We Are Wonder
Our mission is to spark wonder through progressive early-childhood education.
Inspired by progressive educational philosophies, we nurture opportunities that spark joy and intrigue, allowing for deeper learning through child-lead exploration and investigation. Best practices are continuously engaged and refined through meaningful discussion and reflective practice, affording us the ability to apply what’s best for our children, teachers, and families.
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Our community of teachers, educational mentors and pedagogical leaders work together to provide a safe, empowering and exciting space for children to express themselves and explore their world.
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As a non-profit organization, Wonder collaborates with outside educators and mission-similar organizations to further our classroom practice and to impact early childhood education in Israel and beyond.
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Quick Links
The meaning behind or school name.
Our Leadership
Efra Shahar
Head of School
​Efrat was born in Israel and grew up in the U.S., where her commitment to education began in middle school and continued throughout high school and college as she took on the roles of tutor and teaching assistant. Efrat went on to graduate with a B.A. in Elementary Education. She then taught for three years at a public school where she implemented a bilingual English/Chinese immersion program. Efrat has since moved back to Israel to complete her M.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. This will be her 8th year at Wonder which has become a home away from home for her both in its warm community and its educational philosophy. She believes in a child-centered teaching approach with many opportunities for questioning and exploration. She is passionate about early childhood education and loves starting her day with a group of smiling children. Over the years Efrat became one of our senior and most experienced teachers. She has participated in both a study tour of Reggio Emilia as well as taught every age group in the school. In the previous two years, Efrat took on the role of Pedagogical Teacher Leader where she was responsible for training and mentoring Wonder teachers in the Reggio Emilia approach. Efrat is very excited to continue her journey at Wonder in her new role as Head of School and to begin her work with the children, teachers, and parents.
Nurit Gildor
Founder & CEO
Nurit worked for more than a decade as a Human Resources Director in various companies in London before returning to Israel in 2013. Arriving home with two English-speaking girls, Nurit was searching for progressive bilingual schools in Israel to support her children’s language acquisition and cultural experience, but discovered there are very few options available. Subsequently, she founded the Foundation for Excellence in Education and English in 2014, which aims to create and promote English immersion educational programs in Israel. In 2014 the foundation established partnerships with public schools in Tel Aviv and ran English immersion after-school programs for children in these schools. In 2015 it was decided to expand the vision to include bilingual education for early childhood which led to the foundation of the Wonder preschool. Nurit believes in the importance of acquiring a second language and that this is best done through natural daily exposure to the language in fun and interesting activities (a method often referred to as immersion) rather than by the conventional method of frontal teaching. She views the Reggio Emilia approach as a natural fit for language immersion programs. Since being exposed to Reggio Emilia in the past years, Nurit has discovered so much about children’s abilities and learnt how important our role as parents and teachers to allow children to investigate and learn independently in forming their sense of self.
Why "Wonder"
The Meaning Behind our School’s Name
When searching for a school name, we turned to our community of parents and teachers, asking them to articulate their view of the school’s unique and special approach to learning and engagement with children.
One parent wrote us saying:
“When I came to visit your school for the first time, I was blown away by how your teachers engaged with the children. The questions teachers asked and the opportunities they opened for exploration, literally caused the children to light up with wonder. The kids had an agency that I had never seen in another school. What more could I ask for than to be able to provide my daughter with that same experience, day in and day out? My suggestion for a new school name can be no other than the word “Wonder,” for that is the gift you give our children every day.”
— Parent
For us, the word Wonder captured the essence of what we work tirelessly every day to bring to our children’s experiences. Wonder is the basis for creativity. Wonder is how we develop the new or make something better. Wonder is how we look critically at the world and then engage it. We could think of no other name that captured the essence of who we are.
After announcing the new name, one of our teachers wrote:
“All humans are filled with wonder, especially children. Whether they’re discovering something such as what happens when we add color to fresh play dough; or wondering what a seed looks like while it’s growing underground - there are countless moments during a child’s day that are filled with wonder and imagination - and at the end of the day, our school is about fostering wonder, curiosity and imagination.”
— Miriam, Group 3 Teacher
When the name was presented to the children, Cate (5 years old) contemplated what the word meant and responded:
“Every human thinks of something or wonders something and then he can make everything exactly how they want it to be; and then it will come out of their brain and then he could show everybody what he imagined.”
— Cate (5 Years Old)
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In another small group, a teacher was exploring the new school name with children and asked them to draw what Wonder meant to them. Julian (5 years old) drew an image of a child and then circled the child with a line. When he was asked what he drew he replied:
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Our Logo
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When creating our new logo, we took inspiration from Julian’s drawing, turning the O in Wonder into two overlapping circles, capturing the essence of a child and the wonder surrounding the child through which they engage and give meaning to their world.
“The orange circle is what he is thinking now. The green line is what he then builds.”
— Julian (5 Years Old)
