Two parents in Vaud have recently taken over the management of the Ecole Montessori Nyon for the age group 3 to 6, to allow the school to focus more on the needs of parents and to ensure high quality AMI Montessori education for their children and those of other parents.
Renamed Deux Mille Feuilles, the school will cater for the needs of children aged up to 6 years, and will offer a unique bilingual version of the popular Montessori approach to education.
Cornelia Tosch, co-Director with two daughters at the school, told knowitall.ch, “We believe in child-centered education, that values and develops the whole child – physical, emotional, social and cognitive. At our school, children do not learn for the moment, but gain a preparation for life. Our children not only learn to respect themselves, but as well to respect others. For us building self-assurance, developing trust in others and learning to respect go hand-in-hand. We have built the school around 3 main pillars: high quality bilingual Montessori education; nature and health; and care and service for children and parents.”
The school believes that full bilingual immersion is the most natural way to acquire a new language, so children spend one week immersed in English followed by a second week in French. There are two identical classrooms, one with English Montessori material, the other with French. Children alternate on a weekly basis between the English and French teachers, who are native speakers and AMI Montessori certified. The school follows the one-person-one-language principle so children can link one language to every person.
A new reception class is scheduled to open in September 2016 at Le Régent Crans-Montana College. Featured on our website during both the construction stage and subsequent opening in September 2015, Le Régent Crans Montana College is an independent British international day and boarding school that welcomes boys and girls aged 4 to 18.
Head Master, Didier Boutroux, told knowitall.ch, ‘We are delighted to announce that we will be accepting children from the age of 4 from September 2016 at Le Régent College. This is due to increased popularity of the Junior School and to accommodate the legal requirement for children to go to school from the age of 4.”
The Reception Class will be staffed by fully qualified teachers and housed in the brand new Junior School building which offers a creative, purposeful and safe learning environment for young children.
© Marie Contreras
Open Day and Information Sessions being held in June.
Following the arrival of its new Director, Patrick Parquet, in 2012, the design and communication school, IPAC Design Genève, has undergone a major overhaul – not just in terms of the courses offered, but also how they are taught, and who teaches them.
Eager to present his new school to both the local and expat communities, Patrick is holding a series of Information Sessions in June as well as a special Open Day on Saturday 4 June 2016 where visitors will have the opportunity to see presentations on the different courses available, meet the teachers who are delivering the courses, and request tours of the school.
So how has the school changed in the 4 years that Patrick has been at the helm? Knowitall.ch went to visit IPAC Design Genève at the beginning of May to find out more.
Without doubt, one of the biggest transformations to the school can be seen in the teaching staff. Lessons are now taught by professionals working in the the fields of Digital Media, Graphic Design, Interior Design and Fashion Design. Far from teaching purely academic disciplines, these creative professionals have been tasked with providing students with the toolkits they need to work in industry. So not only do they leave the school with a recognized qualification within the design and communications industries, they also have the skillset to get started on the job straight away. So employers know when they recruit students from IPAC Design Genève, that they won’t need to spend hours training them on the job.
ASC Education Group, which has provided language training in the region since 1974, has launched a new programme of fun, effective and affordable English classes for kids aged 5 years and above.
Called Wednesday PLUS, the programme will take place on Wednesday afternoons at 4 locations in Geneva, Vaud and neighboring France. With specific classes targeted at both Anglophones and non-native speakers, the programme will be divided into two strands, one for English-speakers following the English National Curriculum and the other aimed at students learning English as a Foreign Language. Non-native speakers will also have the opportunity to take the Cambridge Young Learner English exams (Starters, Movers, Flyers) from the age of 8.
ASC has been offering English lessons for kids for many years through its subsidiary school, Key English School. So what is special about this programme? Wednesday PLUS Programme Director, Sarah Pralong, told knowitall.ch,
“At ASC we believe children learn better when they are having fun, and that is certainly the case with the extra-curricular activities that we offer at Key English School. However, many of our parents have been asking for longer lessons. From the feedback we received recently we noticed that parents also wanted to see results, and quickly! So we decided to launch the Wednesday PLUS programme, which has a strong emphasis on the Cambridge exams, and is more intense, with classes lasting 2 or 3 hours instead of just 60 minutes.”
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Given the large international population of Geneva, Vaud and neighboring France, it’s hardly surprising that language schools are so popular over here.
With many local companies recruiting from overseas, there is a huge demand for new employees and their families to learn French when they arrive. What is more, many international organizations also use English as the main language at work, so there is a significant need for employees of all nationalities to learn to speak English more fluently.
But as many of you know, when you arrive in a new region from abroad, or start a new job, there is very little time to think about studying again, especially when It comes to learning something like a new language, which can be very intensive in the first few months.
Recognizing this problem amongst its customers, one Geneva-based language school, Active Languages, has taken steps to develop a new series of online language courses that will match the learning needs of all language students – both local and worldwide. Know-it-all passport® spoke to the two owners and Directors of the company, Brian Johnston and Jarina Hasi, to find out more.
