International Schools in Spain and Bilingual Education.

Most international schools in Spain follow the English national curriculum

which initially meant that their purpose were to train and prepare students to
continue their education in the UK or USA after completing their secondary
education in Spain, however NABSS which is the body responsible for
coordinating these schools later in conjunction with the Spanish ministry of
education and science decided to incorporate the Spanish curriculum into
their program to give the students wider choice for after secondary further
education and also to make the students understand the Spanish educational,
social and cultural life. This program introduced Spanish subjects like
conocimientos, lengua and sociales. Conocimientos deals with all the
sciences, Geography and history , it is thought from primary to early
secondary level and give the students strong foundation so they can easily
relate terms and principles between the national curriculum and Spanish
curriculum, This later is broken into Sociales and ciencias as the students
advance to higher secondary class usually from year 9, some students
leaving the international school setting to do the Spanish equivalent of A
Levels which is called bachilleratos do very well because of the foundation
from studying conocimientos, ciencias and sociales alongside their national
curriculum subjects, conociemiento, ciencias and sociales deals with subjects
from basic science and history to IGCSE physics, chemistry, biology,
geography and history equivalent levels.
Lengua deals with the Spanish language and literature, it is just like
conocimientos taught across primary and secondary up to IGCSE and the
students normally take the IGCSE Spanish Language examinations at the end
of secondary education, this strengthen their use of their first language and
help them adjust easily when they go ahead to study in a Spanish university
after doing their A Levels in English, their strong understanding of the Spanish
language and application give them more options when making choices for
further studies in the university they can chose between university where
English is medium of instructions and that where Spanish is medium of
instruction.
The third subject which is taught across primary and secondary schools in the
international schools is Sociales which like I said earlier is part of
conocimientos until higher secondary when it is separated as a single subject
from science, this subject deals with all social studies related subjects
including history,economics,commerce,citizenship.
Apart from this Spanish subjects so many international languages were also
drafted into the education programs, languages like German, French, and
Chinese are taught alongside English and Spanish.
This approach has boosted the image of international schools in Spain and
has created the bilingual culture and provides greater advantages to students
after school both in furthering their education and in entering the Job places.