Customised individual education, tailored to every single kid
Silja, mother of Alison
Every child in the Children First daycare has a key worker responsible for their happiness and well-being. Our expertise is based on Montessori principles and fosters the development of the whole child. Informed by early years research, we know that young children best fulfil their potential with highly educated carers in small groups. Children First team members are carefully chosen to be trusted partners in your child’s upbringing.
A developmental daycare fosters social and emotional growth – Emotional connections with caregivers play a vital role in shaping the child’s sense of confidence and self-esteem.
Language acquisition Young children have a natural ability to reproduce sounds to perfection. Their attachment to key native speakers gives them the security and comfort they need to focus on the new language.
Nursery, preschool, and primary education. The Children First team has created an oasis for young learners. At our Seefeld location the children have a private villa and purpose-built playground.
Never too young to learn. Our founder, Monica Shah, has crafted a harmonious pedagogical experience from the earliest years of life, drawing from the world’s best influences and her own professional expertise. This British-Swiss citizen of Indian descent has championed bilingual educational opportunities in Zürich since 2006. With a one-of-a-kind background in child and family services, Monica envisioned a centre of excellence in Zürich with resources for families. She focuses on the early years and school-age tutoring to offer Swiss bilingual children an education ‘without borders’.
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Holistic Daycare
British expertise based on Montessori principles.
Children First lays bilingual foundations in English and German for life-long learning.
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Education
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Holistic Daycare
- school holiday care
- after-school classes
- individual language tutoring
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Activities & Fun
Holistic Daycare
A holistic daycare fosters social and emotional growth – Emotional connections with caregivers play a vital role in developing the child’s sense of confidence and self-esteem. Informed by early years research, we know that young children best fulfil their potential with highly educated adults in small groups.
Daycare matters: Children First offers more than a standard daycare.
Every family has a nanny: every family in the Children First daycare has a key carer responsible for their child’s happiness and well-being. Children First team members are carefully chosen to be trusted partners in your child’s care. Our childcare expertise is based on Montessori principles and fosters the development of the whole child.
At Children First we aim to provide both practical help by opening five days per week but also exceptional care to every child in our creche and after-school care programme.
Language acquisition Young children have a natural ability to reproduce sounds to perfection. Their attachment to key native speaking childcarers gives them the security and comfort they need to focus on the new language.
The child’s brain in the first phase of life up to age 6 is highly receptive to specific types of learning. In a supportive environment, this period becomes a golden age for absorption. It is characterized by a remarkable ability to acquire information and new skills. These years concentrate most, if not all, the ‘Sensitive Periods’ described by Maria Montessori: periods when young children have a heightened sensitivity and an intense urge to learn leading to significant cognitive as well as emotional and social development.
Activities and Fun
Forest Kindergarten
We offer an outing every week for 3 to 6 year olds to experience the beauty of the great outdoors while developing physical stamina. This whole morning in woods and forests encourages children to be curious about the world around them and they develop an appreciation of free movement. The children travel to the Witikon Elefanten Bach, a local forest teepee, and on the Dolder cogwheel train nearby, to learn in an alternative, less structured environment. These regular mornings in the woodland sow the seeds for them to appreciate nature. Long walks, finding practical solutions and navigating obstacles are part of the programme in the woods. Be prepared to let your children explore, use tools and get dirty!
At Freiestrasse 175 our complete packages of care and education with no hidden extras include 8 school holiday weeks per year and the Children First extra-curricular programme.
Preschool: all-inclusive three to five day per week packages, a perfect solution for working parents as we are open after-school and during the school holidays. Our little learners want to experience the Children First magic all year round!
The Children First villa at Freiestrasse 175 in Seefeld has a Piano Room for specialist musical instrument classes in central Zürich. You can hire our Community Rooms where we host minority language courses and our private playground is used for mini-football and birthday parties.
Holiday care & Activities
In the school holidays we offer bite-sized educational programmes and outings including fun week activities and theme days. Guest teachers have included artists from around the world, an architect and Asian language teachers. The children experience longer immersion in a special project that brings self-awareness and novelty in safe and familiar surroundings.
Upcoming Fun Week Dates:
6th – 17th October 2025
9th – 20th February 2026
20th April – 1st May 2026
13th – 24th July 2026
Write to us at contact(at)childrenfirst.ch for further information.
Extra-curricular programme
After-school we focus on learning through play in small groups and specialist classes such as Music, Football, Theatre, French, Chinese and Baking. Piano teachers offer individual lessons. The children can also have a second playtime every day in good weather in our private purpose-built playground and garden at Freiestrasse 175.
A curated curriculum.
The Children First method is based on fifty years of experience and implemented by our teachers through individual and group lessons incorporating both British and Montessori traditions. We have been teaching both monolingual and bilingual children for decades. Our learning themes ensure children develop specialised vocabulary as well as ensuring broad interests and skills.
