About Handprints.
Handprints was founded in Bratislava's Old Town on a belief that has not changed: children learn best when they feel secure, valued, and happy.
Everything else follows from it: two teachers in every class, a counselor on the team, a kitchen downstairs that cooks lunch, and groups small enough that teachers know every child well. Today, sixty children from 21 countries grow up here together. Some walk in from the neighborhood, and some arrive in Bratislava with the moving boxes still packed.
- Sixty childrenfrom 21 countries
- Two teachersin every class
- A counseloron the team
- Old TownLazaretská 9, Bratislava
A Letter From the Founder
Dear families,
I opened Handprints after two decades in early-childhood education, on a conviction the research kept confirming: young children learn through play, and they learn best from adults who know them well. The school is built around that idea, from the two-teacher classrooms to the curriculum I still write and lead personally.
I train our teaching team, review every class's weekly plans, and spend part of each week in the classrooms myself. From the moment your child joins us, our goal is simple: that they feel curious, confident, and valued. Every single day.
If you would like to know who decides what your child learns, come and meet me at the school.
PhDr. Petra ResselFounder & Director of Curriculum
PhDr. Petra Ressel, FounderOur Teachers
Two qualified teachers lead every class. They plan together, teach together, and know every child in their group well.
Leadership stays in the classroom: Ms. Mária directs the school and leads Preschool, and Ms. Bahar, our deputy director, leads Pre-Kindergarten.
Families here come from Japan, Spain, Ukraine, the United States, Slovakia, and sixteen other countries.
Embassies in Bratislava work with the school on an ongoing basis, and diplomatic families sit alongside families from across the street. For the children, it is ordinary daily life: everyone speaks a little differently, and everyone plays together. Grandparents, siblings, and family friends are part of school life too, welcomed at events through the year.
Family event dayOur Campus
Every classroom has its own bathroom and its own rest area, so the whole day happens in one familiar, safe space. Classrooms are organized into learning centers: a carpet for free play, tables for focused work, a sensory area, and room to move. Around the classrooms are a children's library, an indoor gym, and, downstairs, the kitchen. Outside are the school yard and the school garden with its greenhouse, private and with no street access, where children dig, climb, and grow things of their own.
The teacher of our daughter is really awesome, very creative and loving with children. We feel her as part of our family, because our daughter is speaking every day about her.A Handprints parent · Google review · daughter attended from 18 months to 4 years
The school is best understood in person. Book a tour, meet the teachers, and see the classrooms in use.
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