This summer marks the end of the festive 10-year anniversary of the Casa Bilingual Montessori School in Pijnacker. The school year 2021/2022 was a year full of festivities through all kinds of activities and celebrations focusing on the world cultures represented by the children of Casa. A great celebration to mark 10 years of innovative education and cultural development.
With the help of volunteers and parents, more than 12 holidays from all over the world were celebrated. Children learnt about overcoming fears, standing up for your own values and Indian culture during Navrati. At Dia de Muertos, a holiday from Central America, we talked about our ancestors and later celebrated Chinese New Year with a special lunch and lessons in traditional Chinese arts and crafts. During the Japanese festival, the children learned the art of Furoshiki knotting and Holi was celebrated with a ColorRun in which the children raised an incredible amount of 6722 euros for refugees from Ukraine. In addition, of course, Sinterklaas, Christmas, New Year's Eve, Easter, King's Day and the Sugar Festival (the end of Ramadan) were not missed. In short, at Casa it was (almost) every day a party.
Tessa Wessels, managing director and founder of Casa, speaks with pride about the anniversary. "After ten years, Casa has exceeded my wildest expectations. We have managed to build a unique community of children, parents and staff which we are enormously proud of. Our great ambition is to empower children to create a better world in the future."
And that approach is catching on. Casa has grown rapidly with currently 450 pupils and a waiting list of another 470 children. "What we do is relevant to this day and age, and that appeals to parents in and around Pijnacker. That enthusiasm drives us to keep developing our education now and in the future."
Within a few years, the two locations of the Casa Bilingual Montessori School will merge into one location for the entire school on Groen van Prinstererlaan in Pijnacker. "We think it is important that pupils of different ages work together and can learn from each other. The step to merge our locations is going to bring a lot to the children and our education, we are looking forward to it tremendously."
All the children, parents and staff enjoyed the festivities. For some it was a feast of recognition, for others a discovery of new tastes, sounds and activities. It was a beautiful journey of discovery and none of this would have been possible without the commitment of parents. All in all, the jubilee provided another positive boost to get to work on the future plans that the school has in store.
About Casa
Casa opened its doors in August 2011 in a small building on the Ru Paresingel in Pijnacker with only 22 children aged 3 to 9. The school grew quickly and met the required foundation standard of 267 children in October 2015. Currently Casa is a second 'home' for 452 children aged 1 to 12 and has a large waiting list. This unique school is open 50 weeks a year.
