The choice of creating a bilingual school and not an “International School” is motivated by the awareness that the students who attend the school are almost all Italian children to whom we consider it important to offer, a solid linguistic competence, historical and cultural formation of our country.
This choice is also underlined by the school logo:
The flag, in its aesthetic form and colours, represents the flag of the Veneto region.
The lion (a cuddly lion with a big smile) is the regional symbol.
The background of the logo presents the British flag, it represents our second language and is a sign of openness to Europe and the World.
The most important difference between our bilingual school and an International School is the language chosen to teach mathematics. Experience and neuroscientific theories have proven that learning mathematics in ones mother tongue allows the learner to achieve much higher results. The English language, not perfectly mastered, slows down the comprehension and can, in some cases, compromise learning of the fundamental steps.
Bilingualism is a spontaneous and natural process when a child lives in a context where two languages are spoken every day, used in interpersonal relationships, in the various situations of daily life, in activities and various contexts in written texts and with peers who use the language to play, sing, dance and do things children love to do.
Pre-school children are most receptive to the acquisition of a second language and the correct phonetics and they intuitively learn the structure and functioning in the same cortical area of the mother tongue. Already at the age of 6/7 the brain is no longer as plastic as in previous years and the second language is no longer assimilated in an intuitive way.
Bilingualism brings notable linguistic and non-linguistic cognitive benefits. The awareness that there are different vocabularies for the same reference and different ways of expressing the same concept, develops an open, flexible mind, that favours the opening of one’s own mental horizons, divergent thinking and the ability to see new and wider prospectives. Being accustomed to switching constantly from Italian to English, develops in the child, the ability to be more attentive, quicker in moving from one task to another, ready to analyse and make deductions.
For the acquisition of the second language it is essential that teachers are mother tongue, (teachers who do not translate from one language to another) thus transmitting a valid model of pronunciation and a precise use of terminology.
The learning process is linked to time, context, motivation and the daily use of the language. Children who learn a second language in pre school age reach levels of fluency and competence in both languages.
Pianca Bilingual School, offers children from the age of 2 to 16 a complete and progressive educational path that harmoniously combines and integrates the Italian Ministerial Programmes with Cambridge International Assessment Education programmes.
For the first years of schooling, we have chosen bilingualism to guarantee linguistic mastery and the need to think logically in the Italian mother tongue. By the time students begin secondary school their English will allow them to follow the progammes of a Cambridge International school.
During their studies, our students will obtain Italian academic qualifications (Primary school and parity school), the Italian diploma of lower secondary school and the certificates issued by the Cambridge Primary Programme, Cambridge Lower Secondary and Cambridge IGCSE.
