The Zoo Club

Every child deserves the best possible start in their life and the best support that will allow them to fully develop their potential. The children develop rapidly during the first years of their life and the child's experiences between birth and the age of five have a huge impact on their future life and opportunities. The period from 0 to 5 years is the most important for the formation of their character and the right foundation for the child. A confident, safe and happy childhood is important in itself. The good family upbringing of the children and at the same time the high quality preschool education provide the children with the foundations they need to make the most of their abilities and talents as they grow up.

We follow the British Curriculum (EYFS - Early Years Foundation Stage) and the principles of The open class school.

EYFS sets the standards for preschool education that must be met to ensure that children learn, develop properly and stay healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to ensure children's "school readiness" and gives them the wide range of knowledge and skills that provide the right foundation for good future progress through school and life.

EYFS seeks to provide:

• quality and consistency throughout preschool education, so that every child has good progress and no child is left behind

• a solid foundation through learning and development opportunities designed around the needs and interests of each child individually and evaluated and reviewed on a regular basis

• close cooperation between teaching staff and parents

• equal opportunities and non-discriminatory practices, ensuring that every child is integrated and supported.

EYFS sets out the requirements for learning and development and for the safety of children and the promotion of their well-being. The learning and development requirements cover:

• the areas of learning and development that should shape the activities and experiences (educational programs) for children throughout preschool education

• the learning objectives of preschool education that children should work towards (the knowledge, skills and understanding that children should have at the end of the academic year in which they become 5 years old) and

• evaluation rules for measuring progress (and reporting requirements for parents)

Guiding principles

Four guiding principles should shape preschool education. These are:

1. every child is a unique child, who learns and absorbs constantly and can be capable, confident and confident

2. children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships

3. children learn and develop well in a creative environment of encouragement, where their experiences meet their individual needs and there is close collaboration between teachers and parents

4. children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates.

The framework covers the education and care of children throughout preschool education.

The "open class", the "open school" (école ouverte – open school), the "open plan school", the "family grouping" or "integrated day" are terms that characterise an education system that was originally implemented in Britain and has spread widely in the United States.

Influenced by the philosophy of Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner and Lev Vygotsky, the "open school" education system is based on the principles:

• Children need to have some control over what they conquer.

• Children learn through experiences of touch, movement, hearing and sight.

• Children gain contact with other children and contact with objects they explore.

• Children are offered endless possibilities and opportunities to express themselves.

• The child's education must be directed by the child itself.

An appropriate environment created according to the interests of the child is more important than the regular desks, quiet and supervision, as well as a rich environment that creates a multitude of interests and feelings in the child, under the discreet guidance of the teacher, can't have other than a good effect on his development and psychosynthesis. The teacher is interested in further enriching the environment in which the child lives spontaneously at his own pace. This is the main idea of "the "open school" philosophy. The children in the "open school" want to attend because of the pleasure they feel when they study.

The rooms are formed in special spaces or "corners" where the childrn through play and observation is called to express questions and express them to their team finding solutions and answers. Observation brings the children in contact with the environment and is the starting point for the development of mental processes. The teaching material of the "open school" is safe, popular and freely accessible for all children. A child attending such a class is faced with an abundance of materials that they can touch, use, and examine. Their use is completely free. No one is forcing children to use one object or another. They can use the clay, to paint, to build, to engage in activities that are within their capabilities. They may feel from the beginning that they are ready for something more difficult. No one will stop it. Their class offers plenty of models. The choice is theirs.

EYFS and "open school" programs offer the opportunity for the teacher to come in more direct contact with each child individually, to better appreciate their interests and skills and to take advantage of the fact that children work together more happily. The existence of an environment with trees, vegetation, soil, etc. is necessary because the child receives many stimuli from nature, which can be processed within his group. The natural environment teaches the child the raw materials of the things that surround him and is able to awaken his hidden powers.

Through stimuli of short or long duration, given by the child's questions, by nature, the media or by parental concerns, the child has the opportunity to satisfy his curiosity about a particular concept. Through play and observation, with great pleasure and satisfaction, he discovers and therefore conquers, everything that until then was unknown to him. In this way he is encouraged, gains self-confidence and develops a lasting love for learning. The child in preschool age develops the first mental manifestations of his life and that is why we should encourage spontaneous manifestations and not impose actions on him against his will. If we take seriously that pre-school education is an education that is practiced in the present but contributes to the formation of the later person, then our main concern should be the education of the child through a system that allows him to be happy, to develop the his sociability, to promote his personality, to cultivate and to be civilized.

The goals of EYFS and the "open school" are purely practical in their very structure: Happy and joyful children, progressing according to their abilities. Their initiative and self-sufficiency in an atmosphere of controlled freedom with the pursuit of personal contact is encouraged, an element necessary in modern education. The biggest advantage of our programs for the future development of children is their comfortable transition from preschool to kindergarten and primary school.

EYFS and the "open school" stimulate the morale of children by cultivating their sense of self-esteem and at the same time encourage them to learn. The strictly traditional environment only succeeds in enhancing the child's passivity and preventing him from developing his personality.

