International School of Neuchâtel

The International School of Neuchâtel is a bilingual Montessori day school at Rue de Ste Hélène in Neuchâtel, founded in April 1986. Around 158 children from 112 families and 25 nationalities attend, in groups organised by age: L'Atelier for two- to four-year-olds, then three to six, six to nine and nine to twelve. Every classroom has two teachers, one the reference for French and one for English, so children take in both languages through the ordinary day rather than in separate lessons; the school makes the point that a second language acquired before six settles like a first. All its teachers are Montessori-trained, and it belongs to the Association Montessori Suisse, whose criteria govern use of the Montessori name in French-speaking Switzerland.