Our pedagogy has been specifically designed to

• Promote children´s growth in its WHOLENESS: the mind, body, feelings, and imagination;
• To experience personal achievements together;
• To progress within a positive and constructive environment;
• To develop a sense of RESPONSIBILITY that prepares our children for the world tomorrow;
• To provide our students with the opportunity to learn ENGLISH at the earliest possible age;
• To foster a love of learning and to teach by EXAMPLE.
• To nurture a philosophy of learning how to learn.

This model of pedagogy is most successful when pleasure and joy are an integral part of the learning curriculum. It is based on the idea that pleasure and joy are the driving forces behind learning and that happy, fulfilled students learn with greater ease. The aforementioned philosophy and its effectiveness has already been demonstrated by over one-hundred teachers, parents, and educational specialists (specifically by the organization Savoir-être et éducation).Savoir-être & éducation) .

Here are testimonials from happy children

Yann: “For me, I feel happy everyday when I arrive at school!”
To answer this proposed question: “What did you love about school this year?” Here are some of their responses:
Alessandro: “When we went under the water jet.” (This was when we went to play in the water jets at the park in swimsuits.)
Léonard: “When we went to the Cité des Enfants and played with the water buckets.”
Elliott: “When we cut and drew things and when we discovered things in the park and when we played.”
Ava: “When we did yoga.”
Emi: “When we went to the Cité des Sciences, the sculptures and the houses, and when we went swimming.”
Tiber: “I love celebrating birthdays, I love everything we do here!” Spontaneously all the children responded in chorus: “Me too, me too, I love everything!”

Some examples of the children who are developing examplorary ‘savoir-être’:

• Jade fell down and was crying when Ivan approached her to give her a lending hand and consoled her by rubbing her back.
  Often in class we observe students encouraging one another and complimenting each other.
• Emi said: “Wow, that is a magnificent drawing, Nathan!”
• Oscar said: “I made a mistake, but it doesn’t matter!”
• Nathan said: “There aren’t any babies in our class. The only babies here are the baby dolls playing in the corner.”
• Léonard said: “Caroline, I have an idea, why don’t we all share!”
• Liam said (when he realized a classmate experienced a personal achievement): “Let’s applaud him!”
• Gabriel said: “When I am very angry, I go to hit the cushion.” (In our class we have a special cushion to allow our students to discharge their angry energy and feelings when they need to.)

Thoughts from enthusiastic parents:

Since Victoire has joined you, she has made immense progress. In her expression, her independence, and her self-confidence … she is growing up gracefully and in a calm way, especially many thanks to this academic and privileged environment. The team is always smiling, dynamic, open, and really good-natured.It s wonderful for Victoire (who says “Super!” every morning when it is time to go school!!!) !!!) as it is for me, especially when I have needed an objective opinion, and a little bit of coaching (for a single mom this is really useful!) –. I know I have found the school for Victoire … thank you to everyone for your investment, generosity, and good humor!

Alexa, Victoire’s mother

A realistic approach to learning about life within a positive society, learning empathy, and the knowledge of oneself. It truly transmits the values that we are very attached to: teaching acceptance, generosity, altruism, ecology, sensibility, etc. Once more, teachers exude a lot of enthusiasm – a real communicative joy that this school carries – for us this school represents what we envision as the ideal image of childhood happiness.

Stéphanie, Léonard’s mother

You can really see the difference, a real difference in the lives of twenty-three children this year and within the lives of the parents who are open to Living School’s vision (parent workshops, parent workshops, parents workshops, and more!). You know, there was a choice in my life where I heard my heart tell me that I needed something better for my children and myself. Living School was a choice my heart made without any hesitation and it was the best choice: …

Caroline, Gabriel’s mother

We appreciate these aspects of his tuition: learning is neither a chore nor an obligation. It is something that happens naturally as a side-effect of the children’s activities: classroom experiments (such as the worms) allow the children to pursue their own hunger for knowledge by finding their own questions and devising their own experiments to answer them: yoga and fitness, the focus on sustainable development, citizenship, caring about the planet, the songs, and the trip to the boulangerie was really special. We appreciate the teachers: the teachers are happy to be teaching at the Living School and who teach our children with love, patience, and enthusiasm. We appreciate that when Tiber was difficult, rather than labeling him as “difficult” and dismissing him as such, as we fear may happen in other schools, you shared your views about his behavior and we worked together to find solutions. We appreciate the culture of the school: the parents truly feel as if they are school participators, …

