Living in the UAE really does offer the most fantastic opportunity for children to grow up speaking multiple languages. And with our wonderfully diverse, multi-national, multi-cultural population, it’s a hot topic amongst many parents.

 

Austrian national and passionate advocate of Early Childhood Education, Birgit A. Ertl is the brain behind The Children’s Garden (TCG) pre-school and its wildly successful, milti-lingual concept.

 

I’ve taught all over the world – Austria, England, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Germany – and that’s a big benefit for what I’m doing here in Dubai; rolling out a new Early Childhood education concept for a multi-national audience. All that exposure to so many different countries and prominent curricula – it taught me so much. And the most essential element of all this know-how is that I myself have taught in classrooms for many years. Any Director of any school needs teaching experience in order to understand the full picture of school organization.

 
What’s the greatest lesson you’ve learned from all your experiences?

For me, the biggest fascination of all is how fast children learn at this age. I’ve found this absolutely everywhere I’vetaught, and this was the driving force behind the creation  of my concept for TCG. Languages is just one example; what’s amazing is the sheer number of children I’ve taught who spoke three or four languages before the age of six! No adult can ever learn like this. And this was absolutely the driving force for making TCG a multilingual pre-school. I believe very strongly that the 21^st Century needs more bilingual and multilingual pre-schools and schools.

 

What’s the philosophy of The Children’s Garden?
That’s very simple. Childhood should be a journey not a race.

Firstly, we’re not a nursery. We see ourselves as a pre-school because our aim is to prepare children for any curricula in any country in the world. And our ability to do this has been confirmed by the parents of many of our TCG Leavers, with whom we’re still in touch, whether they’re in   the States, Norway, China, or still here in the UAE. TCG Jumeira, off Beach Road, Jumeira 1

Well, let me first give you a bit of background.  I’ve tailor-made the curriculum to include the strongest aspects of the world’s most prominent curricula and to make use of all the most effective teaching methodologies I’ve come across throughout my career. This means we emphasize the process more than looking too soon for the end result. 

 

This philosophy is essential in any good learning programme, especially a language programme – because a language cannot be learned overnight.  Creative Arts and Language Arts are therefore the main emphasis at TCG.  The creative aspect is essential because it really helps engage the children’s emotions. This in turn enables them to learn languages (and everything else) more effectively. 

 

As for our language programme, it’s structured in such a way that 50% of the children’s activities are held in English, while the other 50% are held in either French or German.  This immersion programme and the constant exposure they get to the two languages of instruction mean that by the end of two years, the children are stable in each language, and after completing the full three-year programme, they’re fluent. Also where we set ourselves apart is that Arabic is compulsory at The Children’s Garden, for the very reason that we would like the children to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of what it means to live in the Middle East, and language and culture are so closely intertwined.

 

All our staff members hold a minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree, but it’s about more than paper qualifications. Passion, experience, and of course they must have a proper understanding of this specific age group – that’s what makes a really good teacher, and that’s what we look for.

 

To be multilingual, confident, respectful children who are prepared for the next stage of their lives and who have a strong foundation that will help them meet the challenges of the 21^st Century.