Presenting the book of St. George's School Welcome to our school
Learning English through song
Thursday, 22 February 2007
Visit to a Vienna Bilingual Schooling (VBS) Primary School. The Focus was Bilingual Primary School Education (German-English) and differing teaching methods.Volksschule Vienna Bilingual School, Meissnergasse 1, 1220 Wien.We had a wonderful welcome in a specially arranged presentation from the children of the four bilingual classes who sang “Welcome to our school” in English The younger pupils then performed a German song called “Vogelhochzeit”. The older children sang a song called “A Rainbow of Colours….we are one” - very appropriate as the school is made up of 14 different nationalities. Six girls danced to a pop song, which they had practised in their free time.To our amazement, the Head explained they had a partner school in Devon: Great Torrington Junior School and the ten and eleven year olds visited Devon each year, staying in Westward Ho – a stone’s-throw from Chris Gibson’s house! Arrangements have already been made for links to be developed during their next visit in May.Chris and Julie from St Georges School, Northam presented the Viennese school with a beautiful photograph album about their school and the surrounding area.In Loretta’s room we were briefed by Marianne Richter, the Head, on facts about the school and given true Viennese hospitality.• The VBS scheme runs in 4 classes, Grades 1 to 4. VBS is a modern language project, initiated by the Vienna Board of Education, where Austrian children learn alongside native speakers, in this case English. The school is heavily over-subscribed.
• Approximately 50% of the children are Viennese and 50% are from all over the world, for example USA, Australia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
• Teachers follow the Austrian curriculum.
• Austrian and native English speaker teachers work together in the bilingual classes
• Children are assessed on their mother tongue and a second language and sit an interview to be enrolled on the project
• The two language groups are mixed in each class for part of the school day.
• During the first two years, pupils need only read and write in their native language
• Parents of children at this VBS School are very motivated and encourage their children, supporting the school.
• In most other subjects there is bilingual teaching. Other classes in the school, which are not part of the VBS, run the ‘Lollipop’ English scheme, which is for 10-20 minutes daily. English is ‘embedded’ across the curriculum at various times of the day in any lesson for example PE, science. Pupils learn by taking part in active learning, using songs and rhymes and visual aids to help reinforce the use of language. Children observed taking part were very enthusiastic.When we compared this approach with that towards the teaching of Modern Foreign Languages in our schools, we all felt that we had a lot to learn! Josie and Glenys.