International Dimension

The International Family

Children join us from all over the world to develop an international community in the local village of Ingatestone, affectionately known as ‘the Anglo Family’. A culture of high academic standards rooted in traditional values and a modern internationalist outlook underpin the school’s success. This is a relaxed, friendly but purposeful school; a school which is confident in its ambition and passionate about its mission.

International Dimension in the Curriculum

Every subject is committed to enhancing the international dimension within their curriculum area. Curriculum maps show where international learning takes place within the scheme of learning. Teachers will also take every opportunity to develop and enhance students’ understanding of each other’s cultures, traditions and heritage through wider discussion and debate related to the lesson in focus. The curriculum taught in school is further enhanced by learning through the International Visits Programme.

Language Learning

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."

Nelson Mandela

The school offers 8 taught languages as well as English as an additional language: Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian or Spanish. Learning languages is central to the school’s mission and one of the key pillars of the curriculum. Students are required to study two languages up to the age of 16 and at least one in the Sixth Form. Students can study either Chinese as part of the Mandarin Excellence Programme (MEP) or two-phase 1 languages (French, German or Spanish) from Year 7. Some students opt to swap a phase 1 language for a phase 2 language (Italian, Japanese or Russian) in Year 8. Special provision can be made for native speakers of French, German and Spanish.

See the Languages Curriculum map.

The school is a centre of excellence for the teaching of Mandarin Chinese and we one of the first cohort of schools to lead on the Mandarin Excellence Programme, in partnership with the DFE, UCL IOE and The British Council. We are a Hub School, supporting 3 other local schools develop Chinese on their curriculum and our Headteacher, Jody Gee is the Chair of the Headteacher’s Strategic Development Group at UCL. We are also part of a global network of Confucius Classrooms and, in partnership with Essex County Council and Jiangsu Province in China, we host a Jiangsu Resource Centre which supports the teaching of Mandarin in other schools as well as our own.

Languages Outreach

The school supports primary schools and secondary school colleagues and we also train languages teachers. This can involve delivering enrichment days, teacher training to develop the primary international curriculum, language teaching and hosting teachers for CPD and students for Challenge Days. Our Student Language Ambassadors help organise and deliver this work.

International Work Experience Programme

We have established three host schools for work experience in Madrid, Paris and Frankfurt. Our Sixth Form students have the opportunity to work abroad for 10 days, developing their linguistic skills in a work placement abroad. They may find themselves in a bakery, in a primary school, in a pharmacy or a vintage clothes shop.