Cyprus

Teaching Science through CLIL in Preprimary

I’d been to Cyprus before to work with the wonderful colleagues at the Cyprus CLIL Centre who have been tirelessly developing CLIL and supporting teachers in preprimary and primary. I also hosted experts and inspectors for Erasmus+ inservice training in Anglia School. The trainings offered are here: https://www.factworld.info/en/Bulgaria-Course-Putting-CLIL-into-Practice. 
That was the week that produced the content you can find in FACT 24 (https://www.factworld.info/en/Bulgaria-FACT-Journals-Issue-24) which focuses entirely on adapting the Cypriot preschool science curriculum for CLIL classrooms.
This return visit was planned to be a follow-up on the week of training in Plovdiv. What that means in practice is that I prepared content to share with colleagues where they would see and understanding what we did in adapting the Greek-medium preschool science curriculum for learners working through English. Additionally, with this understanding we then challenged the participants in their small groups to take another branch of the curriculum and develop it for CLIL in using what has already been done as a model.

The two days were extremely fruitful. The 42 degree heat didn’t stop anyone, though we did keep the work to the mornings so that we could miss the peak hours of the heat!

Day 1 was with a group of 23 preschool teachers in the Cyprus CLIL centre in Nicosia

Day 2 was in the village of Agios Athanasios with 18 preprimary teachers from around the Lemassol region. We were based in what was the first school in the village now used as an events centre, and backed on to the largest primary school in the whole of Cyprus!


This is the link to the slides I used outlining our work on adapting the Greek-medium preschool science curriculum to CLIL.
All the examples come from good old CLIL practice at Anglia School.

There is so much more but we only had a few hours together. 

The feedback was very good, and there was an appetite from many for more of the same kind of experience.

We talked a lot about Erasmus+ opportunities for the colleagues to come to Bulgaria for a longer period of professional development.
We were reminded of words from dear Maria (maths expert) – ‘Let’s math the curriculum’. Well, we didn’t math the curriculum, but we did use the emotion to science the curriculum. Future work could take this further into preschool science for CLIL in Cyprus. Why not into other areas of the curriculum too (Maths indeed, Art, Nature, The World Around Us, PE)?
The 8 transversal competencies are a good way to bring different areas of the school curriculum together.
CLIL with its focus on ‘concepts’, ‘procedures’ and ‘language’ is the dynamo which can facilitate this integrated approach.
The truth is that all curriculum subjects have shared conceptual, procedural and linguistic content and what CLIL does is make these dimensions visible and explicit so that teachers can see and work with the areas of their curriculum content which naturally overlap and tie in together in a way which makes a focus on language which is useful throughout the curriculum a very sensible way to go. Bravo to Cyprus, I wish more countries would do the same.

Watch this space, our Cypriot colleagues have a lot to share and offer in this area!
Keith
24.06.06

Teaching Science through CLIL in Cyprus Pre-Primary Education

This is an event which follows on from a number of activities in partnership with the CLIL Coordination Centre at the Ministry of Education in Cyprus and the Pedagogical Institute, Nicosia.
This work all began in Plovdiv with visits from Ministry Experts, Inspectors and Trainers to see how we Put CLIL into Practice the Anglia-school way.
The trainings offered are here: https://www.factworld.info/en/Bulgaria-Course-Putting-CLIL-into-Practice. 
It was also during one of these visits that we focused on the idea of ‘sciencing’ the curriculum through English. The product of this week of work is FACT Journal 24 which includes the preschool science curriculum from Cyprus in translation with added columns for CLIL options and Language and which focuses entirely on adapting the Cypriot preschool science curriculum for CLIL classrooms.
FACT 24 (https://www.factworld.info/en/Bulgaria-FACT-Journals-Issue-24) 


School 26 Limassol
In 2024 we ran several trainings to popularize teaching Science in preprimary CLIL classes, and the model was well received to the extent that my colleagues in Cyprus asked me to repeat the same experience for 4 more groups in 2025. More than happy to oblige, I packed my story books, my drama masks, my Baron Bokluk cloak and crown and off we went.
The outcome of each day’s worshop is to have the colleagues examine new areas of their preprimary curriculum choosing any theme they are interested in, and adding the two columns with ideas in the form of a CLIL poster.

Day 1 of the 2025 trainings took place in School 26 in Limassol, where we welcomed 32 preschool teachers.

Limassol poster presentations
The first session presented the Anglia School approach to Science in pre-school. Session two put the colleagues into groups to choose their curriculum theme and begin brainstorming ideas. Session three had the teachers present their posters in plenary.

We now have a growing collection of plans for science CLIL in the preprimary curriculum!

Day 2 of the trainings in Cyprus for teaching Science through CLIL in Preprimary Education took place CLIL Coordinating Centre, Nicosia where we welcomed 35 preschool teachers.

Nicosia preschool teachers
An idea came out of discussion with this wonderful group. CLIL is about thinking ‘outside the box’ when teaching in English. Take a peak into the wider curriculum and see what you can take to use to develop English. Pilfer, pickpocket, pinch and reuse!

Example poster on bees

Nicosia preschool teachers poster presentations

Day 3 had teachers from surrounding villages near Nicosia, and 36 teachers can along to work with us on exploring science through CLIL for pre-school education again at the CLIL Coordinating Centre - the home of CLIL in Cyprus!

Sopihe Ioannou-Georgiou CLIL dynamo at the Ministry of Education says a few warm words of welcome!

Teachers from the surroundings towns and villages of Nicosia

Day 3 group discussions

Day 4 took us to Paralimni where the lovely preschool Georgiou was our host for the day. Thank you!
The 35 preschool teachers came from around the region.

Again, this group examined the Cyprus preschool science curriculum guidelines looking for areas to develop through English with their classes.


Paralimni teachers and their group presentation
By now, we had a substantial number of example project posters to share with the entire group of colleagues, and discussion moved quite naturally to taking the project further.


Paralimni poster on vegetables

What does that mean, taking it further? It means that we are now thinking about turning the thematic poster brainstorms into actual lesson notes with resources.
Imagine how this could become a bank of ideas for preschool science teaching. Plus, we will try and work the whole into a collection online for others to access.
My homework will be lifting out the links, and making them visible between themes, as well as making visible the curriculum command phrases and showing where there is repetition and possibility for an intelligent sequencing of the recycling of these ‘curriculum discourse functions’.
Something preschool teachers shared in feedback was that there is no need to be afraid of science with preschoolers through English as a foreign language. The language and concepts of science are extremely accessible to very young children, AND the procedures we employ in teaching and learning these concepts and language mean that our youngest children get the best preparation for their later years in schooling.
Some of the colleagues will come to join us in Plovdiv for future courses Putting Preprimary CLIL into Practice, indeed we hope some will join us for the 25th FACT Journal anniversary meeting in Plovdiv in May!
We are already formuating ideas for next year's visit to Cyprus where we will visit classrooms, co-teach and take project posters to the next level as lesson plans and resources.
It is a great privilege to be involved. Thank you once again to Elena, Maria, and Sophie for your continued investment in CLIL in Cyprus. You do amazing work! X
Keith
15.03.2025