In 2014, the year of the centenary, the Gimnasio Moderno started its Bilingualism Program.

For the Gimnasio Moderno, the students, as citizens of the world, will have to operate with property in multilingual settings, without borders for knowledge and in permanent interaction with people from anywhere on the planet. That time on which the native language was the only one that allowed them to communicate is part of the past.

Consequently, since 2012 the school has designed as one of its strategic management lines the following Bilingualism Program:

In 2013, with the advice of the University of Cambridge, diagnostic tests began to be applied to determine the level of proficiency in the use of the English language. Based on the results obtained, the starting line for the implementation of the bilingualism program was determined in each of the sections which comprise the school life:

During the first school years, in preschool, which includes the grades Montessori I, Montessori II, Montessori III and Decroly First, students have in their classrooms two teachers as Course Directors: one bilingual and another that also communicates in Spanish, who accompany the children during the school day.

In addition, from the age of 4, children receive their first subjects completely in English corresponding to the following academic areas: Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Art, Music and Social Sciences.

After the second language was consolidated in the early school years, children start their Primary School Education which includes Grades Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Decroly. In those grades, the teaching of the English language is intensified and the learning is complemented by the work of bilingual classes in the subjects: Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Physical Education, Arts and Music.

During the time that the students spend taking the grades of the high school: Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth, the students work to obtain a certification in the second language, which is granted by an international entity once they have acquired the necessary communication skills.

In addition, when they enter Seventh grade, the school offers its students an Institutional Exchange Program with Canada, which seeks to expand students’ life experiences and gives them the opportunity to share with young people their own age for six months in the northern country. Time when they gain greater skills in the English language.

It is important to remember that the Gimnasio Moderno will continue to look for other destinations for similar experiences in cultural immersion programs that strengthen the mastery of English and other languages. Contacts have been made with England to extend this bilingualism program and offer different cultural experiences to the students.

At the end of their school stage, upon reaching the tenth and eleventh grades, our students have very important deepening in Literature and receive preparation for standardized international exams; this strengthens their chances of entering the most prestigious universities in the country and abroad.

It is important to note, that the school offers the opportunity for future graduates, to have the option to acquire a third language, making it easier for them to register it within the wide range of options for the subjects in French or Portuguese courses.

With this Bilingualism Program, the Gimnasio Moderno is updated with the current times and with the learning of languages, maintaining its humanist vocation worthy of this fortress of illusion.