École Mosaic is a bilingual French-English primary school located in Geneva, Switzerland. Following both the Swiss national curriculum and the UK national curriculum, the school welcomes children from over 40 nationalities. Its pedagogy is project-based, with learning organized around school-wide themes such as science, multiculturalism and theatre. These projects encourage pupils to explore, collaborate and present their learning with confidence, culminating in presentations led by the children. As an Eco-School, École Mosaic is also committed to sustainability and runs a whole-school sustainability project that encourages pupils to take meaningful action for the environment. The school community is guided by the core values of resilience, respect, collaboration, curiosity and kindness.
École Mosaic is unique in its long-standing commitment to multilingual teaching and learning. With 21 years of experience in bilingual education, the school has developed a deeply embedded French-English model in which multilingualism is not an additional feature, but a central part of its identity, curriculum and daily practice.
Since 2021, École Mosaic has been part of the International Schools Partnership (ISP), an international network of schools operating across a range of countries and educational contexts. ISP supports schools in placing learning at the center of their practice and recognizes multilingualism as an important aspect of pupils’ learning.
All curriculum development and planning at École Mosaic is bilingual. French and English are intentionally planned side by side, allowing pupils to build knowledge, skills and understanding across both languages. This ensures that bilingualism is not limited to language lessons, but is integrated across the wider curriculum and used as a tool for learning, thinking and communication.
The school’s multilingual approach is supported by a three-tier program. At Tier 1, all pupils benefit from high-quality bilingual teaching and learning through a carefully planned bilingual curriculum. At Tier 2, pupils receive additional targeted support to strengthen their confidence, vocabulary and academic language across both languages. At Tier 3, more individualized support is provided for pupils who require a personalized pathway in their multilingual development.
École Mosaic is also developing an intentional approach to translanguaging. Rather than viewing languages as separate or competing systems, the school recognizes that pupils use their full linguistic repertoire to think, understand, communicate and build meaning. Children are encouraged to make connections between French, English and their home languages, allowing multilingualism to become a genuine resource for learning. With more than 40 nationalities represented in the school community, this approach is particularly powerful. Pupils’ home languages are valued as part of their identity and as tools that can support participation, confidence and belonging. Through translanguaging practices, children are given opportunities to draw on what they already know in one language to deepen their understanding in another.
École Mosaic joined the MLRC School Network because it strongly aligns with the school’s commitment to multilingual teaching and learning. As a bilingual French-English school with 21 years of experience, École Mosaic values the opportunity to connect with a wider community of educators focused on improving outcomes for multilingual learners. The partnership supports École Mosaic’s ongoing work on translanguaging and provides a meaningful framework for action research. It helps the school reflect on its own practice, gather evidence, and use this process to support professional growth within the team. For École Mosaic, the MLRC School Network offers a valuable research–practice partnership that encourages reflection, innovation and continued development as an inclusive multilingual learning community.
Through its participation in the MLRC School Network, École Mosaic hopes to deepen its reflection on multilingual teaching and learning by connecting with other educators, schools and researchers working in similar fields. The school values the opportunity to learn from a wider professional community. École Mosaic is interested in exploring how to better understand and analyze the impact of its multilingual and translanguaging practices. Rather than simply repeating established approaches, the school wants to examine what is working, why it is working, and how it can be improved. This includes developing stronger ways to gather evidence, reflect as a team, and use action research to guide future decisions. The school also hopes to stay connected to current ideas and research around multilingualism, bilingual education and translanguaging. At the same time, École Mosaic would like to share and celebrate its own successes as a multilingual school, contributing its experience, learning and reflections to the wider MLRC community.
