Languages

At BSJ we believe that learning languages will help equip our students with the ability to communicate in an increasingly global community whilst providing an insight into different cultural backgrounds. 

FRENCH, SPANISH AND MANDARIN

The Languages department is unique as it works across Primary into Secondary School. This allows us to offer a lesson a week of a range of languages to children in Years 3-6. This structure means that BSJ students in upper Primary can choose the modern foreign language they wish to learn from a choice of three world languages. From Year 3 onwards we offer French, Spanish and Mandarin. In the first part of Year 3, students do a taster session of each of these languages and then choose the language they will learn for the rest of their time in Primary. Students new to BSJ after Year 3 choose the language they will learn on entry to the school.

From Year 3 to Year 13, students follow specific programmes of study. Classroom activities are designed to provide students with opportunities to develop their communicative competence in their chosen language with an emphasis on speaking and listening in the Primary Years. To support this, the Faculty encourages the use of the target language by both teachers and students alike during classroom activities. This is supplemented by aural activities and reading and writing practice.

BAHASA INDONESIA

From Kindergarten to Year Six all students learn Bahasa Indonesia where both native level (for all Indonesian Nationals - see Indonesian Subjects page) and Bahasa Indonesia as a foreign language for expatriates are delivered in differentiated groups each week. This is supplemented by a strong focus on a study of Indonesian culture through our International Primary Curriculum topics and Enrichment programme for expatriate students. Indonesian nationals follow a different programme (see Indonesian Subjects page).