
Building Bilingual
Programs in Elementary
Schools
The
Erasmus+
Grant
2021-1-CZ01-KA220-SCH-000027846

In 2022, four partner organisations were awarded a three-year Erasmus+ grant titled "Building Bilingual Programs in Elementary Schools". The grant has allowed us to create resources to support educators working in schools with bilingual programs, Numerous heads of schools, language specialists, and classroom teachers are independently striving to establish bilingual programs. Our objective is to facilitate communication and foster connections among these professionals from different backgrounds, with the overarching aim of creating an environment where we can collectively learn and grow. Where needed and possible we will translate the project outcomes into the languages of Czech, Spanish, French and Estonian. Furthermore, we saw the need to offer guidance by collecting expert knowledge and actual experience of effective administrative and classroom practices, which would help elementary schools across Europe achieve strong and developmental bilingual programs.
Project Objectives
2021-1-CZ01-KA220-SCH-000027846
A 3-Part Methodologies Field Guide for Building Bilingual Programs in Elementary Schools is available for school administrators, ESL teachers and classroom guides. This is a whole school source book with practical information on
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Part 1: for Administrators - Designing a Bilingual Program
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Part 2: Classroom Guides - Understanding Language Learning
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Part 3: ESL teachers - Preparing the Bilingual Learning Environment
These online courses makes it possible to delve deeper into the topics discussed in the Field Guide with colleagues and experts. Each course is specifically designed for
Course 1 - School Administrators
Course 2 - Classroom Guides
Course 3 - ESL Teachers
Interpretation will be available if needed.
We have built a support network for educators in bilingual schools. In January 2023 we launched the "Community Conversations" series, and have recorded 18 conversations by the end of the project. All recordings are available on our YouTube channel here. We will continue the Community Conversations in a sustainable format in the future.
“The Building Bilingual Elementary Programs Conference” was held in Prague, Czech Republic on January 17-19, 2025 to showcase our project outcomes.We produced the conference live and shared recordings of the speakers from the conference.
Target
Audience
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Administrators
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Montessori Guides
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ESL Teachers
Who can benefit from our work?
Our intention was to contribute to the work of bilingual educators that foster and capitalise on learner autonomy. At the centre of this project was the need to create channels of communication for those working in bilingual schools, to share resources, and to learn from each other.
School administrators, Classroom guides and ESL teachers with diverse academic backgrounds and professional experiences, brought unique perspectives to the project. While our aim was to be relevant to various audiences in our materials, we recognised that fostering opportunities for dialogue among these groups was crucial for deeper understanding.
We also created content to support parents.