Early years education : At Children First High German and native English lay important foundations for bilingual children. We blend the Early Years framework with Montessori methodology. Our specialised kindergarten courses are delivered in small groups ages 3 to 6 with built-in individual teaching to learn reading, writing and basic maths. Groupwork in every part of the day fosters a child’s ability to think, not just to follow institutional routines, Making friends and an emphasis on social skills are incorporated from the Swiss curriculum. We always aim to be best in class!
Nursery, preschool, and primary education. The Children First team has created an oasis for young learners. At our Seefeld location the children have an exceptionally rich setting, a private villa with a purpose-built playground. Our English and German teachers offer immersive language learning and a range of term-time activities including a unique forest kindergarten morning. In 2025, we will open our first Primary Basisstufe class.
Never too young to learn. Our founder, Monica Shah, has crafted a harmonious pedagogical experience from the earliest years of life, drawing from the world’s best influences and her own professional expertise. This British-Swiss citizen of Indian descent has championed bilingual educational opportunities in Zürich since 2006. With a one-of-a-kind background in child and family services, Monica envisioned a centre of excellence in Zürich with resources for families. She focuses on the early years and school-age tutoring to offer Swiss bilingual children an education ‘without borders’.
We are unique amongst bilingual schools in Zürich in blending learning and play for the whole of the first stage of education from ages 3 to 8, with a clear emphasis on foundational skills and core subjects. This ensures the foundations of education are well established whichever school system parents choose in the future.
Children First Preschool: give your child a headstart in life
- Age 2.5+: Language for thinking, theme-based special vocabulary
- Social bonds and physical development
- Exploring, problem-solving, independence
- Focus on self-esteem and confidence of each child
Your child’s schooling starts with Kindergarten at Children First
- Age 3.5+: Montessori-inspired values and structure
- Reading, writing and maths are core subjects
- Cognitive skills in tandem with bilingualism
- Social bonds to learn collaboration and how to negotiate
Primary Basisstufe: In the first phase of elementary school, the foundations of learning are established while basic skills develop apace. Features of education ages 6 to 8: abstraction, responsibility for research and learning, accumulation of knowledge and facts. Fluency in reading, writing longer sentences and a variety of texts, mathematics in both German and English and Science are fundamental to the curriculum in the first phase of the Children First bilingual primary school curriculum.
Your child’s first school From a child’s point of view, at the age they are starting school the separation between learning and play is artificial and irrelevant to their experiences which are all about learning through play. Our teachers understand that happy children learn best.
- Personal educational targets ensure the success of each individual student.
- Gifted children programme
- Sequences of group and individual learning
Physical Development
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Language Excellence
We take languages seriously. At Children First native German and English speakers interact with children in their first language; we teach nothing less than perfect grammar. Because languages are for life.
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Physical Development
Gross and fine motor experiences develop incrementally throughout early childhood, starting with sensory explorations and the development of a child’s strength, co-ordination and positional awareness through tummy time, crawling and play movement with both objects and adults. By creating games and providing opportunities for play both indoors and outdoors, adults can support children to develop their core strength, stability, balance, spatial awareness, co-ordination and agility.
Gross motor skills provide the foundation for developing healthy bodies and social and emotional well-being. Fine motor control and precision helps with hand-eye co-ordination which is later linked to early literacy.
Outdoor Play at Children First
Outdoor play helps children build self-confidence, independence, and a strong sense of self-worth. It also teaches them to understand their own limits, navigate boundaries, and embrace challenges during play. Children can go outside twice a day to our purpose built playground as well as the public facilities and athletics track in the school next door and to local parks.
Playball at Children First
Playball is an age appropriate structured programme that teaches children the basic building blocks of jumping, throwing, rolling hitting, catching, kicking and prepares them for learning a variety of sports such as tennis, hockey, football, basketball, baseball, volleyball and more. The courses take place at Freiestrasse 175 and are divided into different age groups (2-3 years, 3-4 years and 4-5 years). They are designed according to the cognitive, emotional, social and motor development milestones of each group.
Language Excellence
Children First team members are native speakers who interact with children to promote instinctive grammar and pronunciation in each language.
Our teachers are from English and German-speaking countries. A Swiss or German native speaker leads preschool and kindergarten classes in Standard German every week and Swiss German is taught for all local cultural events. To cultivate an openness to new languages, we also offer French, Spanish or Mandarin lessons according to demand.
Make thinking visible
At Children First we teach language daily in the children’s social groups, in curriculum-based activities and to learn a second language in multilingual Zurich. The first stage is listening and understanding. We communicate individually and in small groups in English and German.
The next stage in language learning is when children use it for a purpose. They need to talk to negotiate and prevent conflict in group settings. We teach language for thinking and thanks to input from artists and teachers trained in Italy, our ateliers are open to all from preschool to primary age children. These aim to develop their focus in art, maths and science and their understanding of the value of talk.
“We have found Children First unique: all teachers are native speakers; there is a whole different culture of communication with the child (how things are phrased); the number of children in one group is well sized; the people who work there are unique. They get the hiring right and this makes a complete difference: kids learn by a role model, a personal relationship, and Children First is getting this, with the child at the center (where it should be).”
Roman, Alison’s father
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