Una delle differenze principali tra il sistema scolastico italiano e quello inglese è la bocciatura. Il sistema educativo italiano considera la bocciatura uno strumento formativo, ma il dibattito attuale mostra che può anche risultare inefficace e penalizzante per gli studenti più fragili.

In some of my Italian lessons, we looked at the Italian school system and the differences between the Italian and English school systems, discussing the Italian practice of "failing the year" in depth. Unlike in England, where we take it for granted that the following school year we will move up to the next year group with our peers, Italian school children have to be "promoted" to the next year. It was only as recently as 2017 that the system was overhauled and Italian students do now largely move up with their peers, at least in the infant/ junior years. The system was not inclusive and thankfully SEND and neurodiversity are better understood today.

This gave me the chance to bring in some clips from one of my all time favourite films- Il Nuovo Cinema Paradiso.  Totò is a bright boy but some of his classmates are children who have been held back. I could only find a clip with Spanish subtitles, but you can see an older child in the class struggling with his times tables and coming to the conclusion that 5x5 was in fact "Natale"- Christmas after Toto tried to give him the answer with an image of a Christmas tree.

Some elderly people in the village are yet to pass the Junior school exams and this gives Toto the chance he is looking for to help out in the cinema in exchange for providing exam answers. I'd definitely recommend watching this both heart- warming and sad film which is set in a small Sicilian town. The film centres on the friendship between Salvatore the mischievous, intelligent son of a war widow who is nicknamed Totò and an aging projectionist, Alfredo,  who works at the town's cinema.