The fact is that children are happier with EYFS and "open school". These programs lay the foundations for mentally healthy and happy adults.

The resources that the modern school must provide to the students in order to prepare them for the future, the type of knowledge and the way in which it is transferred and the identity that the students are expected to acquire through the foreign language education are key aspects of the issue of multilingualism.

The advantages of learning a foreign language at an early age

In summary, the most important findings on the benefits of learning foreign languages at early yeares are included in a large study supported by the European Commission (Edelenbos, Johnstone & Kubanek, 2006) are:

• Early years is suitable for learning a foreign language as children have more motivation to learn, show enthusiasm and respond easily and naturally to learning techniques such as imitation and repetition.

• Younger students tend to "play" with language and its sounds, a trait that promotes the development of comprehension and speech production. This characteristic is limited over time as the mental processes develop and the psycho-emotional world of children changes, with the result that older students are hesitant or ashamed to adopt characteristic elements of the spoken language of a foreign language, eg pronunciation, and to focus attention. in grammar or vocabulary.

• Activities used at an early age, such as fairy tales, songs, games and stories, are a familiar medium for children to help them understand language as a set of words and phrases that make sense. They also facilitate the approach of interdisciplinary concepts which children will analyse and process in the higher grades of elementary school.

• By learning a foreign language the child develops a positive attitude towards other languages and cultures and gains more confidence.

• Learning another language alongside the mother tongue does not confuse the child, on the contrary it helps him to understand how his mother tongue works through the comparison he automatically makes with the foreign language.

• The transfer of strategies from the mother tongue to the foreign language enhances mental processes and promotes language development in general.

• The child, learning a foreign language, expands his cognitive horizon.

Linguists better understand not only the foreign but also their own culture, because they enter into processes of comparison and analysis of phenomena and behaviors. Let us also not forget that learning a language code other than the mother tongue is also a source of spiritual enjoyment.

The most appropriate age for learning a foreign language is the most common concern about language learning, as evidenced by research conducted in 2007 by the English Language Research Center of the University of Athens on teaching, learning and assessment of knowledge of foreign languages in Greece. There is no scientific evidence that children get confused if they learn two languages at the same time, even in infancy and toddlerhood (Genesee, 2008, page 18). The Project Team claims the same in its letter to the parents, stating that "We, however, the team of scientists from the University of Athens and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, have found that no scientific study substantiates such a conclusion." This view, that learning a foreign language at an early age "confuses" children, delays their linguistic and mental development and negatively affects their school performance, has preoccupied parents, teachers and researchers since the mid-20th century eventually changed radically when scientific studies showed that bilinguals outperformed monolinguals in some areas (Peal and Lambert, 1962, with ref. at Giannakopoulou and Zouganeli, 2010). Bilinguals show more creativity, better problem-solving skills, and a more tolerant attitude toward others. (Bialystok & Martin, 2004, Genesee & Gandara, 1999 with ref. at Genesee, 2008). The differences between bilingual and monolingual children are not limited to the above, but also include other aspects. For example, according to research in 15-month-old infants learning two languages, there is a 2 or 3 month delay in developing their ability to distinguish similar words (eg. bit vs. bet), compared to monolingual children (Werker & Byers Heinlein, 2008 with ref. to Genesee, 2008). However, in the long run this small delay has no effect on the development of their language ability.

According to Jeanette Vos (www.learning-revolution.com), we are given 3 opportunities to learn the language:

1. The first opportunity is given by nature until the age of 6 months. In these 6 months the baby learns up to 70 sounds on which to base the speech of the language. After 6 months he gradually loses his ability to listen to new sounds and distinguish them. As a result, he can no longer pronounce sounds he does not hear. Therefore the door that leads to the perfect pronunciation of the sounds of a language closes permanently shortly after the first months of a baby's life.

2. The second opportunity to learn the language is given to the person up to 3 years old. Until this age, the foundations are laid for the language, the way of thinking, the vision and the special way that each of us sees the world and is called a personality. So up to 3 years it may be difficult to hear the sounds, but in terms of structure and vocabulary the language can be mastered as easily and spontaneously as the first. At this age, of course, language learning is aided by other skills that generally enhance learning. Young children learn using their whole being. They learn by sight, sounds, taste, touch, smell, action. That is why we never forget the sounds, tastes and smells of our childhood and they always cause us a pleasant feeling. In addition, if in our whole life we have 100% capacity for learning, in the first year we exhaust 50%, until our 8 years the other 30% and there is a 20% left for the rest of our life. It is therefore not unreasonable to say that a child can learn up to 5 languages in the first years of his life since his ability to learn can be compared to the ability of a sponge to absorb water.

3. The third opportunity to learn another language is given until the age of 8, when the child continues the wonderful ability to assimilate information, his innate curiosity for new experiences and the development of the brain that allows differences in what is already established. After 12 years all the doors close, because the architecture of the brain is already complete. Of course man continues to learn with intelligence and wisdom but what he learns is shaped according to the foundations laid in the first 12 years of his life. So foreign languages are learned based on the first, which poses obstacles since each language has its own logic that is often contrary to the logic of other languages.