German Kindergarten
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The Kindergarten in the German Section offers an educational programme in line with German traditions of education for children aged 3 to 6 years old.
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Our German Kindergarten is also open to children with little or no knowledge of the German language. With the help of our immersive language acquisition programme, children obtain linguistic competence in German through play and constant interaction with teachers and classmates.
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Another strong point of our Early Years system is that we give each child the opportunity to interact with children from different cultural backgrounds and nationalities – not only inside the classroom but also on the playground and other facilities on campus.
A Day in the German Kindergarten
Our Kindergarten and Vorschule (Pre-Primary) have full-time classes from Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 2:00pm. Children may also be enrolled in optional afternoon activities from Monday to Thursday, 2:00 to 3:30pm. Below is a typical daily schedule in Kindergarten:
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Most activities take place within the classrooms. They are equipped with learning materials in accordance with European standards. We offer our children the best possibilities for their individual development. A large outdoor playground provides ample opportunities and space for fun activities and exploration.
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Afternoon activities and the Extra-Curricular Activities (ECAs) offered by Eurocampus that encourage fine and gross motor development such as arts and crafts, football, basketball and ballet are also offered.
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As our activities vary and change per school year, a complete list of the available activities is given to our parents once they have enrolled in our school.
Curriculum
In Kindergarten and Preschool, we follow the “Concept of Education of Thuringia”. Thuringia is one of the 16 federal states of Germany. The concept consists of seven areas of learning that are integrated into our pedagogical kindergarten programme:
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Literacy
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Motor and Health Education
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Scientific and Technical Education
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Mathematical Literacy
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Artistic-creative Education
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Socio-cultural and Moral Education
Throughout the school year, the students work through themes such as family, Christmas, animals, feelings and the like to enhance their knowledge and improve their skills in an age-appropriate setting. Our holistic approach enables our students to interact with their friends, learn new insights and gain new experiences.
We support the independence of our students and believe that this is of the key elements of education. The children are given enough guidance to choose or select their own learning engagements which include projects.
German as a Second Language
In addition to the everyday integrated language support within the home group, the kindergarten and preschool children meet four times a week for 30 minutes in their small group for systematic language support outside their own classroom in the separate Kiga-DaZ room.
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At the beginning of each school year, each child takes part individually in a standardized language assessment procedure ("LiSe-DaZ"), which tests comprehension and language production in central areas of German grammar. Based on the results, the children are divided into small groups of a maximum of six students.
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The learning units in the small groups themselves were based on two complementary concepts: "language acquisition" according to Roger Loos for vocabulary building and vocabulary expansion, and the "learning path method" according to Dr. Zvi Penner. With the help of different materials developed specifically for this purpose, the latter method involves working step-by-step on word and later on sentence rhythm (prosody). In addition to the rules of language (e.g. rules of plural formation, article rules, sentence structure rules, etc.), the Learning Path program also includes vocabulary development units (nouns, verbs, prepositions, adjectives).
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The so-called "SISMik" and "SeLdaK" are two observation instruments for evaluation that we use not only to allow us to make statements about the child's language development/language education and language competence, but also to assess the child's motivation and interest in language, in literacy in general.
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Above and beyond all these theoretical framework, however, the fun of learning and using the German language is the main focus for the children. We play, learn and laugh together in various activities.
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Our Grundschule or "German Primary" offers an educational programme in line with German traditions of education for children in Grades 1 to 5.
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Based on the official curriculum of Germany, our Mittelstufe or "German Middle School" is focused on competencies, providing a modern, holistic education, enriched by the educational principles most typical of Germany and Europe.
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