Mateřská škola KIDS Company Praha, s.r.o.

The nursery school KIDS Company Praha was established in 2005. At the current time the nursery is based in Prague’s Vinohrady district and has two classes: one class for the younger children from two to three and half years old and one class for children from three and half to six. The KIDS Company Praha nursery school provides pre-school education in Czech and German. The children are cared by Czech and German teachers who all have the appropriate teaching qualifications in various fields, all teachers are native speakers of the relevant language. A fifty percent stake in the company is held by the German von Laer Stiftung foundation (established in 1900). Today the foundation focuses on various ways of caring for children and young people, in particular children with special needs. From the start of the 1990s the foundation has been operating nursery schools with expanded opening hours and other services that enable parents to link quality care for their children in a pre-school facility and the building of their own professional career. The nursery’s legal form is that of a limited liability company. The nursery is an accredited nursery entered in the register of schools and educational facilities maintained by Prague City Hall (IZO 181 036 801). The nursery is the recipient of a subsidy from Prague City Hall. By concluding a contract on the provision of a subsidy the nursery undertakes to spend its entire profit on education and school services. Every year the nursery submits an auditor’s report on its financial management to City Hall. The nursery is therefore essentially a non-profit organisation. Focus: Our school’s mission is to enable Czech, German and bilingual children to meet and to be educated in both languages in a multicultural environment. Our nursery’s main aim is quality bilingual pre-school education using the immersion method. Teachers speak to the children on the “one person—one language” principle always only in their mother tongue, Czech or German. The immersion method is very effective, as it operates on the same principle as that through which children learn their native tongue from their parents. Activities: The morning programme at the school is mostly in German, the afternoon programme is in Czech. In addition to an ordinary nursery programme we offer the children an exercise and swimming course, courses for cookery, dancing and playing the flute. In the nursery we celebrate Czech and German public holidays. We try to ensure that the children are in contact with the German language as much as possible (German theatre, literary afternoons). We occasionally also arrange educational events for members of the public interested in bilingualism and pre-school education (lectures, workshops). Target Groups: Our clients are not only Czech-German families living in Prague; children also come to us from Czech and German families whose parents are interested in bilingual education from an early age. The nursery is attended by a whole range of children of other nationalities, so there is a multicultural environment in the real sense of the word. The KIDS Company Praha nursery school is a fixed part of the range of quality pre-school education in Prague. We are in regular contact with other German-language institutions and organisations in Prague. After 4 years and many good experiences with volunterees from ESC our kindergarten is interested to continue the work with volunteers from the ESC. The ideal term of an internship for us is 12 months, which is 1 kindergarten-year. In this period of time the volunteer and the children can build up a close relationship, and get to know each other well. Within a full year the volunteer are able to recognise the needs of the children, and to work with the teachers on the education programme, including making parts of the programme independently. The education programme is made for a year in advance. If the volunteer stays a full year, he or she have the opportunity to take