At GIS Monza we take teaching and learning of the host country language very seriously, with the Italian classes beginning from age 5 in the EY3 class. Our Alpha/EY1 and EY2 class immerses students in both English and Italian with bilingual staff and from EY3 upwards students are taught Italian by specialist teaching staff. From PY3 students learn Math in Italian too, having one lesson per week. From PY3 upwards, students have an extra Co-Teaching lesson per week where the English and Italian teacher work together on a specific concept. In PY3 this usually takes a mathematical focus and from PY4 onwards a historical and geographical focus to ensure all content from the curriculum has been covered across the two languages. The bilingual approach we adopt allow our students to successfully sit the Italian Quinta Elementare idoneità. As well as English and Italian, at GIS we bring our value of Multilingualism to life by showing interest and celebrating connections to all the languages and dialects spoken at GIS. Translanguaging can be commonly heard across the school and this is something we are very proud of.
