Why follow a bilingual educational path?

To speak another language, English, really really well?

To be able to read and write in English in a way that perfectly expresses your thoughts?

Absolutely! But this is just the beginning.

These days having a high level of spoken English after High School is almost a given. The expected level of English at the end of secondary school in Italy is at least B2, where a person would describe themselves as “a confident speaker”. 

For us at BBS teaching and learning in English is a fundamental part of opening up a student’s education to the wider world. A thorough knowledge of English is vital if a person wants to take international qualifications that will give them credits to be able to attend Universities abroad. By taking a Cambridge IGCSE or A’Level in an academic subject, a young person can open up the choices they have once they finish High School. At BBS we really believe that English is the stepping stone from which a student can choose to take their education in any direction, or country, they want.

For this reason starting the Cambridge Pathway at an early age means that pupils slip into a stream of international learning that will stay with them and enable them throughout their academic career. The Cambridge Pathway starts for the children at BBSchool in the Transition class and at the moment goes up to third year Middle School. Along the way the children do Checkpoints in Primary year 3 (Primary Checkpoint) and year 3 of Middle School (Lower Secondary Checkpoints). With a wide range of subjects to choose from we decided to focus on English (First Language) Maths and Science and the flexibility of the programmes  gives us the chance to shape the curriculum so that it is exciting and relevant for our own students.

What inspired us to choose the Cambridge Pathway are the five elements at the heart of a Cambridge education: 

• international curriculum
• teaching and learning
• assessment
• international recognition 
• global community

The adoption of the Cambridge International Curriculum places BBS within an international and multicultural community. For our students, this means the possibility to come into contact with a wide and diverse pool of knowledge, the opportunity to have access to the best universities in the world and the ability to proactively approach a working world that requires increasingly solid, diversified and advanced skills.