About Us - MIS Geneva
Education begins the moment we see children as innately wise and capable beings. Only then can we play along in their world.
Vince Gowmon
Welcome to MIS Geneva Nursery and Preschool!
We would like to introduce you to the MIS learning concept and our new facility in Gèneva. Below are things that excite us, and we are happy to talk about them!
If you have any questions that remain unanswered after reading this, please feel free to contact us by email. You can also request a tour here, or fill out the application form here.
How We Got Started
The Metropolitan International School was founded in 2007 in the Rhine-Neckar Metropolregion, and currently has five locations: Heidelberg, Mannheim, Viernheim, Birkenau and Geneva. Each location serves different age ranges, as per the needs of the community. Our main campus in Viernheim, Germany, includes a Primary and Secondary school, and the acclaimed International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.
A Recognized International School
Children and families of many nationalities find a second home at our nurseries. Our families are colorful and engaged, and bring their diverse linguistic and cultural influences to the daycare center’s daily routine. Our bilingual concept is also part of our internationality. From crèche age to preschool, children are cared for in both French and English. Both languages are equally represented in our everyday life.
Our Concept:
MIS inspires through music, theatre, movement and sports. At MIS, we offer an environment for enthusiastic learning.
We create a setting in which MIS children can enjoy learning and can develop into happy and successful citizens of the world. We focus on developing each child's whole personality, to encourage and support individual abilities and to provide a protected and friendly atmosphere for learning.
Learn more about our concept from our Founders.
Our Vision:
We strive to be the most respected school and early learning centers in Europe, preparing students of all ages and cultural backgrounds for a global world by equipping them with critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Learn more about our vision.
What Makes Us Unique:
Students from over 22 different countries around the world come to MIS to learn and develop through daily school life together. We follow a holistic approach to learning, and we embrace each individual to help them become their best self within our dynamic family community.
We are a bilingual school, teaching in both English and French, and have created a learning environment that provides critical building blocks for successful learning for years to come! Learn more about our Education Program here.
We also embrace and celebrate diversity! Learn more about this effort here.
School
We are – a school? No, but why is our nursery / kindergarten called “School”? On one hand, this is due to the fact that we impart broad knowledge to even the youngest children in an age-appropriate way and with a lot of fun and joy in learning. We offer new incentives for the children in our daycare center for independent and guided learning each and every day.
We always make sure that our pedagogical offers comprehensively promote all development areas described in the education and orientation plan in a holistic way with head, heart, hand and foot.
The second pillar of our educational concept is the “Cambridge International Education Curriculum”, which is a standard for international education. This means that, in addition to the developmental fields covered by the Education and Orientation Plan, children 3 years of age begin learning about the alphabet and numbers in playful activities prepared in a child-friendly manner. In this way, we not only enable international families or those planning a longer stay abroad to ensure that the children are able to connect to international educational standards even after moving abroad, but also feed the children’s natural hunger for knowledge.
Furthermore, we understand child development as a unity of perception, action, feeling and thinking. Our core philosophy is to support children in becoming increasingly “independent”, to respect the statement “I can do this on my own” and to give children the freedom to try out independent activities. We focus on the individual strengths of each child and support them in their learning and development processes.
Our children thereby develop joy in learning, are highly motivated and thus build up their self-confidence. This self-confidence is a prerequisite for the joy of lifelong learning.
Multilingualism
At MIS Geneva, we teach in both English and French!
In most multi-lingual families, multilingualism is taught to the children naturally by shaping everyday family life in two or more languages spoken by the parents or other family members. We adapt this same method to the everyday life of the day care center. The two basic principles underlying this are the Immersion Method and the concept of “One-Person-One-Language”.
In addition to the particularly good cognitive prerequisites of pre-school children to learn new languages, the chance to learn a language with almost no accent is also a great advantage of learning another language at an early age (Bunse/Hofschildt 2011). Answers to further questions about multilingualism in kindergarten can be found in our FAQ section.
The Immersion Method
The winged word “Language Bath” describes what the children experiences in our nursery/preschool. The immersion method has become a successful principle in kindergartens (Bunse/Hofschildt 2011). This means that there is no selective teaching of one language for the children, but rather the children are surrounded by the two languages, French and English, all day long and are accompanied by our team in all situations (playing, learning, eating, etc.) This, of course, depends on the preference of language learning for the child. For example, if the child is fluent in French but has the priority of learning English, there will be more focus on speaking English to the child.
One-Person-One-Language
Each of our employees (both teachers and assistants) are consistent in speaking only one language with the children. The transfer of multilingual education has also proved successful in day care centers “OPOL” (one person-one language) as the recommended concept. Our colleagues are employed in their first language or at a level close to their first language for the respective language.
Class Size
We care for a total of 20 children in both our nursery and preschool. Even the youngest children begin to learn French and English in our lively, everyday environment. We want you to see MIS as a partner in developing your child's best self, and to be confident in knowing that your child is in good hands, ,from the crèche / nursery age through preschool seamlessly.
In both groups, your children receive not only loving care but also compete healthy meals (breakfast, lunch and a snack in the afternoon).
The educational partnership and parenting
You, as parents, are the experts on your child. Therefore, a trusted educational partnership between parents and professionals is not only beneficial, but is essential.
This is our approach in regards to working with parents. Successful parental work, on the other hand, is a decisive basis when it comes to creating a happy kindergarten time for the children. We would like to actively involve you in important decisions such as the course of settling in, changes in your child’s everyday life (potty training, stopping nap time) as well as in the educational and developmental documentation of your child and are available at any time to answer your questions
If you would like to get involved beyond that, you are welcome to do so within the framework of our MISPA Parents Association. MISPA maintains close contact with the management and the team at MIS, and provides support in organizing parties, celebrations and other parenting activities at MIS. Would you like to present cultural activities in the kindergarten that you celebrate in your family? Or do you have a job or a hobby that you would like to explain to the children? MISPA supports our team and you in the organization of these events as well.