If you have an existing daycare or preschool you can usually transition to Kipinä in 30 to 60 days. You do not have to wait to the start of a new term or year.

If you are just getting started a lot depends on the property you will use. The average time to renovate a villa-style property or commercial property and launch your daycare or preschool is around 6 months. Purpose-built schools will often take between 1 to 2 years.

Yes. Many of our franchisees secure their franchise rights first and then begin looking for a suitable location and property. You have up to 18 months to open your daycare or preschool.

Assuming your teachers already hold degrees in education they can complete the Kipinä training and certification process in around 2 weeks. An optional onsite workshop usually takes 5 to 8 working days. If you or your teachers would like to complete additional certified post-graduate level training in Finnish Pedagogy or Finnish Academic Leadership through our partner Häme University Finland (online), they can do this part time over 2 to 3 months while they continue actively teaching in your preschool.

Most teachers work out how to use their app within 30 minutes of downloading it from Google Play. It's been specially designed to be highly intuitive and pictorial and follows regular social media patterns using feeds and sharing media.

Parents do not require any instruction at all. They simply download from Google Play or the Apple Store, and sign in. 

You, or you admin team, will need about an hour to familiarise yourself with our School Management Software. 

Yes. Kipinä already works with national curricula in 15 countries and 7 languages. There are Kipinä campuses within K12 schools following the IB program and the Cambridge Program. In developing the Finnish approach to early childhood education it should be noted that many curricula and approaches were studied and in some cases integrated. This includes diverse curricula such as Montessori and Reggio Emilia as well as approaches in Canada, the USA and UK, and allied areas such as STEAM and Special Needs.

Additionally, Kipinä has enhanced the Finnish Curriculum to make it blend seamlessly with global standards and to help children easily integrate into any big school environment. We achieved this by integrating 21st Century Skills, Executive Functioning, and by using Focused Instruction. Kipinä also matches learning outcomes with local standards to ensure literacy and numeracy skills are equivalent.

Finland has been enormously successful in making its education system respected worldwide. But Finland's approach to education was not developed in a vacuum. Indeed Finland borrows from many approaches including Montessori, Reggio Emilia, Steiner and the American and UK approaches. Montessori started more than 100 years ago - before air travel, mobile phones, and the internet. Montessori was originally a method to help children with practical life skills and that ethos still continues today.

Both Montessori and Kipinä use a play-based learning approach. However, not all play is the same. Whereas Montessori uses specific toys to develop premeditated outcomes and children often play alone in 'work cycles' (where sharing and social interaction is not the priority), Kipinä kids learn in small and large groups to encourage socialisation, and development of soft skills (collaboration, empathy, team work). Kipinä teachers are guiding the children but not emphasising an outcome so that children develop their creativity, spontaneity and unique personalities. Kipinä emphasises fun and imagination through a teacher-facilitated model designed to lead to observable learning outcomes that are not restricted to or shaped by the resources in the room.

The Montessori name is not copyright. Therefore there is a lot of variance in what is offered to parents as Montessori - from some high quality preschools with well-trained teachers to absurd environments with little or no ties to any authentic Montessori philosophy. Kipinä is a proprietary academic program and brand with substantive trademarks around the world. Kipinä preschools are subject to audits. Therefore, parents can be quite sure of getting the quality they expect and partners have exclusive protected territories.

Kipinä provides distinct detailed scaffolded curricula for children from birth to 6 years old. In addition we provide weekly lesson plans for all these age groups. In your daycare or preschool you do not have to teach all age groups. Some of our nurseries and day cares only work with children for 2 to 4, while others accept children from birth to 4 years. Some of our preschools teach from birth to 6 years, while others prefer to work only with kids from 2 to 6 years. We support the model you wish to use.

Generally speaking the Kipinä franchise is available everywhere except the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In those countries we offer a license. You can find out more about the license version here.

Yes, as a franchisee you get exclusive rights to use the Kipinä name and logo in your territory.

A franchise is valid for up to 35 years and is renewed (at no cost) every 7 years.

There are break provision in your franchise agreement allowing you to exit by giving us 12 months notice in writing at certain intervals. You may also exit at any 7 year anniversary.

Royalties are 6% of gross revenue. We do not charge any advertising or marketing contribution fees, making Kipinä one of the most affordable preschool franchises in the western world.