School Philosophy
It is the belief of the Palmer Trinity School IB Diploma Programme that language is the foundation of learning. To that end, all teachers of Palmer Trinity School are language teachers through their respective disciplines. Language is taught to our students through the contexts of our courses using a variety of formal and informal assessments.
We also believe that through the learning and mastery of a language does an individual truly understand the cultures that surround them. Palmer Trinity School strives to develop international-minded students that are ready to meet the challenges of a global community. Through our language course offerings and various activities on campus, students experience and immerse themselves in both language and cultural learning. This, in turn, helps our students develop the cultural empathy and understanding that we want our students to have as graduates of Palmer Trinity School.
School Language Profile
At Palmer Trinity School, our student body is made up of a diverse pool of language proficiencies. Our school population is made up of:
- English-only background students with no secondary language knowledge.
- English-only background students with secondary language knowledge (typically two to three years of Spanish/French).
- English background students who have significant exposure to a secondary language at home, but for whom the primary language spoken is English.
- Students with a mother tongue other than English; mainly Spanish, Mandarin or Portuguese.
Language Course Offerings in the IBDP
Group 1 (Language A) Offerings:
- English Language and Literature HL
- Spanish Language HL
Group 2 (Language Acquisition) Offerings:
The IBDP at Palmer Trinity School offers students the opportunity to earn a Bilingual Diploma by taking the Spanish Language A HL course in concert with the English Language and Literature HL course. The offerings of courses are reviewed periodically to meet the needs and interests of students in the IBDP.
Language Support for Students
The Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) as well as our ESOL Department, collaborate with teachers in the development and use of strategies to support students in their courses of study at Palmer Trinity. Students whose mother tongue is not English are given support through their ESOL class as well as accommodations during assessments such as language dictionaries and access to ELL teachers.
Support of Mother Tongue
Supporting the mother tongue language is paramount at Palmer Trinity. Through supporting not only the spoken language but the culture of the mother tongue, students develop the international awareness and cultural empathy that we as a school community wish to have in our global citizens. To those ends, we at Palmer Trinity offer various events and activities to do so, such as:
- Our annual International Festival, which highlights the various countries represented in our school community through the celebration of cultural dishes, music, dance, and art. This festival is open to the entire community.
- Our SAGE Dining program holds several cultural events, highlighting dishes associated with a particular region around the globe and bringing awareness to issues and events that are happening at the time to those regions.
- Our school holds various celebrations and convocations for various cultural events, such as the Chinese New Year and Francophone.
- Our school also has extracurricular clubs that students can be involved in such as Model United Nations, Société Honoraire de Français, La Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica, Chinese National Honors Society, etc.