ADMISSIONS OVERVIEW

We are a private school for students aged three to 12, representing more than 40 nationalities and major cultural and religious traditions. We teach in both French and English.

Students must have reached the entry age corresponding to their grade by 31st July at the latest. However, the Nursery (pink) class welcomes children who will reach their third birthday between 1st August and 31st December.

In general, students must complete a full year at Ecole Mosaic before being promoted to the next level. Admission from the month of January may result in the student repeating a year.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Yes, the class teachers cover all the subjects in both languages. They plan ahead together to make sure they cover all the academic objectives.

They are Swiss, French, English, Irish, American, Australian, Italian, Brazilian.

They come from 50 different countries from across the globe. Often they have two nationalities, and maybe two cultures, two religions.

We have developed and written our own curriculum, which covers the PER (Plan d’Etudes Romand) and the English National Curriculum. The programme is accepted by both governments, and our students take the exams of both countries.

Yes, they do. Most of these subjects are taught by single subject teachers: theatre and music from age 3, sport from age 4, they also take Swimming, Sailing and even Climbing with single subject teachers.

There are no grades in Nursery, the pupils receiving a photo assessment report with teachers’ comments on their social skills, bilingualism and motor skills. From Grade 3P, the overall achievements are marked on a scale from 1 to 6, including half-points. The pass mark is 4 out of 6.

We encourage the development of adaptability and autonomy as an essential quality, as an asset for your child’s whole life (school, professional career, personal life), but it takes time and effort to acquire this. Much encouragement is necessary, together with empathy for his/her struggles, an understanding that it is not easy to adapt to one or two new languages, a new environment, way of teaching, friends, etc… Teachers are there to assist, but also other parents, who will help integrate you into this new community by organising playdates for your child and by taking part in various school activities (presentations, outings).

There is no regular scheduled homework before Grade 3P. A basic guideline to the time expected to be spent on homework assignments and individual study is:

Primary Grades 3P to 5P: 30 minutes, 6P and 7P: 45 minutes, Grade 8P: 1 hour maximum every school day evening.

Find a peaceful time, after an afternoon snack or his/her afterschool activities. Consider enrolling your child in our after-school homework sessions with our supervising teachers, in particular if you feel that doing homework at home creates conflict.

Please contact the teachers; they will be happy to discuss your child’s progress. Remember that when a child is learning a new language, progress in his/her mother tongue may slow down for a while, before picking up again. This is a well-known learning curve.

For children with special needs, there are many benefits to an inclusive learning environment. Regardless of their level of ability, children learn from one another. In an inclusive classroom, children with special needs have the opportunity of observing their peers, who serve as positive role models by demonstrating the skills that the teachers and therapists are trying to teach. Being an equal member of a classroom community provides many important social benefits as well, including increased self-esteem and the formation of friendships.

We follow the recommendations of the Geneva Health Department (Service de la Santé de la Jeunesse). We ask parents not to send their child if he/she has a fever, a contagious childhood disease, or coughs a lot. Any medication that the child takes must be accompanied by a valid doctor’s prescription.

Every child must be protected from all kinds of violence. That is why the whole team receives regular training on detecting  any suspicions  and signs of bullying. Whilst respecting each person’s personality,  Mosaic School aims to make  children progressively aware of belonging to the world around them, by awakening in them a sense of respect for others, a tolerance  of differences, a spirit of solidarity and cooperation. To this end, the school has put in place class councils, assemblies and philosophical workshops, so that  children  can express themselves in the event of problems and be aware of the world around them. Care is taken in a collective and coordinated manner to ensure respect for the values as written in the law, the rules of life at school and to continue to ensure the quality of the school climate.

Yes, with password protection. Students are not allowed to bring a mobile phone to school. They can access the Internet on school computers under a teacher’s supervision, but only in order to learn and to carry out research during classtime. However, all available content remains under control thanks to various filters installed on the network.

Morning welcome time is essential. Children have until 9 am to settle into their classroom. They need time to transition from home to school. At 9 am, teachers start the morning circle time, followed by classroom activities. Mid-morning, they stop for a snack, where we emphasize the use of that day’s language and general table manners, followed by morning recess. After washing hands, putting coats on, removing coats, going to the bathroom, there is time for another activity before lunch time. For children staying for the whole day, there is a nap until approximately 2 pm. Artistic activities, snack and recess time will follow until 4 pm and until the end of the day.

