Children’s liberal arts campus on International Children’s Day
The international kindergarten of the Berlin Cosmopolitan School has integrated the aesthetic outdoor education program into its concept and transformed the hardships caused by the corona pandemic into new opportunities, especially in the musical area. From now on, weekly sessions with live music for children between the ages of 1 and 6 will take place under strict hygiene requirements.
The garden of the facility, playgrounds, soccer field and park in the immediate vicinity resemble a campus for the liberal arts: in one corner, preschoolers dance to Ravel’s bolero, three-year-old children sit under the trees and drum and a little further on passers-by watch what is happening. They applaud particularly daring improvisations and tear the children out of their creative flow.
“We are constantly considering concepts for how we can increase the time in the fresh air for the children and how we can make aesthetic education in the countryside even more intensive,” says Katharina Ehrenfried, head of the kindergarten at the Berlin Cosmopolitan School. “We were initially very restricted by the corona pandemic and would now like to create even more outdoor activities. The current situation opens up new ways of implementation and allows us to leave the beaten track.”
After months of isolation and deprivation, it is a great relief for both children and adults to experience art, culture and live music again. The concept not only conveys security to everyone involved, which was quite normal before the pandemic, but also integrates the kindergarten harmoniously into the community and environment.
The children of the kindergarten learn music based on the model of Edwin Gordon and his “Music Learning Theory” (1975). Gordon coined the term “Audiation” and defined it as “hearing and understanding music”. The children begin to think music as they think and understand their own language. The children learn their understanding of music in a playful way: They move to the music and imitate the adults who play music for them, dance and sing. A child’s musical development is like language development – it’s a process that should be supported as early as possible.
About the Berlin Cosmopolitan School, Preschool and Kindergarten
The Berlin Cosmopolitan School is changing the traditional way schools and kindergartens work with different approaches to learning in the areas of nature and environmental protection, sports, new work, culture, dance, music and art and much more. The aim of the independent school, preschool and kindergarten is to bring all students along according to their abilities.
“When school motivates, everyone learns more” is the conviction of the Berlin Cosmopolitan School. Regular outdoor learning, sports activities and competitions, digital projects such as robotics, internships from grade 6, music-making from kindergarten age, dance clubs, bilingual education and much more help the children to discover and develop their own preferences and abilities.
Important concerns of the Berlin Cosmopolitan School, Kindergarten and Preschool are social justice, equal opportunities in education and a balanced community. The school regularly awards scholarships to students and accepts refugees. Through its established network and internationally trained staff, the educational institution has the opportunity to explore new educational paths for every age group.
The Berlin Cosmopolitan School was founded in 2003 as a non-profit organisation by Yvonne Wende. In 2004, the first bilingual (English-German) kindergarten and preschool opened for Berlin-Mitte with 18 children. Shortly after, the primary school started and most recently, in 2009, the accredited bilingual Gymnasium of Berlin Cosmopolitan School 01P22. Since then, the number of students has steadily increased. Approximately 1,000 students from all over the world are now being taught on the Rückerstraße and Invalidenstraße campuses. The kindergarten has grown to a number of more than 300 children between the ages of 1 and 6.
In 2013, Berlin Cosmopolitan School was accredited as an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, first for primary school and also for the Gymnasium. The IB Learner Profile is about developing children and young people into lifelong learners. The school and kindergarten use primary experiences to design lessons.