Mission
Through real life experiences the children get to explore the world. Through various and creative activities children get to learn and know about themselves.
Our mission is to give the children a strong basis to help them grow into independent, confident persons, aware of their own talents and strengths.
Vision
In The Tandem we put the child in the centre. We guide the child, during the start of his life, by helping him be independent, be curious about life, getting to know himself and be respectful to world around him.
We focus on meaningful learning and the child explores and learns by doing. Through projects children learn about maths, Spanish, English, the world, as well as social skills, art, gymnastics and so much more. We bring the world in our classroom and the world will be our classroom.
Here, in The Tandem, children will learn not only from the teacher but also from their classmates. We create a mini society and a safe space for the children to develop themselves in. The parents are involved in the learning process of their child.
We want to give the children the best possible start of their educational career. When the children love to come to school and are curious about the world around them, we know we succeeded in our vision.
Inspired by
If you asked Célestin Freinet (born in 1896, France) to describe his own school-years he would summarize it in one word: boring. When he noticed his own students were uninterested, he knew he had to take a different approach. He took the children outside the classroom and noticed they were paying attention and eager to learn.
Through the years, Freinet developed some techniques, known as the Freinet techniques, which are still used today. Some of this techniques could be described as work forms, others as work-and-life-agreements.
Instead of the teacher deciding which subjects need to be taught, the child is the centre of the Freinet pedagogy. Through subjects, the children are interested in, they learn mathematics, history, grammar, ... The students learn by doing and are exposed to real experiences. They share their discoveries with each other by doing presentations, writing texts, ... Social skills and learning how to work in group are also important. Classes often have mixed age-groups, which allows the children to help and learn form each other.
"Give children the freedom to choose their work, to decide the time and pace of this work, and everything will have changed."
~ Célestin Freinet
By observing how the children work and think, Maria Montessori (born in 1870, Italy) worked out her pedagogy. She developed an approach which starts with respect for the child, asks for an active learning attitude and is supported by special developed educative materials.
Children discover the world around them through their hands, rather than getting the (spoken) information by a teacher. This makes the children enthusiastic to learn.
Through research, Montessori discovered, as she calls them, sensitive periods. At certain ages children are more ripe to learn different types of skills. It’s the teachers responsibility to observe where the student stands in his development and adjust the curriculum accordingly.
Montessori organises the classroom, so that children can be independent in the classroom and choose what they want to work with. The Montessori materials are developed in such way, that children can learn on their own. Children often learn in multi-age groups, thus able to assist each other in their learning processes.