At the entrance of the Stejarii Residential development, 5 minutes from Baneasa Shopping City and the busy DN1, our new Kindergarden provides a haven of tranquility for young children to learn.

The building has been designed specifically for the age range (18 months—6 years old) and one ‘wall’ of each classroom is reinforced glass offering a backdrop of nature, as the school is set amongst trees. Because of the forest setting it was a natural choice for us to adopt some aspects of Forest Schools; a concept which originated in Sweden and became established in the UK in the 1950s . The philosophy behind these schools is to encourage and inspire children through positive outdoor experiences, to develop a range of life skills including independence, self awareness, and social communication. It was found that it also helped individuals to grow in confidence and self-esteem.

This exciting project brings together the combined expertise and experience of the Tiriac Imobiliare, Ioanid, local education suppliers, and myself, a headteacher specialising in Early Years. Although the Kindergarden is part of the Stejarii development it is open to everyone—exclusively inclusive!

English is the only language spoken throughout the school and the curriculum is based on the UK curriculum but adapted for an international clientele. We offer a part time programme and a full time programme. There is no sleeping at the school, so full time children get over 6 hours of education every day. As there is a direct correlation between the number of hours a child spends in education and the speed of their development this approach gives children at IPIE (Ioanid Preschool International Education) a head start

I often have to reassure local parents that after 2 years old children do not need the afternoon sleep, especially not at school, it is simply a cultural habit. My personal belief is that while children are sleeping in the afternoon their brains are not being stimulated. 50% of the brain develops in the first 5 years so there is no time to waste. We need to lay down the appropriate pathways in the brain so that children can thrive as global citizens.

Our interactive, hands on approach ensures that children do not need to know any English when they start. They can access learning from the minute they walk through the door. We do not teach English as a separate subject, it is absorbed in a natural way as the environment promotes and supports the acquisition of the language.

The adult/child ratio is 1:5 for the very young children and 1:7 for the older children which means that children get individual attention and personal support in their learning journey. Staff, a mixture of Romanian and English, are experienced with this age range and are trained to work with young children.

With this kind of education, children can move on from the Kindergarden to any school throughout the world and parents can be confident that their children have the skills, attitudes, concepts and knowledge that they need for now and the rest of their lives.

Ela Robinson, Head of School, Ioanid Preschool International Education (IPIE)

My background is firmly embedded within education. Although I initially trained for the whole 0—8 years age range (known as Early Years in the UK), I chose to specialise in Under Fives and have spent over 30 years raising awareness of the importance this stage of education.

Almost 20 years ago, I gained my first Headship at a Nursery School in the North of England and during my time there it was twice inspected by Ofsted (The Office for Standards in Education) with glowing reports.

In 2003 I moved to Bucharest for my next Headship, at the International Nursery School (INS) in the French Village. This school became so popular that we had to make plans to move to bigger premises. I found an opportunity on the Greenlakes site and actually designed the interior of the new building. We set up InSPE (International School for Primary Education) and were then able to accommodate the whole primary age range (up to 12 years old). After eight years it was time to move on to a new challenge.

I subsequently moved to the UAE and took over a failing school in the desert. The Primary School had 211 Bedouin children from 3- 13 years old, teachers who could not teach, no resources and no curriculum. Definitely a new challenge! I am happy to say that I transformed the school and, for the first time, learning took place in their classrooms

However, when this exciting opportunity arose to go ‘back to my roots’, the education of under fives, I could not resist returning to Bucharest. The beauty of the setting was just the icing on the cake!

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