Language learning

“One language sets you in a corridor for life; two languages open every door along the way”. (Frank Smith)

We train multilingual students. We have excellent specialists and a personalised language accreditation programme adapted to each student.

ENGLISH: Highlands School Barcelona is accredited as an examination centre for the two most prestigious and recognised organisations in the world for the accreditation of English level: Cambridge English Assessment & Oxford English Test. At the end of Primary School our pupils reach level B1/B1+ and at the end of Baccalaureate they reach level C1/C2.

FRENCH: We introduce French as an optional subject in the Secondary stage with the aim of achieving C1 certification at the end of their schooling.

CATALAN: We start learning Catalan from the 1st year of Primary School. Pupils finish the Baccalaureate stage with B2/C1 certification.

Cambridge Curriculum (Cambridge International School)

Highlands School Barcelona is certified as a “Cambridge International School” which allows us to enrich the national curriculum with the British curriculum from the age of 5.

As part of this Cambridge academic programme, pupils sit standardised progress tests from Primary 5 onwards in Science & English subjects in which their performance is assessed against international standards. In Secondary, students have the opportunity to sit the iGCSE – globally standardised subject specific examinations.

Following this international project, our students take the IGCSE examinations in English as a Second Language and Science/Biology, thus complementing their national curriculum with a programme that enjoys a worldwide reputation as an excellent preparation for university, the world of work and life in general. They are an endorsement of the educational level of our students with high international recognition.

The Cambridge International CLIL methodology allows our students to think, reason and learn in English through the content of the programme’s subjects such as Science, ICT and SpeakArt.

Internationalisation

Internationalisation is part of our strategic plan; to this end, each year we expand the offer of educational actions that support the international curriculum and language teaching, thus having a complete proposal with which to achieve our goal: global students and leaders of positive action.

Activities:

• Public Speaking from infants with the Public Speech Programme: Debating competitions, Dialogue of the week, Show and Tell, Spelling Bee, etc.

• English Concerts & Theatre: Theatre is an art that helps oral and corporal expression and we work on it from infants to lose stage fright. As well as performing their own plays, our pupils have the opportunity to see theatrical performances by specialised companies within the school itself.

• Extensive calendar of international events with the aim of conveying Anglo-Saxon culture as: Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Jumper Day, St. Patrick’s Day, St. George’s Day, St. David’s Day, St. Andrew’s Day, Science Day, Friendship week, , Jeans for VIS foundation Day,  Book Week, The Guadalapana Day, RedNose Day, Australia Day, etc.

Christmas Jumper Day

• “House System” Led by the English department, it promotes internationalisation, a sense of belonging, collaboration and teamwork through the traditional British House system. We have four houses in which all our pupils, from Infants to Secondary, are distributed; St Andrew’s, St David’s, St George’s, and St Patrick’s. With House days throughout the year and various competitions between Houses to win House points, our pupils enjoy this Anglo-Saxon tradition. For more information go to House System.

• International trips that offer the student an opportunity to grow in international culture, autonomy and personal maturity within a rich and diverse religious, historical and cultural context. This programme is designed to achieve the following objectives:
  • – To visit the main European capitals (Paris, Rome, Lisbon…).
  • – To collaborate in the integral formation of each student.
  • – To encourage cohesion between the pupils in each class.
  – To make the three great pilgrimages of Christianity.

• International competitions: Oxford International Education Group (UK) – UK organiser of academic competitions and school-specific events to improve language proficiency, social skills, public speaking and self-reliance.
• Personalised guidance for students who aspire to university studies abroad.
• International students in the centre favouring the exchange of languages and culture.
• International teaching staff with international experience and qualifications.
• Europe Scholarships: our best students can apply for the Europe Scholarship programme organised by the Francisco de Vitoria University, part of the Regnum Christi network.

• Close collaboration with specialists in international IEC training.
• Continuous training of our teaching staff with experts in bilingual and international education inside and outside the school.

• Participation of the language department in international events for teachers and international school leaders: Cambridge International Schools conferences, British Embassy annual meetings for School leaders, etc.

Highlands’ English team at the annual International School Leaders event organised by the British Embassy, Spanish Ministry of Education and Cambridge International Education.

Cambridge International Schools Conference – UK

Our English and Cambridge International Examinations coordinators speaking in this video at the Cambridge Schools Annual Conference 2018.

Cambridge School Conference, Cambridge, UK, September 2018 from Cambridge Schools on Vimeo.

Experiences abroad

Highlands School Barcelona complements its educational project with the possibility of experiences abroad:

• In our network of Regnum Christi schools/academies abroad: Oak Academies (USA, Ireland, Switzerland) where pupils have various options from a term, school year to a summer camp. (http://www.oakinternational.org/es/)
• Access to International Universities: some of our students choose to study abroad. We work closely with the IEC to support and accompany our students throughout the admission process to universities abroad.
• Beo Masters Programme: Focused on our students aged 16 to 19, this programme takes place in the UK and is inspired by the most current MBA programmes. The aim is to equip our students with the skills and knowledge they will need to:
• Develop successful careers and achieve their business success.
• Reach their full potential in the world of work of the future.
• Open their eyes to a global world, to other cultures, to discover university degrees and to develop skills and competencies.
• Missions in Latin America: During the summer and on a voluntary basis, our students, accompanied by their trainers, have the opportunity to give part of their holidays to help others.