Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions about The Children’s House

We have one group (the crèche – our Nut Tree Seedlings group) for children aged 1 to 2½ / 3, and two kindergarten groups for children aged 2½ to 6 (the Cherry Tree group and the Lemon Tree group)

We have 15 places in the crèche, some of which can be shared. The Cherry Tree group (downstairs) has about 65-70 children and the Lemon Tree group (upstairs) has about 50 children. We have a permit for a total of 140 children to attend.

There are always 3 teachers in the crèche (ratio 1:5, when all children are here) and 8 teachers in the Cherry Tree group and 6 teachers in the Lemon Tree group. In addition, there is always a teacher in the garden working with children from both groups. (ratio about 1:8 in each group). In addition, we have additional staff who prepare the food and clean the rooms at the end of the day.

All our teachers are Montessori trained (some are still completing their training) at officially recognized institutions. A few teachers also have the Austrian kindergarten training or other teacher training. In addition, many have completed university studies (in various fields). In addition, all teachers complete at least 20 hours of continuing teacher training per year.

Our teachers are between 24 and 71 years old and come from around the world (UK, Austria, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Finland, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, India, Philippines, Spain, US, Kenya…). They have been working with us for between 1 and 32 years (on average about 10-15 years).

The Children’s House opens at 7am each day. The normal day runs until 3pm, when all the children in the crèche must be picked up by. Children in the kindergarten groups may then attend the afternoon care, which is open until 5.30pm, at an extra cost (payable at the end of the month). Afternoon care can be booked monthly or on individual days when needed.

In the school year 2024/2025 the monthly instalments of the fees to be paid by the parents are € 595 in the kindergarten groups and € 665 for the crèche. These fees pay for all costs which are not covered by the subsidy received for each child from the City of Vienna, especially the higher staff costs for our low teacher:child ratio. The fees always include snack and lunch. In the kindergarten groups the fees also include any outings that we go on. In the crèche the fees also include the uniform that we provide and the wipes, nappies and blankets the children need. The fees also pay for teacher preparation times, continued teacher training and team building, prepared indoor and outdoor Montessori environment et al which are all not required by law. Afternoon care costs up to € 160 per month for full attendance, if arranged in advance.

These fees are only valid if the child and at least one parent are officially resident in Vienna. Otherwise, an additional fee of about € 334 must be paid to cover the reduced subsidy we receive.

For your information, the subsidy we currently receive for children living in Vienna is about € 520 for children attending the kindergarten groups and € 763 for children attending the crèche.

An admissions fee of € 150 is due to confirm an offer of a place and a deposit of € 180 is also due then (the latter will be returned when a child leaves the kindergarten and all fees have been paid).

Most places are available for a start at the end of August. We start distributing these places in January/February of the same year. Sometimes (though seldom) places can become available during the year too. These places are distributed at short notice to families on our waiting list.

We try to make sure to have a good mix of ages and boys/girls in all our groups. We also try to ensure that we have a good mix of language and cultural backgrounds to ensure that our concept of an English-speaking, international Montessori kindergarten works well. The only children who get slightly preferential treatment are siblings of children currently attending and the children of staff members returning after their maternity leave. In the crèche preference is also given to families with both parents working (or due to start working).

Yes. Once we see that a child is ready to move to one of the bigger groups, we will gradually move them across. This can also happen during the school year at some point after they have turned 2½.

The teachers only speak English to the children. For children who do not speak any German at home we do offer some German language settings at different times each week, this applies to the children in the kindergarten groups.

Most children either live in the 22nd or in neighboring districts and/or their parents work close by. Their parents come from about 60 different countries around the world (each flag in the entrance area represents at least one parent). About half of all the children speak German at home and we try to make sure that at least around one third are (also) English speaking.

All the children spend at least about one hour each day in the play garden (or the crèche garden) whatever the weather, so it is really important for them to always have appropriate clothing at The Children’s House. In the mornings the children in the kindergarten groups also have the option to go to the working garden, where they take care of the animals, plants and the garden environment, as well as do creative work involving natural materials.

