School choice

Bilingual / international

Two languages, a mixed nationality cohort, and a portable education.

Teaching runs in two languages, often with a national curriculum on one side and another on the other, in a cohort assembled from several countries. For a family that has moved, may move again, or wants a heritage language kept alive at school rather than only at home, it resolves something no local school can. The academic programme is usually conventional and demanding; the language is the differentiator.

L1
Who directs the day
L2
When formal academics start
L3
Measuring it
L4
Where the curriculum comes from
L5
What a teacher is
E1
Mixed ages
E2
Outdoors and the body
E3
Technology at school
V1
A view of the world
V2
Who else is there
V3
What it is for
C1
What the family can put in
C2
Money and distance
What it asks of you

Not what it promises

Every approach here works for the families it suits; the useful question is what it costs to run.

  • Fees, and usually a commute
  • Accepting slower early progress in both languages before it compounds
  • A cohort that turns over as families relocate, and friendships that go with them
  • Supporting the weaker language at home, which lands on the parents
Axis by axis

Where it stands

Every position with the source it was read from, and the pale band is how much internal variation the approach genuinely tolerates. A wide band is not vagueness — it means the texts in this family really do disagree with each other about that axis.

L1Who directs the day
the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

L2When formal academics start
when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

Source: Starting Strong

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

E2Outdoors and the body
learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

E3Technology at school
kept out until latebuilt in from the start

Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

V1A view of the world
school should stay neutralschool should teach a view of the world

Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

V2Who else is there
a broad, mixed intake matters mosta community that shares our values matters most

Source: The Public School Advantage

V3What it is for
childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

C1What the family can put inwhat your life allows
school has to run without the parentsbeing in it, daily

Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

C2Money and distancewhat your life allows
free and local, or it is not an optionwe can pay, and we can travel

Source: Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

Further

What to read

Compared with

Sources for this row

  1. Primary Years Programme: From Principles into Practice

    International Baccalaureate Organization. Primary source for the IB row — inquiry within a set framework, transdisciplinary themes, and an explicit international outlook.

  2. Starting Strong

    OECD early-childhood education and care reviews. Used for the school-starting-age positions and for how little the international comparisons actually settle.

  3. The Public School Advantage

    Christopher and Sarah Lubienski, University of Chicago Press, 2013. Finds that the measured advantage of private and selective schools largely disappears once intake is controlled for. The single most useful source in this instrument and the least quoted.

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