The Bilingual Project

Bilingual education can give young people a huge boost, preparing them for a future where they’ll work, study and live in an increasingly multilingual and integrated Europe. The Bilingual Schools project has been running in Spain since 1995 and has introduced a bilingual, bi-cultural curriculum in several infant and primary schools and secondary schools.

How it works

The idea is simple:

• students are taught in both Spanish and English for roughly the same number of hours each week
• the curriculum includes subject areas from both the Spanish and the English National Curriculum
• the English language lessons are taught by UK teachers alongside a growing number (now over 1300) of Spanish teachers of English

How it helps

With the project now well-established, we’ve now seen the impact of the project on tens of thousands of children at all ages. A recent evaluation report has noted the following successes:

• interest and motivation on the part of the children
• the enthusiasm of the parents
• a growing sense of satisfaction from head teachers in schools, many of which are in economically deprived areas
• learning in two languages not only contributes to the progress of the children in their first language, but seems to assist in the children's cognitive development.

You can find this and much more information here