Wednesday 21 November 2012

Declaration of the Rights of the Child

Yesterday, 20th November,  the Universal Children's Day was celebrated all around the world. It was on that same day in 1989 that the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention and opened it for signature. It was ratified by the required number of members. However, it is nonetheless remarkable that nowadays countries such as Somalia, South Sudan and the United States of American haven't ratified it yet. President Obama has described the failure to ratify the Convention as "embarrasing" and has promised to review this. 

Next week, students from 1st to 4th of ESO will be working on the Universal Children's Day and the Declaration of the Rights of the Child from the subjects of Music, English and Social Studies. We'll let you know what the activities will involve, meanwhile you can have a look at the document below for a full insight of the Declaration.


Declaration of the Rights of the Child

Monday 5 November 2012

The Benefits of Bilingualism

In this interesting article from the New York Times entitled "Why Bilinguals are Smarter", Yudhijit Bhattacharjeea, who is a staff writer at Science, discusses the multifaceted benefits of speaking two languages. From early childhood to later years in life, there is growing evidence that language has a powerful and deep impact on learning and cognitive skills development.

Being able to speak more than one language has obvious benefits in today's globalised world. For work, studies and travel it is useful to have knowledge of different language and cultures.

In the past, it was believed that bilinguals tended to show signs of ‘language interference' and that this, in turn, was detrimental to learning and development. However, research has now shown that this ‘interference' is actually beneficial to learning and, according to recent studies which are stated in the article,: "Being bilingual, it turns out, makes you smarter."


Nina Lauder - Oxford Magazine

Click on this link to read the full article: The New York Times Article