Preschool Education
Preschool Education
High quality and human-centred education to develop critical thinking skills.
Our courses
· KleinesZürich (ages two to three)
KleinesZürich is a member of Xarxa de Centres de Suport Familiar (Catalan Network of Family Support Centres)
· EI3 (ages three to four)
· EI4 (ages four to five)
· EI5 (ages five to six)
Please fill in the form if you wish to receive detailed information
Open enrolment
enrolment process
all year round
nationalities represented
to school
every five students
human-centred education
at all education levels
school activities
Language immersion
At Zürich Schule Barcelona (ZSB), teaching in Preschool Education is entirely in German.
This tuition at such an early age is an enriching opportunity that favours children’s cognitive and linguistic development, without affecting the evolution of their mother tongue.
Catalan and English are gradually introduced in Primary Education.
By the end of their Secondary Education, students obtain a C1 Certificate in German and at least a B2 Certificate in English. Endorsed by the Goethe-Institut in Barcelona and Trinity College London, these certificates are processed by the school.
The Primary Years Programme (PYP) is endorsed and certified by IB.
Atop of Barcelona
The foundations of learning are laid during this most important level of education.
Aware as we are of the importance of brain plasticity in the first years of life, we provide children with a rich and stimulating environment to ensure the learning process respects their characteristics and needs, thereby favouring their integral development, paying special attention to their physical and emotional well-being. Sensitivity and respect for individual differences, nature and the environment are fostered from earliest childhood.
Experimentation and play are fundamental learning strategies through which we encourage children's creativity and respond to their curiosity and desire to learn. Children are at the centre of their own education, which they construct under the guidance of their teachers and in collaboration with their families.
These educational strategies are designed to promote the competencies established in the Preschool Education curriculum, which unfold in a specific linguistic and cultural framework. The teaching and learning language at this level is German, although they also come into contact with Spanish and Catalan, which are used in their initiation to writing and motor skills. Given the uniqueness of the school's linguistic project, class groups are small, favouring interactive communication and personalised attention.
Pupils are actively involved in the preparation and celebration of German holidays and cultural traditions (Sankt Martin [St Martin's Day], Nikolaus [St Nicholas], Advent, Osterhase [Easter Bunny]) as well as local festivities (Castanyada [Halloween], Tió [Yule Log], Sant Jordi [St George's Day], Carnestoltes [Carnival], etc. As a result, they grow up in a plural linguistic and cultural context that enables them to build the bases of a diverse and changing world, and we comply with UNESCO recommendations for education in the twenty-first century, known as the four pillars: LEARNING TO KNOW, LEARNING TO DO, LEARNING TO LIVE TOGETHER, AND LEARNING TO BE.
The school year is divided into four-monthly periods, and families are duly informed of our goals through communications we call Didactic Objectives.
All subjects are imparted in German, except for reading and writing, motor skills and swimming, which are taught in Spanish and Catalan. In all these fields of study our methodology strengthens the innate potential of children.
Preschool Education is organised around the four pillars of knowledge defined in the report 'Education for the Twenty-First Century' drawn up for UNESCO:
- Learning to know
- Learning to do
- Learning to live together
- Learning to be
These four aspects will help favour our students' integral development. They are explained in detail in formative and informative meetings.
KleinesZürich (age two) to EI4 pupils may be brought to school at 7.45 a.m., and must be picked up in the afternoon between 4.00 and 4.45 p.m.
EI5 students (Avinguda de Pearson) may be dropped off between 7.45 and 8.20 a.m. This is NOT a free service.
Growing together for over fifty years
Our mission as a school is to promote comprehensive education using an innovative and high-quality methodological practice in which students play the leading role in the learning process, and teachers are their guides and advisers. We value the uniqueness of each pupil and encourage the greatest development of their potential. We are careful to ensure that our learning community (students, teachers, families and administration and maintenance staff) is respectful towards its members, its social and cultural conditions and the environment. Our educational action is committed to the community’s well-being and aspires to help create a healthy peaceful world, habitable for all.
Our vision is to continue as a school that promotes students’ academic excellence, starting from our own education project in the framework of the International Baccalaureate® (IB) community. Our commitment to society is reflected in the ongoing development of our strong points: our support of multilingualism, inclusion and innovation, and our attention to current scientific and technological progress to enable all members of our community to acquire the international mindset of IB schools.
Zürich Schule Barcelona seeks to be a high-quality private education centre. It aims to be consolidated as a learning, innovative, inclusive and intelligent school with a degree of independence that encourages the participation and shared responsibility of our entire educational community.
The Zürich Schule Barcelona approach cannot be understood without stressing its profoundly humanistic nature in which emotional education, positive psychology and systemic psychology play a central role. These principles are not only relevant for educators but also for all those interacting with children and teenagers, including parents, teachers, supervisory assistants and maintenance staff.
The implementation of these principles requires an ongoing process of personal development by educators, an endless voyage towards greater understanding and inner growth. Maturity is a path in constant evolution. All of us, and this includes educators, can experience setbacks and crises that, if appropriately addressed, can strengthen our inner resilience. These principles, rooted in humanistic psychology, emotional intelligence and positive psychology, must be experienced at a profound level and become genuine attitudes.
The school’s Psycho-pedagogical Department has drafted a document that sums up its guidelines for teachers and families. It focuses on the causes of conflicts rather than on negative behaviour; on active, attentive listening, communicating feelings without denying those of others or holding negative judgements, identifying students’ strong points, prioritising trust, praise and the importance of giving and taking. We seek a balance between understanding and obligations, championing the joy of teaching.
