Ecole Mosaic is a unique school in Geneva. Not only does it offer a 100% bilingual education for primary school children, it also teaches both Swiss and English curricula. The school is certified and regularly inspected by both Swiss and UK authorities..
Ecole Mosaic is located in Champel, close to Park Bertran. Weather permitting children go to the park for sports and science lessons. The majority of the children live locally and often play in the park after school.
The location also determines Mosaic’s ethos of inclusiveness, openness and multiculturalism. The school aims to introduce children to the variety of cultures and their differences. Teachers also come from different backgrounds. Russian, Arabic and Mandarin are included into the main curriculum for two years each (45 minutes a week). The aim is not so much to make them fluent speakers in all three languages, but to introduce them to the linguistic and cultural differences. German is also learned from the age of 9.
Ecole Mosaic is split between two buildings. The youngest yellow and red classes are housed in the separate building with a dedicated small playground with specially laid soft floor and a separate gym. Subject to the weather conditions children go outside at least twice a day: twenty minutes in a morning and another twenty in the afternoon. Children staying at school after lunch can also have their afternoon nap on a small mattress in a classroom. Each of the yellow and red classrooms is separated into three zones: circle time, independent work and free play.
There is no kitchen on site, but Mosaic organises catering for lunch. Children also get mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack of fruit and biscuits.
Starting from the age of 5, children move to the main building. Mosaic’s main building was clearly not built to house a school. The corridors are narrow, cluttered with clothing and there is hardly any space for children to move. Luckily this is compensated by the bright and well equipped classrooms and proximity to the park. There is also a small but cosy library where children can borrow books in English and French.
Mosaic is not a big school with only two classes per year from the age of 3 to 12. Younger children alternate between English and French classrooms (and teachers) every week. The class that started in the English classroom would move the next week to the French one and vice versa. Older children change the language of instruction every day.
Teachers in the English and French classes work closely together on their programmes to avoid duplication and to supplement each other’s materials. There is no one text book that children follow, instead they are using the worksheets carefully selected by the teachers.
At ecole Mosaic I saw happy children, attentive and passionate teachers and knowledgeable director. Mosaic is friendly neighborhood school in the lovely area of Geneva. It presents parents, who wish to bring up their children in the atmosphere of multiculturalism and inclusiveness, an alternative to big international schools like Ecole Internationale or College du Leman. In a way it combines the best of both worlds, small familial atmosphere with the truly international environment.