Maple Bear Sibiu is also looking to open an elementary school in Sibiu in 2020.
“We saw a growing interest in Transylvania for the adoption of the Maple Bear concept and we received many requests for partnership. We will begin implementing our educational system with 45 children from the FRAM Kindergarten in Sibiu. Our first franchise partner shares the same values and passion in terms of education and investment in the future of the children. We are confident that the adoption of our bilingual program will be smooth and well supported, given the learning environment we have encountered there, already introducing English in the daily life of the children and using great teaching strategies,” said Yann Bidan, General Manager of Maple Bear Central and Eastern Europe.
The transition to the new learning methodology will be supported by the Maple Bear native Canadian academic team through training and coaching programs for the teaching staff, that will take place in August 2019 in Sibiu and will continue in September and October.
Afterward, throughout the year, the team in Sibiu will be supported by a Maple Bear Virtual Academic Director, based in Canada, who will facilitate the transfer of Canadian methodology and by a Maple Bear CEE Director for Academic Coordination based in Romania.
“Maple Bear conforms to local education regulations, offering fully articulated local curricula in addition to the Canadian program. The learning methodologies and teaching strategies, however, are Canadian. This ensures a better respect of the local culture and opens up many more educational options for the Maple Bear students. We are not transforming local children into French, American or Canadian Citizen. We are instead growing children respecting their cultural identity and we provide them with a global citizen mind set,” Bidan added.
In Romania, Maple Bear aims to open 10 Education Centers for preschool and primary with the possibility to grow to gymnasium and high school.
Recently, Maple Bear has grown globally to 400 schools and over 40,000 students in 17 countries. Just after the school in Sibiu, Maple Bear is going to open a kindergarten and an elementary school in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2020 and will continue working on developing the network of schools in the region of Central and Eastern Europe aiming to have 50 Educational centers in the next 5 to 10 years.