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Happy KidsKindergarten · Nursery · Extended hours Book a visit

Ages 1–6 English every day 7am – 5pm

Where childhood has room to grow

A private, accredited kindergarten in Zagorič for children aged one to six, and the whole day runs in English. Safe, green, and with room to explore, make things and grow up happy.

Book a visit See the day, hour by hour

Children rolling out dough at a long table

A girl in a sun hat busy at a water tray in the yard

A boy sorting coloured beads at a table

Nature and time outdoors ◆ Art and making things ◆ English through play and the ordinary day ◆ Each child’s own pace ◆ Warmth, safety and care ◆ No screens, more real play ◆Nature and time outdoors ◆ Art and making things ◆ English through play and the ordinary day ◆ Each child’s own pace ◆ Warmth, safety and care ◆ No screens, more real play ◆Nature and time outdoors ◆ Art and making things ◆ English through play and the ordinary day ◆ Each child’s own pace ◆ Warmth, safety and care ◆ No screens, more real play ◆

stuck on our wall

What the day is built on

A child learns best with the freedom to explore, room enough to simply be a child, and adults who listen, understand and back them up.

Room to try things

A kindergarten's job is to put things in front of a child: paint, water, blocks, a xylophone, a bed in the garden. They try all of it, and some of it sticks.

Children from everywhere

About a dozen nationalities come through the door each morning. Children pick up each other's words before anyone thinks to teach them. The teachers speak Montenegrin and Russian too, so a new child can still ask for water on the first morning.

English every day

Not a lesson at eleven o’clock. Circle time, lunch and the argument over the blue bucket all happen in English. Teachers switch language when a child really needs it.

A balanced week

Letters and numbers in the morning, while concentration is best. Music, movement, art and free play after that. Nobody sits still for long.

Safe and calm

Small groups, the same teachers every day, and a routine a two-year-old can predict. Settling in takes as long as it takes.

The city is part of it

We go out: the park down the road, the market, the theatre, the fire station. Children see how the place they live in actually works.

Four groups

Children move up when they are ready for it, which is not always on their birthday. Every group keeps the same hours and the same routine.

1–2

Nursery

Settling in, first words, first friend.

Gentle settling-in
Sensory play
Two naps

2–3

Explorers

The year of doing it themselves. Talking takes off, and so does the mess.

English starts here
Dressing and washing alone
Messy art

3–5

Discoverers

Projects that run for weeks, and questions we have to go and look up.

Project work
Early literacy & numbers
Music and movement

5–6

Preschool

Reading, writing, and sitting with one task to the end. School starts easier after this year.

Reading & writing
Montenegrin & Russian
On to School Um

A day at Happy Kids

This is the timetable on the wall. In practice a good idea sometimes takes over the whole morning, and we let it.

our whole day, on one page

7am Doors open Quiet arrival, books and puzzles

8:30am Breakfast Cooked on site, everyone at the table

9am Morning circle Weather, calendar and songs, in English

9:30am Small-group work Literacy, numbers and science

10:45am Outside The yard, a walk, or the park nearby

12pm Lunch Two courses, allergies accounted for

1pm Rest Sleep for the youngest, quiet time for everyone else

3pm Snack Fruit and something from the oven

3:30pm Clubs Art, music, movement, chess for the oldest

5pm Doors close Handover, and how the day went

from the kindergarten phone

Ordinary mornings

Nothing here was set up for the camera. The photos come off the kindergarten's own phone and go up through the year.

Mats and drawing boards laid out on the grass under the olive trees — the garden, set up

Two small children playing with pots and pans on the grass — mud kitchen

Children in sun hats playing at water trays outside — water, all summer

Coloured wooden arches lined up on the floor — before it falls over

Children drawing with chalk on the terrace outside the building — chalk, all over the terrace

A teacher and children sitting on mats in a bright room — movement, indoors

A boy in the garden holding up what he has found — found something

A child in a party hat beside a pink birthday cake — somebody's birthday

we are in Zagorič

Where to find us

Zagorič, about ten minutes from the centre of Podgorica. There is parking in front of the building, and between eight and nine it fills up.

The open gate at the entrance to the kindergarten

Address: Jaroslava Čermaka 4, Zagorič
81000 Podgorica, Montenegro
Hours: Monday – Friday
07:00–17:00
Phone: +382 69 583 003
Email: vrticskola@gmail.com

Come and see the room

Places open through the year. Come and look around, ideally at drop-off time, when you can see how a morning really runs.

Write or callTell us your child's age and when you would like to start.
Visit usAn hour in the group, with time for your questions.
Trial daysThree short days, so your child gets a say too.
EnrolContract, medical papers, start date.