These educational attitudes reflect our commitment to educating people rather than students, given that life will assess them as human beings. Consequently, all assessments from Primary Education onwards consider four key pillars of personality: self-esteem, responsibility, motivation and sociability. Developing these pillars satisfactorily promotes students’ self-respect and self-confidence, qualities that enhance Zürich Schule Barcelona students as individuals.
In the framework of the systemic psychology that guides Zürich Schule Barcelona, we regard our children and students as belonging to two key relational systems: family and school. Parents, school, children, students and teachers mutually influence one another. They all form a part of these two systems, and according to this vision, we’re all relational beings. When we encounter behavioural or learning problems in a child or pupil we must reflect on what educators (parents and teachers) can do to solve the problem. As educators, we must apply educational strategies that will help the children or pupils to overcome their challenge, a challenge which is shared by all.
At Zürich Schule Barcelona we are committed to providing a comprehensive education that recognises and nourishes the emotional and relational dimension of our students in order to help them grow as students and as complete individuals.
The prerequisites for belonging to the teaching staff at Zürich Schule Barcelona are a vocation to teach, a human-centred and pedagogical sensitivity capable of identifying with our Education Project, and a disposition to understand and share the idiosyncrasy of our modest school.
Besides the qualifications that are required to legally teach at the different educational levels offered by Zürich Schule Barcelona, i.e., Preschool, Primary Education and Secondary Education, all our educators/teachers must have other essential and desirable qualities before they may join our staff. Given the non-existence of a tradition of appraising our teachers, we have drawn up a specific plan to assess our education staff.
On a human level, teachers wishing to join our staff should be emotionally stable, have a good command of themselves, sufficient self-awareness to accept themselves and, above all, love their profession and their students.
Given the complexity of teaching and bearing in mind that our conception at Zürich Schule Barcelona involves teamwork, it is essential that teachers accept and appreciate their colleagues and are able to collaborate and share experiences. They must also understand that their work transcends the classroom and embraces the shared vision described in our centre’s Education Project.
Forming a part of our teaching staff must be seen as an opportunity for each schoolmaster and schoolmistress: the hours they devote to students make it indispensable that they get to know them well and encourage them to assuredly become the best version of themselves. These are qualities that all adults should have, qualities they will help our students understand and respect the nature of Zürich Schule Barcelona ensure they follow specific rules and play an active part in our learning communities. At the same time, they will kindle their interest in lifelong learning. Teachers must guide their students in life lessons, an ongoing learning process. At Zürich Schule Barcelona, teachers must not be transmitters of knowledge but mediators of knowledge.
Our teachers should be optimistic positive people, capable of conveying hope and transmitting the pleasure of learning. In this case, they will succeed in motivating our students to consider the school a warm, welcoming place where they are happy and excited to learn.
In professional terms, our teachers must have informed opinions, an active capacity for innovation and the confidence to face unexpected challenges. Their forward-looking visions must enable them to anticipate future expectations. Ideally, they should be creative and capable of learning from their accomplishments and mistakes.
Zürich Schule Barcelona teachers must show an interest in the depths of the human brain and its functioning at each educational level because we believe this is a key aspect of the learning process. The knowledge and application of the theory of multiple intelligences is essential to be able to promote them in their students while favouring others that are less developed.
The Zürich Schule Barcelona project is inextricable from its humanistic quality. It is therefore vital to recognise the importance of emotional education, positive psychology and systemic psychology for our school.
In order to follow these principles, educators must experience maturity as an ongoing inner process. These principles are applicable to all those who live and work with children and teenagers, from parents and teachers to supervisory assistants and maintenance staff.
All members of our teaching staff must be fully aware that our classroom diversity is a source of enrichment, and give students the confidence they deserve.
Teachers must be capable of using different resources in order to systematically document their students’ learning processes, follow their development and assess them. They must also be able to encourage their successes, get them back on track whenever necessary, and continuously reassess the methodology followed in each subject.
Teachers at Zürich Schule Barcelona must be aware that the pupils they are teaching today will form the society of tomorrow. It is therefore necessary that they apply cooperative learning, an effective methodology for educating students’ social dimension.
Good communication between the head team, teachers, level coordinators and heads of departments is essential for teachers to establish fluid relationships with students’ families.
The various characteristics mentioned here are aptitudes designed to enable teachers meet the challenges they will have to face throughout the school year. Teamwork is important, as is taking the greatest interest and applying sound judgement when helping students and families, having an optimistic view of a profession in constant renewal, sensing the urgent need for continuous training, and developing strategies to boost their students’ learning. In order to do so, they will make use of ICT and whatever other tools can help improve student understanding, prepare their lessons thoroughly and, above all, trust their students to take centre stage in the learning process.
The school heads are dedicated to promoting teamwork and encouraging listening and dialogue among teaching and non-teaching staff. Good planning and conscious assessments hinge on transparency, sharing and continuous communication.
The head office comprises:
· The Headmaster
· The Head Administrator
· The Psycho-pedagogical Department
· The Pedagogical and Level Coordinator
· The Financial Department
The teachers and early childhood educators that form our staff have official degrees. All teachers of German at Zürich Schule Barcelona are native speakers.
Any questions?
Do you need further information? We’re here to help! If you should have any questions about our school, educational approach, school programmes, admission requirements or any other matter, don’t hesitate in getting in touch.
Our staff are committed to providing you with answers and guidance to ensure you make the best possible decision regarding your child’s education. We look forward to meeting you and sharing this educational journey!