Not in the Nursery class, but we do request the use of pull-ups. Teachers will work with parents to ensure that the child is potty trained by the end of the school year.

Yes. The choice is between half-day (8am to 12 noon), noon half-day with lunch or , full day (until 4pm, or 5:45 pm).

The teachers are used to having a child or children in their class who do not speak the language in which they are teaching. They use a lot of pictures, objects and gestures to communicate with the children and will also encourage them to repeat the words and sentences to develop their speaking skills and vocabulary. The teachers also give a lot of praise when the children are starting to understand and speak, which gives the child the confidence and motivation to continue learning.

The school operates a Language Tutoring Programme starting in Grade 3P for those students who are not at the necessary academic level of French or English. The students are taken out of class and put into small groups of similar ability to develop their comprehension, vocabulary, speaking, reading and writing skills.

During the first 3 years (Nursery, Grade 1P, Grade 2P), the children alternate languages on a weekly basis. There is an initial phase of adaptation to the new language. This adaptation phase will vary from child to child; it can last from 2 weeks to 4 months. During this time, we will help him/her to understand, for example, by having another child translate.

If your child does not speak any French or English, we may organise “buddies” from other classes who speak his/her language to come and spend some time with your child, so as to help alleviate the feeling of loneliness. After this stage, understanding will come fast and we will encourage the children to gradually start communicating in the new language. Speaking is not easy, as it requires self-confidence and risk-taking. We help this by separating the class regularly into small groups, in order to promote speaking. Reading and writing are more technical, but children quickly understand how to use these skills in their native language and apply them to the new language. (For older children, see the question below on the Language Tutoring Programme).

The acquisition of two languages takes a long time, and it generally takes the time of primary school to obtain very satisfactory results. It is not until 4P that the real benefits of written skills in both languages can be measured. Note that the real benefits of bilingualism are not linguistic. We invite you to contact us so that we can explain to you the real stakes of a bilingual education.

The school has set up a structure supervised by the Head of Pedagogy accommodate children with little or no knowledge of French and/or English. Based on a model inspired by Geneva’s public schools, from 3P onwards, the children are taken out of their class to work with a tutor in one or the other language, at a rate of 1.5 to 4.5 hours per week.

For professional or private reasons, you may need longer hours than school hours. That is why Mosaic opened Mosaic Clubs, with a drop-off at 7:30 am, a variety of activities from 4 pm to 5:45 pm, as well as Wednesday childcare, and of course our 12 weeks of holiday camps.

Some move on to bilingual schools (Ecole Moser, International School of Geneva, Institut International de Lancy, Collège du Léman), others to French-speaking schools (public school Cycle, Ecole Topffer, Institut Florimont), English-speaking schools (Geneva Secondary School) and international schools abroad. We encourage parents to inform us of their choice in grade 7P, so that we can help prepare for a smooth transition into the new system.

We have several rooms dedicated to physical activities. We also outsource our sports activities to allow our students access to great facilities.

There is a Mosaic gym outfit, which we require the children to wear for their Sports classes.

With younger pupils we frequently have micro code-switching events. They will use transformed words from the other language, they will mix the languages in their speech. This is quite normal and natural. You must give them time to have enough lexicon in both languages to use specific vocabulary.

Let the meaning of what they say carry you along rather than the form…

At Mosaic, we greatly value the partnership with parents. This is why we have 2 class parents per grade, who are the communication link between teachers/school & parents. There is also a Parents Association that helps us organise events, such as making costumes for the end of year show.  We organise regular presentations at school, to which parents and families are invited, as well as exhibitions and plays. Parents are welcome to help during our various events (Sports Day, Escalade race, outings) and help with the yearbook.

Yes, the APEM (Association des Parents de l’Ecole) its mission is to create bonds between parents with activities for children and parents (new parents welcome, Halloween party, cake & book sales), collect parents’ opinions on matters related to Mosaic cooperate with Mosaic in the organizing of certain events