ask around if you can.
• How to find schools? Impossible to give tips for everybody. Let me just give some hints to people living in Italy: www.romeschools.org, http://italy.usembassy.gov/usa/education/schools-it.asp, however these lists are not exhaustive.

So, what shall I do?

I’m afraid nobody else but you can take this decision. But it’s a tough one, so start thinking about it well in time and don’t rush your decision, if you have the choice, that is.

And if you have already gone thorugh this, please share your experience with others, so that we can learn from each other.

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Picture by txd

Related posts:

1. Bilingual Preschoolers: Day Nursery and Kindergarten for Bilingual Children in Italy
2. Do Language Classes deliver Bilingual Children?

 We have been talking about kindergarten schooling options for bilingual children, and we’ll soon talk about primary schools too, however let’s spend few word also on language classes.

For parents that would like their children to grow bilingual, language classes are often considered an alternative to international/bilingual schooling, a less intense but a far less expensive alternative. As a result all over the place new language classes for children are being created, starting from 3 year old. Mostly these courses offer English as a foreign language, but in English speaking countries alternatives like French, Spanish and (yes!) Italian are also on offer.

The reason is simple, young kids’ minds are very flexible and learn languages easily. What is not clear is how the courses intend to exploit children’s gift for languages, nor which objectives and targets do they set with regards to language acquisition.

This is a very important point, and if you are considering enrolling your child on a language course I encourage you to ask this specific question: What are the objectives of this course?

As far as I know research says that yes children learn languages easily, but they need consistent exposure to it, they cannot learn a language with one or two hours of classes per week. However I might be wrong, may be they do learn few words, like Hello, Bye Bye, Dog e Red. May be they’ll just learn that there are other languages in the world and grow curious about them. Whatever it is, it is essential that objectives are made clear to parents, so that they can decide whether they are worth the effort (money and time wise).

In a couple of occasions I have had a chance to ask this question to schools offering language classes for children, and I must say I received honest answers. They didn’t promise that after a year of classes a 3 year old child would speak sentences in English, not even that he would have used words actively. They said he would have familiarised with the language. Which is still an important thing, but is it worth the cost and effort? And I’m not talking only of the cost in terms of money, or in terms of the time the parents have to put in it. Is it really worth sending a 3 year old to language classes? Shouldn’t his/her life be only about playing, discovering the world, loving and being loved? Are we asking too much from our children? (this is a subject I’ll come back to, a very very important one, I think)

The morale of the story is not that language classes are bad, not at all. The point is that parents should think about it, ask questions, reflect on the pro and contra before enrolling their children on their courses. And may be also start from the assumption that such classes are meaningful only if they are supported by activities at home, between parents and children.

If you did send your child to language classes please share your experience.

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Related posts:

1. Bilingual Preschoolers: Day Nursery and Kindergarten for Bilingual Children in Italy
2. Schooling options for Bilingual Children

Schooling is a big issue for all expat families. Is it better to send the kids to a local school, where they’ll learn the local language and integrate in the local society, or to send them to an international school, where they’ll grow with a more international profile and culture, but might risk living in a society a bit detached from reality and, not least, might cost a fortune?
Obviously there’s no right or wrong answer, each family will have to make its call, but let’s have a look together at the options available.

We’ll look at this from an Italian point of view, examining education options available to bilingual families living in Italy. However while schooling changes from country to country, most considerations will apply to most families wherever they live, in particular those concerning how to search and what to look for in bilingual education.
Let’s start by looking today at Preschoolers, i.e. Day Nursery (Asilo Nido in Italy) – 0 to 3 years – and Kindergarten (Scuola Materna) -2.5 to 6 years. We’ll look later at school age children, i.e. above 6 years.
Options available vary greatly depending on where one lives, Rome and Milan already don’t offer much, imagine what a smaller town or a village can offer… Moreover foreign language schooling in Italy focuses primarily on English, with few exceptions for other languages located in Rome or Milan or in the bilingual regions (Trentino Alto Adige for German and Val D’Aosta for French)

