Childcare: The city of Linz will start a bilingual pilot project in 2024

2023-09-05 13:55:00

“Good language skills and a diverse vocabulary make it easier for children to understand and learn about what is happening in the world,” Daniel Hagendorf, director of the city’s child and youth services, is convinced of the new bilingual offer in the city of Linz.

This will be located in the newly built premises in the Poschachervilla, two crèche and two kindergarten groups will be looked after there not only in German but also in English from autumn 2024.
The “classic” groups at the site as well as the Borealis kindergarten located there will remain unaffected by the pilot project.

Open to all families

The new offer near Bulgariplatz is not only open to the children of foreign executives who only work in Linz for a limited time, it is also to all families who want their children to have a better start in their further educational and professional careers with good knowledge of English want to enable, interesting, Mayor Klaus Luger (SP) emphasizes the importance for the business location.

English is not only a world language, but is now also an everyday language in our country, says Deputy Mayor Karin Hörzing (SP). There is a need for such a bilingual offer, as shown by a survey carried out in cooperation with the Upper Austrian University of Applied Sciences.

A total of 173 parents and 125 HR managers were interviewed. More than two thirds of the parents surveyed stated that they were very or very interested in the offer of bilingual childcare by the city of Linz. This also applies to more than half of the HR managers surveyed.

60 percent of activities in English

The concept now envisages that four native speakers will be working in Poschacherstrasse alongside the educators. These pedagogical assistants will only speak English with the 60 or so children in the crèche and kindergarten. Around 60 percent of the pedagogical activities (eg the morning circle) will be in English.

This approach follows the so-called two-language model, which, in addition to language input, also offers the children consistent orientation with their caregivers. Hagendorf explains that it is always clear to the children who in the educational team speaks German with them and who speaks English. Some of the required native speakers are already employed, one or two more are still being sought. Registrations for the bilingual offer are already possible.

Mayor Klaus Luger is more than positive about rolling out the project, the demand for the bilingual offer will be decisive for the schedule.