In our ever-changing world, it’s important for us to equip our children with the skills they need for whatever the future brings. First up, bilingualism!
Our children’s language abilities continue to impress us every day. They’re capable of so, so much! If you’d like your child to be bilingual, take it from us — don’t shy away from exposing them to two languages from a young age. Believe it or not, their brains are wired to be multilingual, and research shows that they acquire languages faster than we can ever imagine.
Why not give them a head start with XCL World Academy’s solid Bilingual Programme? Check out some of its adorable kids giving their parents a Mandarin lesson:
We’re impressed! If you want the same for your child, here’s all you need to know about starting your child on their journey to bilingualism.
1. Full bilingual immersion
Exposure starts from a young age! Newly revamped in August 2024, the bilingual curriculum starts from pre-kindergarten and spans all the way to fifth grade. The teachers play a huge part too: students in pre-kindergarten to Kindergarten 2 are taught by a bilingual homeroom teacher and an additional teaching partner. From grades 1 to 3, each class elevates the programme even more by having one native English and one native Chinese teacher at all times.
This means that at every level, students are fully immersed in both languages throughout the day. A low teacher-student ratio also results in sufficient and individual attention for each child, as well as more in-depth learning. To ensure that students love learning not just in one language, but two, the teachers constantly come up with fun and interactive ways to teach the content!
2. A unique model
XCL World Academy has a unique two-way immersion model, where students converse simultaneously in English and Chinese. The goal of this model is for students to become proficient in both languages while developing a deep understanding of academic content. And yes, this is applied even when they’re studying maths or science — isn’t that amazing?
Students also learn how to switch between both languages seamlessly — in fact, through the programme, foreign students have even been able to engage in conversational Mandarin after just two years. Indeed, practice makes perfect — you’ll be surprised how fast your child progresses with this daily use of both languages!
3. An individualised approach
Each child is different, and no child learns the same way. This is at the core of XCL World Academy’s approach, where they use a new educational model to identify the students’ skills and strengths. The team even goes so far as to analyse patterns in both content and language learning, and scrutinise ways to enhance student performance. These are then used to design a specially curated lesson plan.
4. A collaborative partnership
It takes a village to raise a child and at XCL World Academy, rest assured that your child’s learning will be well-supported by an entire family of teachers, teaching partners, and native-speaking language teachers!
Still thinking about it? Trust us, your kids will have the time of their lives at XCL World Academy. They’ll be sorted into four houses (which feels like a scene out of Harry Potter!), where they’ll compete at various events to earn points throughout the year. The exciting line-up includes events like sports day, trivia day, a swimming gala, cultural exploration as part of the bilingual programme, and more.
Students can also choose from a wide range of extra-curriculars, such as coding, football, lego, zumba; or top-up for extra enrichment programmes like golf, karate, rock climbing, spartan boxing, and yoga. Mental health is also key at XCL World Academy, which covers all the bases with homeroom and pastoral care programmes, and onsite school counsellors.
At its roots, XCL World Academy is all about equipping its students with 21st-century skills to gear up for what the future brings, and how better to do so than to train them to be effectively bilingual? For more information, book a school tour to check out the school for yourselves.
This post is in partnership with XCL World Academy.