International Nursery & Preschool Programs

Children are born to be curious. Therefore, the teachers’ role is to support them in developing their imagination, creative and critical thinking. Also teaching them new skills, and to be able to recognize emotions of themselves and others. Our philosophy is to raise and educate the children though PLAY.

We believe in the philosophy of TEACHING AND LEARNING THOUGH PLAY. Play is one of the most important ‘tools’ for young children to gain essential knowledge and skills: Therefore play opportunities and environments that promote play, exploration and hands-on learning are the core of our educational program. The teachers carefully create and curate all children’s activities around this philosophy.

Play-based learning is the best way to develop active learning. During play, children learn actively and spontaneously. They explore the world, and build on their understanding of the natural and social environments around them.

When children have a chance to learn through play their long-term social emotional abilities develop more strongly, they form deep relationships and their developing brains can grow ideally in a caring, stimulating, language-rich, calm and relaxed environment. Play-based learning involves both child-initiated and teacher-supported learning.

For example during building blocks, a teacher may ask: How many blocks do you need? How tall can this tower get? Where shall we put the triangle? What colour is this block? What is your favourite colour? What shape is this block? Can you blow the tower down? Who else does that?

Through a simple play like stacking of wooden blocks and asking questions, children can develop social and cognitive skills. They learn concepts, expand concentration and use communication skills. Therefore, they mature emotionally and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.

When children engage in real‐life situations and imaginary activities, play can challenge their thinking. During play, children use all of their senses and convey their thoughts and emotions. While exploring their environment, they connect what they already know with new knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Our teachers use a project method with themed weeks and a play-based teaching style that builds on natural curiosity. This method is enabling children to interact, connect, problem-solve, be able to be absorbed in a topic, communicate openly and ask ‘never-ending’ surprising questions. Our goal is to build and develop interest and desire for knowledge that comes naturally from the children. We believe this can be done most effectively through interesting, meaningful, hands-on learning experiences.

Kindergarten and pre-school aged children are naturally independent, responsible and mature individuals, who maintain a fun sense of adventure that is excitingly mixed with a strong desire to know more about their surroundings. Therefore, our ultimate aim is to open the ‘door’ of learning for them, to offer interesting activities, true exploratory ‘research’ and ‘abstracted’ play and to let them discover any topics deeply during our 2-3 weeks long themed weeks and support them with this experience to become self-motivated learners in the future. With the project method, children learn from different activities using their own experiences, perceptions and individual observations while performing a task. During an activity, the goal is to create something or solve a problem. In the meantime, learning is just a benefit that ‘creating something and working together’ can bring to the children.

For example, while cooking a simple apple-pie – with the apples they picked by themselves during a field trip – the children gain many experiences. During a simple creative activity they learn a lot. They learn about the nature, create something from basic ingredients, develop cognitive thinking, social and emotional behaviour and practice communication. Children improve specific fine-motor skills, gain knowledge of flavours, different ingredients, interpret the concept of quantity and measurement units. Furthermore, they collaborate and communicate with peers, learn new words, expressions etc. With project method: children work together on a project as a group. During an activity, they are sharing knowledge, memories and fun together and they do not even realise how much they acquire and work compared to filling up worksheets on a specific topic.

When working with project method, the role of the teacher is different as well. The tasks are much more constructive. This approach allows the children to take initiative. So, the teachers get a lot of help and support from the children as they work together.

Our teachers use the ‘Positive Discipline’ method to encourage good behaviour. It is a kind and firm discipline method that is neither punitive nor permissive and helps children feel a sense of belonging and significance. We teach the children to learn from their failures and we help their efforts and endeavours. 

Teachers aim to develop mutually respectful relationships, support the children to discover how capable they are and to use their personal power in constructive ways for problem-solving and to cooperate.

We use encouragement instead of praise, notice all efforts and improvements, not just success and build long-term self-esteem and empowerment.  There is also significant evidence that teaching children social skills has a protective effect that lasts into adolescence. Children that have been taught social skills are more likely to succeed in school and less likely to engage in problem behaviours.

Please click on the link to read more about ‘Positive Discipline’: https://www.positivediscipline.org/about-positive-discipline

Our recycling habits need to be drastically improved – both at home, in schools and workplaces, as recycling is important for our community and for our world as a whole. Therefore, many of us already contribute in some way to the recycling process. However, to truly make a difference it is up to us as adults to ensure children understand why we need to recycle and look after our Earth.

It is never too early to educate children to recycle. It is important to learn how to sort waste, to compos and, to use recycled materials for art projects. Also it is our responsibility to teach them to share or reuse old toys and use green reusable materials. Every classroom has 3 recycling bins: green/blue/yellow. We sort the waste by colour code. The leftover fruits go to the compost bucket and are emptied daily with the help of children into our compost area.

In the Young Nursery class the feeling of safety and security is the main priority for the children. Only when these important aims have been achieved will the children be ready for wider exploration of both their physical and their social surroundings. As we know, every child is special, with unique combinations of abilities and readiness that affect learning.

