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About us
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Why did we decide in favour of a multilingual school (German/English or German/English/French)? We believe for a child to be taught his own language together with another, or a foreign language separately, significantly stimulates his cognitive, emotional and creative development. Not only does the child acquire the foreign language through playful use of it, but at the same time he better understands the richness of his own. In this way the child is quickly aware that there are many languages in the world, which among other factors forms the basis of internationally oriented thinking and tolerance. Our goal is not for the child to become perfectly bilingual, but rather for him to gain a playful approach to the language and its acquisition. In this connection, it appears worth noting that English will become increasingly important in Switzerland; through early exposure children will feel more comfortable with it and will be better prepared to learn it at an early stage in school. Furthermore, the opportunity to choose to simultaneously learn some French is available in one of our schools on request; a trilingual Kindergarten is also on offer. This step towards the early playful acquisition of multilingualism is a challenge rarely seen in Switzerland, despite its own history of a multilingual national culture. Long political debates have taken place in the Canton of Zürich: Should it be English or French from an early age? Tandem answers why not both? Each language indeed works together and encourages a child to be all the more open-minded and to gain more international perspective.
It is of concern to us to encourage the natural curiosity of children and their joy in discovery of their own world and the one that is yet unknown to them. Cultural exchange and thinking that goes beyond borders govern our work with the children.
As opposed to many other countries, in Switzerland the concept of a Pre-School for small children is not yet known and frequently subject to prejudice. To put aside the preconceived ideas, we would emphasise that our goal is not to “learn and practice” certain things. Instead, we want to assist children to better know and understand their environment through play, with the help of different tools and sensory perceptions. We want to exploit the children’s natural desire to discover and understand the world around them. It must become one and the same thing to play, discover and learn. As opposed to many traditional day-care establishments, the children at Tandem experience themes through inquiry and centre-based learning.
Teachers use inquiry-based learning to build on the children’s instictive exploration. They guide the children in groups to focus their observations and conclusions.
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