Sabrina, Tiber’s mother

Thoughts from teachers:

This training gave me skills and tools that are really important for my teaching practice. I was immediately able to see the effects of my behavioral changes on the work and the children’s energy. I had the children smiling again by boosting their self-esteem. I clearly noticed that in addition to a teaching method, it’s fundamental to consciously manage our life skills for the good of the children as well as our own. This training course was a turning point for me. Everybody should take it!

Yanek, first-year primary school teacher

This extraordinary training boldly goes against the paradigms used in designing teacher training programs in France because it puts more emphasis on the teacher’s life skills than on his or her knowledge and know-how.

Joseph, fourth-year primary school teacher

A holistic approach

Our goal is to promote children’s development in its WHOLENESS: the mind, feelings, body and imagination.

• The intellectual dimension: Basic skills, interdisciplinary projects to review skills from a new angle, experimentation, learning how to learn, etc.
• The emotional and social dimension, helps children develop positive, valuable relationships with themselves and others: To achieve this goal we have morning meetings in the morning where we recognize feelings and work on conflict resolution, etc.
• The physical dimension, which is primordial for balanced development: Focus on sports, vitality (yoga, breathing exercises, relaxation, etc.), nutrition and health with a professional.
• The creative dimensionthat represents all the children ´s potential for imagination, creativity and innovation. Art and music education, mime games, interdisciplinary projects, working collaborative groups, etc. helps to foster this dimension.

Success

Succeeding together.

• Individual success: we make sure that every child embarks on the positive journey of success.
• Group success: we focus on cooperation, not competition.

Every Friday morning we ask the children to reflect on the personal achievements they experienced that week. Within their «cahier de réussite» they record these successes.

Confidence and self-esteem

We focus on making progress in a positive, constructive environment. Our teachers develop «person to person» relationships with the children, without making any value judgments. They encourage them in their own progression and help them develop self-confidence.

Responsibility

Developing a sense of RESPONSIBILITY in order to prepare them for tomorrow’s world.

• Getting involved in their world: the children’s council, which meets twice a month to exchange information and settle problems, is a place where they learn democracy and good citizenship.
• Getting involved in the World: The children ´s council is a place where they can exchange information and settle disputes so they can learn democracy and good citizenship.
• Our «Children For Changing the World» program offers them the possibility to take responsibility early and act on the environment and society. Education about the environment, sustainable development, health, etc. is also planned year round. In 2007-2008, we discussed the theme of trees and forests. We took two field trips to the forest (one in the autumn and the other in the spring) with a reforestation expert. We also created a class terrarium and discovered how plants and the earth plays a primordial role in the life cycle of our planet.

Bilinguism

To give children the opportunity to learn ENGLISH at the earliest possible age. Bilingual education from the earliest level of kindergarten (50% of the time in English, according to the total immersion method), at an age when learning a foreign language is easy, will help children fit in with an increasingly international world.
Setting an example

Fostering the desire to learn and grow by setting the EXAMPLE.

Setting an example is not one way of exerting influence; it is the only way. – Albert Schweitzer

Ours teachers are recruited as much for their life skills as for their ability to teach. They receive life skills training (self-awareness, positive relationships) and see to it that their authority is fair and kind.

Fair evaluation

We assess the skills of our students that neither focuses on competition nor ranking. Evaluation allows every student to know where he or she stands in relation to the skills required by the Ministry of National Education. In this way, we ensure that a child joining the public school system will find it easy to integrate the mainstream.

Learning how to learn, making it easier to learn.

If I give you a fish, you can eat for a day. If I teach you to fish, you can eat for a lifetime. – Chinese proverb

Knowledge is always changing. Making it easier to learn is therefore a basic goal of education. It is also the most effective.

Team work, learning to work together

The children will regularly be asked to work in collaborative, small, flexible groups and to be creative together. This is reflective of today’s workplace – whether companies or organizations – where employees are increasingly required have this skill. It is therefore necessary to prepare our children for this working environment.