Therefore our teachers are focused on providing devoted care and on giving individual attention according to the children’s specific needs. We believe in allowing children time to unfold their motor capacities, to self-initiate movements and to play. We encourage them to be as independent as possible to develop their skills. Also, we teach them to be in charge of their own body.

This way we can give them a strong self-image, self control and the feeling of security and confidence. It is the consistent teachers’ presence, the inspiring classroom environment and the daily routine that play a major role in ensuring a safe, nurturing, caring space for each child.

It is through the appealing presentation of age-appropriate play materials and activities that we strive to ensure that each child loves coming to school to discover more of the exciting possibilities that each day can bring to them. The weekly schedule at the Young Nursery level provides as much free-play time as possible.

The regular and familiar daily routine gives security and structure to their day, that allows the children to confidently explore many new activities and learnings that are contained within the weekly schedule.

Teachers are strong supporters of children’s play and interpersonal interactions. It is their role, to help them to discover the way to the all-important social skills that are a key to their feeling of acceptance and belonging within the group.

In the Nursery class the feeling of safety and security remains a priority for the children. however, once these have been achieved the children are definitely ready for wider exploration of both their physical and their social surroundings.

True friendships form for the first time. Also as a result, children begin to understand the skills they need for friendship. They learn about sharing, taking turns and solving problems together. Teachers are great supporters of children’s play, through which children develop bonds with their classmates and are guided to have fun together. During play, they discover the way to the all-important social skills that are a key to their feeling of acceptance and belonging within the group.

The weekly schedule at the Nursery level still provides as much free play time as possible, and contains a familiar consistent daily routine each day. This base of security allows the children the confidence to explore the many new things that are contained within the busy but stable structure of their day.

At this age children start to develop oral language and pre-literacy skills through a playful way. Our teachers provide age-appropriate play materials, educational and creative activities to ensure that each child loves coming to school to have more fun and interesting new discoveries every day. This is what life, as a three year old should be all about.

In the Pre-Kindergarten age group four and nearly five-year-old children are ready for life to be full of adventure and active learning. They are secure in their place at school, with a strong sense of who they are, and confident in solid friendships. Their educational program is set to allow for fresh and deep discoveries every day. Therefore, the weekly schedule at the Pre-Kindergarten level is a busy mix of play and group times. During which, the children explore many interesting topics at their group discussions and activities. At this level a strong emphasis is placed on developing a sense of group, or ‘team’, amongst the children – children learn that caring for each other is just as important as caring for themselves.

Teachers continue to be part of the children’s play, but also begin to make more judgements about ‘joining’ play or simply ‘supporting’ play: it is often important to allow the children the time and space to explore their environment in their own ways, with peers or through solitary play or roleplay. This is the age where true independence can be found in the children, who are now able to take full care of their daily needs and who can be encouraged to manage by themselves in many more aspects of their life at school.

Teachers extensively plan and provide ‘learning experiences’ to complement the natural learning that occurs through the child’s play. Puppet shows, stories, rhymes, music, songs, and dances continue to be a regular part of the program. However, it is many times extended with drama-plays in which the children often take active roles in and which they transfer to their own free-play.

Early stages of ‘academic’ learning – including pre-reading, pre-writing, and early mathematical skills – begin to be of greater interest to the children, and is enhanced via a variety of FUN activities relevant to each child’s particular skills and interests. This level of our program lays the foundation for the more structured learning for the later years.

Children play many board/table games that are designed specifically to develop mathematical/logical or linguistic concepts and skills.

Five and six year olds are naturally independent, responsible and mature individuals. They maintain a fun sense of adventure that is excitingly mixed with a strong desire to know more about their surroundings. Therefore our international program for ‘Kindergarten’ and Preschool age children is full of interesting, inspiring activities, exploratory and ‘abstracted’ play.

The teacher’s role becomes much more that of being a ‘facilitator of play and learning’. They provide all the necessary resources, materials and activities to enhance the children’s natural or externally motivated appetite for total learning.

The children’s independence allows them the freedom to manage most daily routines and requirements almost entirely on their own. Teachers therefore extensively plan and provide ways to extend the ‘horizon’ of the children’s field of knowledge. Classroom activities still include the manipulation and exploration of a wide range of ‘creative’ materials. At this age appear a lot of structured projects with a planned and required ‘outcome’. These challenges meet the child’s natural desire to achieve goals set for them.

On the other hand, teachers and planned activities also encourage concentration levels. And most importantly prepare them for the greater ‘academic’ demands of the year that will follow.

Each child will finish our Kindergarten or Pre-School group with detailed knowledge about literacy, preparing them to continue in Grade 1 or Grade 2. However, the aims relating to the particular targets vary according to the individual child’s readiness and the school to which they will attend next year.

Physical development remains an important focus of the curriculum. Extended time in our playground, excursions and field trips even on public transportation are a regular part of our program.

Occasional whole day trips give more opportunities for the children to have more hands-on education and lengthen their attention span. Academic’ learning is generally of great interest to each child, and we provide many fun and interesting ways to improve this curiosity further.