A natural bilingual environment is promoted in the school from the age of two in Nursery and real English immersion is achieved.
The two-year-old pupils have 32,5 teaching hours per week, carrying out 60% of their day in English. From the age of three, 47%.
Our international teaching staff stands out. There are numerous nationalities in the school, giving it a multicultural atmosphere, which prepares the Humanitas Pupils for their future.
All the staff teaches the different areas in English following the objectives, communicating with the pupils at all times in this language.
All the projects and areas of knowledge are developed in parallel in English and Spanish with the same objectives and topics, in Nursery 2. From the age of three, also in Chinese, working through termly topics .
In Nursery & Infants the objective is to:
– Establish the foundations of the bilingual nature of the school.
– Create more opportunities to speak in English.
– Widen the pupils’ English vocabulary.
Opportunities to speak in English are continuously encouraged.
Our pupils have good comprehension levels but need continual exposure to English in order to create occasions to express themselves in a second language and improve their speaking skills. The children have a high level of technical and specialist vocabulary thanks to their topic work in projects, but we are also aware of the need to encourage their everyday language. So both these objectives are met, we use additional mechanisms in our teaching-learning process:
1. Insist that all everyday questions are in English.
2. The creation of lists of vocabulary and structures that the children should be able to use fluently at the end of each school year.
3. The use of a reward system for pupils that use English both inside and outside the classroom.
4. The establishment of speaking groups within the classroom.
5. The use of ICT to model correct grammatical structures and record the children speaking.
6. The enhancement of vocabulary using applications on the iPad.
The vocabulary and grammar from three to five year olds is developed in the following way:
| 3 YEAR OLDS | 4 YEAR OLDS | 5 YEAR OLDS |
| Classroom vocabulary House and home: rooms Professions Parts of the body Parts of the face Winter clothes Christmas It’s… |
Classroom vocabulary House and home: furniture Autumn Halloween Winter clothes Christmas Prepositions There is / are |
Food Winter clothes Christmas I like / I don´t like |
| Sport Spring (Nature) I like … |
Adjectives for describing (link to Dinosaur topic) It was… Spring (Nature) |
Health Transport Prepositions (transport) Spring (Nature) |
| Adjectives for describing animals Summer clothes Beach vocabulary It´s got… |
Landscapes (mountain, river etc.) Summer clothes Beach vocabulary I’m wearing… |
Buildings + adjectives to describe them Summer clothes Beach vocabulary He / She is wearing… |
The children also follow a phonics programme to learn sounds and to initiate the reading and writing process in English.
When it comes to the acquisition of the Mandarin Chinese language, we can highlight that HBS Tres Cantos was the first semi-private school in the Madrid area with Chinese as a timetabled subject. More than 1000 pupils currently learn Chinese as a second foreign language at the school, starting at the age of three, for two hours per week.
There are 10 native teachers in the school’s Chinese Department. They teach Chinese following the objectives, communicating at all times with the pupils in the language.