The children in the kindergarten groups regularly go on outings to various places in Vienna (Donaupark, zoo, Wiener Wald, art exhibitions, concerts and other places). The children in our crèche group do not usually leave the kindergarten, except for one outing in the summer when they spend the whole day in the Donaupark.

In the crèche group we celebrate the children’s birthdays (without parents) and have a get-together with parents before Christmas and before the summer.

In the kindergarten groups, apart from the birthdays (which parents are welcome to attend), we celebrate various cultural festivals represented by the children in the group (these usually include Harvest Festival, Lantern Festival, Diwali, Eid, Hanukkah, Christmas, Lunar New Year, Fasching, Spring/Easter celebration, Nowruz, Turkish children’s day amongst others). In addition, we also have a Winter Concert where the children sing songs from all the countries in their group and a Summer Play in June for the parents to attend.

We believe Maria Montessori developed a great way of teaching children. The teachers follow each child’s individual interests and sensitive periods and also gently guide them in an environment specially prepared by the teachers for each mixed age group (1-3 and 3-6). This enables the children to fulfil their potential in many different areas of development – including, but not limited to: social skills, gross and fine motor skills, language (both spoken and written), senses, creativity, mathematics, learning about the world around us (plants, animals, geography, art, nature…).

We love working in our international environment, where we use English as the main language in our prepared environment (based on Maria Montessori’s principles) for children aged one to six. We are strong believers that children need to spend time outdoors every day, which is why it is very important for us to have our own big garden. The Children’s House is unique in Vienna in combining these points.

There are of course the many books by Maria Montessori herself (such as “The Secret of Childhood” or “The Absorbent Mind”) and biographies about her life (eg by EM Standing). In addition, there are also many books about how her pedagogy is applied. Some of the books we really like to recommend are: “The Montessori Toddler” (by Simone Davies), “Montessori from the Start” (by Paula Polk Lillard & Lynn Lillard Jessen), “How to Raise an Amazing Child” (by Tim Seldin), “A Parents’ Guide to the Montessori Classroom” (by Aline D Wolf) and “Montessori for Every Family” (by Tim Seldin and Lorna McGrath).

The main Austrian Montessori teacher training centre “Montessori Akademie” (www.montessori.at) offers regular lectures and workshops also for parents (they also offer online courses). ILSA (www.ilsa.at) is a Montessori centre specializingin supporting parents with courses, lectures and as a meeting point. And of course, there are many other interesting Montessori sites and groups available online.

When necessary – and arranged with the parents of a child -, we cooperate closely with a speech-therapist, an occupational therapist and/or a child psychologist, all of whom we have been working with for many years.

In order to offer the appropriate support for all children, it is of course very important that parents’  inform us of any additional developmental needs their child may have.

We are convinced that young children under the age of 6 should have as little exposure to media as possible. Children under the age of 2 do not need any use of screens, and for older children it should be very limited and definitely filtered by the parents – the word “educational” is misleading at best when it comes to media aimed at children under the age of 6. Children need to actually use their hands to manipulate things to understand the world and they need the interaction of communication with actual people to develop their language skills.

Extracurricular activities are offered by external teachers in the classrooms. Usually we have teachers offering piano lessons, a dance/ballet class, a music/rhythm group and an engineering/experiments class. We also have some teachers offering German language tuition in 1:1 or 1:3 sessions.

All these must be arranged with the relevant teacher and paid directly to them, we only provide the space free of charge.

The Children’s House was started in 1992 by Katharine Wolschner and has been run by her and her family ever since. The Children’s House is operated as a non-profit organisation (gemeinnütziger Verein). This means literally all the money received through the parents’ contributions and the subsidies paid by the City of Vienna goes towards covering the costs of running the kindergarten – around 80% of these are the staff costs such as the salaries of  the teachers, support staff and management working here and additional staff-related costs, the rest are the costs of materials, food and general operating costs.

You are welcome to send us an email to children@montessori-vienna.at or use the contact form on this website and we will be happy to answer them. Phone calls are possible too if it is very urgent.

We have a pre-registration form on our website which you will need to fill out if you have not done so already. In addition, we need you to confirm, by email, your interest in a place once you have visited our kindergarten. As we may not be able to offer you a place for your child when you would like him or her to start, it is important that you let us know whether you would like them to remain on our waiting list.