What people are saying about ‘Polly the Collie’ around the world
Isania Forgione: Teacher, Tuscany, Italy.

“Children who participate in Polly the Collie are enthusiastic! They dance, sing, play and do the activities, and are always asking for more and more.”

What do the children say?
“What a nice song, I like it very much!”
”I like Polly, she is so sweet!”
“I want to be (or to have) a dog like Polly”
“English is fun with you, teacher!”
“Please, please, can we do this activity again?”
“The kindergarten teachers running Polly the Collie in our region really appreciate it. They admit that that this way of teaching English is different in comparison to other methodologies, but they realize that the Polly the Collie Course is dynamic, and is able to entertain children and to give them the desire to learn and learn! We think Polly the Collie will have a brilliant future! 2008 was only the first year, and the Italian market has to become familiar with the potential of this new methodology. We are sure the experience of the Kindergartens that have adopted Polly the Collie this year will help promote the program!”

Stefanie Schulz: Kindergarten Teacher Düsseldorf Germany.

The Loewenzahn Kindergarten in Germany was established by very special parents — parents on the cutting-edge of education, who really understand the value of early learning. They adopted Polly the Collie for their kindergarten because they know; the optimum timeframe to acquire mother-tongue level language skills is between the ages 0-6 years. Our parents wanted to offer their children the advantages of English, and they feel that Polly the Collie is the right kindergarten program to do it.
The Polly lesson starts with a welcome ‘Round’ —“Hello I am Stefanie.” “Hello Stefanie, I am Laura...” followed by brain-jogs exercises; games with fingers, and games with movement. Then the CD player: The children happily dance to simple and easy to follow music. Then they colour in the “Polly the Collie” workbook and complete the lesson with counting games with pictures, and a hide a seek game that stimulates all the senses. English learning happens as if my magic, almost without noticing it.

“We are fascinated” says Karin Teppenkamp, head of the Loewenzahn Kindergarten. “Children and Parents are giving us the best possible feedback.”

Philip’s mother says: “A course like this is very important nowadays. If my son tells me so much about the [Polly the Collie] lesson, that takes place once a week, I know how much he enjoys it!”

Cleopatra Avraam: Master Franchisor for Cyprus

"The children are enthusiastic about Polly and one of them asked for Polly the Collie from Santa this year. The kindergartens love Polly the Collie and think that it is very effective - they find it fun and exciting. One of the kindergartens plays the CD to the children when they have their morning snack and even some of the kids that don't take Polly lessons have learned some of the songs.

We love Polly the Collie and we would like to see more levels soon. The parents and Kindergarten owners have been asking about the next level of Polly already. Hopefully a prequel level for younger Polly kids. The Polly programme has proven to be a success in Cyprus… No other kindergarten programme has been as successful before.”

Polly Hasselkuss: Teacher from Stuttgart, Germany.

“I have been teaching Polly the Collie in a kindergarten since September 2008. The children love the music, and to have 17 children sing and doing the actions (a small choir) all together, is spectacular. Once I picked up 16 children to take them to the rooms where we teach and they all started to sing the song ‘I’m Polly the Collie.

The location where I teach is a large open building with 5 floors, so all the parents and people visiting could hear the children singing in English as we entered. It was amazing how many people turned to look at us. The children were not prompted, but just knew they were on the way to English with Polly and started singing on their own accord…Parents say they love Polly the Collie and they love the songs as well.”

Kornelia Stawicka-Zielenkiewicz: Franchise Partner, Gdansk South, Poland

“Children enjoy the Polly lessons, they willingly take part in them, and they start singing the Polly song as soon as they see their teacher Ala Kotarska-Wojtczak. They say they love Polly the dog, and the lessons with Polly are a lot of fun.

When I asked my 5-year -old daughter Iza what she thought of the lessons with Polly she said, ‘I like it because there are animals there and I like it when the teacher Ala, holding a mouse sings the song (and here Iza sang beautifully in English) — ‘Up in the air? No, on the chair’ and sits the mouse on the chair.

‘What I like, says teacher Ala Kotarska-Wojtczak, are the songs. They are very melodic and they have motions prescribed to each one of them. I find it very useful; the motions become an important tool for the children’s active participation in the lesson.’ Ala observes the children’s progress, and says she enjoys teaching Polly the Collie a lot.

The Head of the kindergarten where we started teaching Polly Program in November 2008 says she did not expect to see so much fun on the lessons; she is also surprised to see the children participate, sing and repeat words and phrases after only a few lessons. She admires both the teacher and the program.”

Marzena Milewska: Teacher, Koscierzyna, Poland

“I like teaching the Polly Program, and in my opinion it is a very interesting course. Children enjoy taking part in lesson; they love songs and dancing routines. They like the character of Polly the Collie very much and they like working with their workbooks. I have to add that kindergarten teachers and parents also love this course. They usually say that songs from this course are charming and catchy.”

Galántai Dóri: Teacher from Tata Tatabánya, Hungary

How do children enjoy taking part in the Polly Program?

“They adore it, they can’t wait for me to arrive and they learn everything easily and they are very proud of themselves and each other as well.
I can see that children learn incredibly fast, they motivate each-other and are proud of the little ones speaking English.”

Mrs. Erika Söphen: Franchisor for Csepel, Hungary

“Children love taking parts in the Polly program. When they see the teacher they start shouting ‘It’s English time!’ The kindergarten thinks Polly the Collie is great. They are even surprised the children love it so much, and the teacher says that Polly is a good program, with good music.”

Janos Szollosi: Master Franchisor, Bratislava, Slovakia.

The [Kindergarten] headmistress said in front of the parents:
“We already had a lot of English teachers and English programs in our kindergarten, but none of them was as good as this one! Children in very short time have learnt so much. I´m very glad we have chosen Polly the Collie.”


Feedback from parents:

• “My daughter has started naming things, colours and even saying short sentences in English. She is singing English songs from CD. She also better understands English stories.”
• My daughter sits her dolls in a circle and she is teaching them in English! She is showing them pictures and naming them. She is singing and playing CD all the time!
• “When we wake up in the morning, my son runs straight to the CD player, puts the CD on and we all have to sing .... One, two, three, look at me ... It is very funny!”
• “When I show any colour to my daughter she names that colour in English and she also says the thing in that colour! I show blue... She says: Blue – the sky is blue or Green – the grass is green ... it is amazing!