GOVERNING PRINCIPLES

FOUR-FOREST Bilingual International School is a private day school offering a high-quality bilingual education. Based on the curricula of the cantons of Luzern and Zug, teaching is delivered equally in German and English. Presently we offer, in all locations, a forest school, a 1st and 2nd kindergarten as well as all classes of the primary school age range. At our location in Luzern, we also offer a secondary school with grades 7-9 and an additional 10th grade. A secondary school opened at our school in Zug in 2022.

Our customers include international and multilingual families as well as Swiss families with an interest in bilingual education.

The educational team at FOUR-FOREST works with the individual expectations of the parents and children and emphasises regular contact between school and home. In our day school, the focus is on learning and living together in mutual respect.

We are all highly motivated to accompany our students on their exciting, but also challenging, path to the future.

Our bilingual journey

FOUR-FOREST Bilingual International School offers high-quality bilingual education. The bilingual curriculum is specifically tailored to the FOUR-FOREST schools and is based on the curricula of the cantons of Luzern and Zug as well as elements of the British National Curriculum.

Language acquisition takes place by means of immersion into each language. In FOUR-FOREST schools, students are taught weekly in English or German. An important prerequisite for effective immersion is that lessons are delivered by teachers speaking their mother tongue. Since all subjects are taught in English during an English week and in German during a German week, students are wholly immersed in each language during their lessons and work. Children experience immersive language acquisition as a natural process by being in an environment where everything takes place in that language. In the first phase of immersion playing, singing and gestures help children begin to understand the language in its context.

The earlier immersion occurs, the faster and more effective the results. After several years of immersion children's mastery of the second language almost matches that of their mother tongue. In addition, we have experienced that immersion promotes language confidence.

At FOUR-FOREST schools students can learn English and German immersively, even if their native language is neither German nor English.