This sponsored blog post has been brought to you by The British School of Beijing, Shunyi.
The international school environment in Beijing provides some amazing opportunities for students to learn and be confident in multiple languages.
But is it possible to learn and be confident in more than one curriculum?
The British School of Beijing, Shunyi’s German Primary programme, also referred to as BSB’s Deutsche Grundschule, is providing the opportunity for young German speakers to follow both the German National Curriculum and the English National Curriculum.
It is a solid foundation for German speaking students who want to keep up with the German curriculum and also develop a strong base in an English-speaking learning environment.
Students in Klasse 1 to 4 follow the core subjects of the German Thuringia Curriculum, specifically German, Maths, Topic (Humanities and Science), Art and Personal, Social and Health education (PSHE).
All of these subjects are taught in German, but then the children switch and engage in all other subjects and activities such as PE, Music, Drama and weekly assemblies as part of the English national programme.
Head of German Primary at The British School of Beijing, Shunyi, Mrs Christine Riedl, said the programme provides excellent exposure to both curriculums.
“Students in our programme not only keep up-to-date with school in Germany, but are also in touch with what’s happening in the English Curriculum,” Mrs Riedl said.
“It provides flexibility to parents in the ex-pat school environment to choose their child’s curriculum and the biggest benefit of course is that our students form an excellent ability to learn in both languages.”
Such ability was on show at The British school of Beijing, Shunyi this week during the school’s Year 3 production. Students of Klasse 2 (equivalent to Year 3 in the English Curriculum) participated in the whole show, “The Legend of the Pharaohs”, spoken entirely in English.
Klasse 2 student Nicolas Marcea played a lead role in the show, speaking many lines in English. The rest of his classmates sang and danced throughout the show.
Nicolas’ mother Catherine Marcea said her family was very happy with the German Primary programme at The British School of Beijing, Shunyi. While her two children, aged 6 and 8, have been in an international school environment previously, it is their intention to eventually move back to Germany. She said BSB’s German Primary Programme provides them with flexibility going forward.
“We are happy with the programme because it is not completely separate from the rest of the school,” Mrs Marcea said.
“With the two curriculums, our children get to fully participate in the school and they can still be in touch with their own culture. For us, this was really important.”
Mrs Marcea said the students still celebrate special German events such as Erntedank and Karneval, enjoying special food and traditions. She said it was important that the students are given an opportunity to express German culture in the international school environment and was happy with how BSB’s German Primary programme provides these opportunities.
She said she felt they could “easily move back into the German system”, having been at The British School of Beijing’s German Primary programme.
For more information on German Primary at The British School of Beijing, Shunyi, contact the Head of the programme, Mrs Christine Riedl – christine.riedl@britishschool.org.cn
To visit the school and have a tour of the German Primary classrooms and facilities, please contact BSB’s Admissions team – admissions@britishschool.org.cn
This sponsored blog post has been brought to you by
The British School of Beijing, Shunyi.
Photo courtesy of BSB Shunyi