From now for simplicity we’ll use the word school to refer to both Day Nursery and Kindergarten, the options available for bilingual preschoolers are the following:
• International school, private
• Bilingual school, private
• School H&L, pubblic o private

International School
International schools (i.e. America, Enghlish, French, etc) adopt the structure and methodologies of their original country. From an international school one should expect that all the staff is native speaker in that language. However bear in mind that this doesn’t imply that the school is monolingual, because often many of the children enrolled are Italian or speak Italian as their first language, hence the children will most likely speak Italian among themselves. That said, it is a fact that the kids will hear a lot of English there, moreover these schools are more likely to attract foreign families, creating the opportunities to meet international playmates.
One should also ask whether the school adopts a specific methodology to encourage the children to speak English, and if so whether it is a strict one or not, or in general one the parents approve of.
Finally from what I discovered these schools target children starting from 3years, there is very little around in terms of International Day Nursery.

If you wanto to find such a school, a good (but not complete) starting point could be this http://italy.usembassy.gov/usa/education/schools-it.asp, or this if you live in Rome www.romeschools.org, plus in Rome there is also La Maisonette, which is mainly French but offers English too.
What to ask to an International School:
Are the teachers native speakers? Where are they from?
Which techniques do you use to invite children to speak English/French/etc?
How many children in the school are majority language (Italian) native speaker?
How much is it?

Bilingual School
Bilingual School can mean anything, so be prepared. Doesn’t look like in Italy there are specific rules, so pretty much anybody can decide their school is bilingual.
Some schools do have a native speaker teacher, who might keep the class either on their own or with an italian colleague, sometimes the all day, sometimes just for few hours here and there. But a school can call itself bilingual even if they offer just one or two hours of English per week, sometimes with an external teacher, which is pretty USELESS, because young kids don’t learn a language with one or two hours of exposure per week. So when you shop around for a bilingual school ask them to be very clear on the methodologies they adopt and the objectives they set for the second language, and then decide whether it’s worth the money (or the distance you’d have to travel).
According to my personal (and local) experience, 90% of so called bilingual schools for young children are pointless, but not all, plus you might have better luck in your area.
What to ask to Bilingual School:
Are there native speaker teachers? Where are they from?
How many native speaker teachers there are?
How many hours per week/day do you offer with native speaker teachers?
What are your objectives with regards to the minority language?
Which methodology do you use to teach the second language?
How much is it?

H&L School
This optino will interest more those who would like to introduce their children to English as a second or third language, rather than parents of English bilingual children. These are normal schools, either public or private, where the teacer has been trained with the Hocus&Lotus technique to teach a foreign language to preschoolers.
Hocus & Lotus has been developed by Rome University la Sapienza to allow kindergarten teachers to teach a foreign language to their children, the teacher doesn’t have to be fluent in the language to do that but the objectives are very clearly stated, children are expect to learn a certain number of words per year.
If you’d like to find out whether any school in your area offers H&L a good starting place is H&L’s website, but it’s not complete so you’ll have to ask around I’m afraid.

What to ask to H&L School:

Who does H&L? the class teacher or another teacher? (it should be the class teacher, as the methodology uses also the emotional bond between teacher and children to facilitate learning)
How often do you do H&L? (it should be done daily)
Which support do you do to parents to use H&L also at home? (for the methodology to be successful parents should expose children also at home, at least through some DVDs)
What are the objectives with regards to learning the second language?

Finally, a last word. Choosing the right school is very important, both for parents and for children. The kids will spend quite some time there, and it is important that they are happy and well cared for and that you are comfortable with your choice. So bilingualism is a nice plus, but my personal suggestion is to choose first a school you like and are comfortable with. And if you are a bilingual family, trust yourself, you can raise a child bilingual even if s/he goes to a normal school.

Next week we’ll talk about school aged children.

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Related posts:

1. Schooling options for Bilingual Children
2. Do Language Classes deliver Bilingual Children?