A bilingual Swiss school, Ecole La Découverte, catering for children aged 3 to 12, has just announced the opening of a new campus in Mies, scheduled for September 2017. Founded in the early 90s, this small, private school has grown in 25 years from just 13 pupils to 230, and has now increased its English-language teaching to a 50/50 bilingual level, following its recent expansion into new premises at the heart of the international quarter.
Key to the success of Ecole La Découverte has been the practice of active pedagogy, an approach which prioritizes enquiry-based learning through projects that aim to foster self-confidence, autonomy and the capacity to think for oneself. The school leadership team explained, “Our students begin by posing questions and brainstorming an activity. A process of investigation then leads to a final outcome, generated by the children. The subject matter of each project is ideally stimulated by their own interests. The students also have regular philosophy sessions, from 4 years onwards, and they participate in resolving problems and suggesting class projects in weekly class council meetings.”
They continued, "At the end of Primary, our children have learnt, in addition to the knowledge of the language, much broader skills, as they have been studying all the objectives in both languages. Furthermore, the knowledge the children has acquired in learning English, facilitates their learning of German, which is taught from the age of 8, through the Harmos program. As part of the extra-curricular program, there is also the possibility to take part in activities in Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic.”
From the age of 3, pupils at Ecole La Découverte begin learning English in a climate of immersion. In order that each child gets used to hearing, speaking and reading in both languages, all class activities are planned collaboratively by two class teachers, one French, the other English. The teachers, who are native speakers, create distinct linguistic and cultural learning environments for the different days of the week.
While teaching at the school is bilingual, the academic program is based on the Swiss public school system, with objectives at the end of Primary School being certified by the Geneva Cantonal Exams. The first language of the school is, therefore, French. The English program has defined objectives for each cycle, but is only assessed at the end of the 8th grade by the Cambridge University exams (KET or PET according to the child’s language level).
Class sizes at the school are small, typically 17 up to a maximum of 18, although these are often further divided in half for timetabled workshops such as library in English and French, chess and ICT project support. After school care, including a wide range of extra-curricular activities, is offered until 6pm each day and on a Wednesday until 5pm.
Asked where students tend to go when they finish at La Découverte, the leadership team told us, “The children go to a range of schools. Most continue in private education, both Swiss and international, but we also have children moving to public schools in Geneva and Vaud.
For further information please contact:
Ecole La Découverte
Avenue de Sécheron 11
(Quartier des Organisations Internationales)
1202 Genève / Suisse
0 22 733 54 33
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.decouverte.ch
