Who we are

We, the four founders, are the daughters of strong women, raised to be independent, courageous and socially engaged. We were all born and raised in the Berlin area, have strong ties to the city and graduated from Berlin’s Humboldt University. Upon the completion of our studies, we went our separate ways: we began exploring the world enthusiastically using the bits of English we learned in school. Our eagerness to explore languages, foreign cultures and new parts of the world as well as an interest in people have been the driving forces for many of our life choices. We are well travelled, have lived and worked in different cities and countries and in diverse and challenging fields and, through various professional challenges, found our own way in the world of work.

Our Mission

We share the same values, humour and joy for life. Drawing from our varied adventures and experiences in life and work, we got together in 2009 to set up an educational institution that reflects our core beliefs. The Platanus Kindergarten and Platanus Schule Berlin both started in August 2010 – inspiring places where learning and playing bring joy.

We provide children, parents and employees of Platanus a lively and culturally diverse community of values. Our basic concept is that a sense of responsibility, independence, self-confidence, respect and tolerance form stable foundations for our community where diversity is experienced by all in a natural way. We give our children and young people all the important values and skills which allow them to lead an independent and fulfilled private and working life later on.

We create safe and empowering learning environments so that our students are able to perform at their best at any time and in any area, giving each and every one of them the support they personally need.

Our bilingual education in both German and English, with an emphasis on maths and science, as well as a solid general education and digital literacy ensures that our students grow up to be global thinkers in an interdependent world and to be locally active in and around Berlin.

Our talented and motivated team is currently made up of 12 different nationalities and is oriented to the lives and the worlds of our children and young people. The goal is to prepare them for the challenges of the future and, at the same time, to care for their safety, security and well-being in a safe kindergarten and school setting.

We have firmly anchored our commitment to combating climate change and to protecting and conserving nature and its resources in all our facilities. It is important to us to sensitize our kindergarten children and students to environmental protection through adequate, age-appropriate education and to motivate them to adopt a conscious, sustainable lifestyle and to get involved themselves.

We are proud of everything we have built over the past few years and are united in our mission, which we stand for: to create something humane and sustainable, a values and achievement oriented educational institution that offers reliable care, all day long, for children and young people in our society.