Hope. They want to open the first English school here in France

Baptiste and Hannah Delvalle have long dreamed of it. More precisely a year in Ariège – in Vernajoul – the couple have finally decided to make their dream come true by opening France’s first English immersion school in Foix from next school year. As its name implies, all courses – except grammar and spelling in French – are offered entirely in English. If the place is not yet discovered, the project, which has long matured by the couple, already has the support of several fax families.

Hannah is an American teacher; Baptist, who met the young woman while living in the United States, meanwhile holds a master’s degree in education and teaching. After completing their studies, the couple worked for a long time in immersion schools abroad – “most developed in many languages ​​in North America, including French”, the 30-year-old notes, as well as in international schools around the world. These provide lessons for children, usually foreigners, in their mother tongue.

After nearly 10 years of teaching experience around the world, Hannah and Baptiste led to the idea of ​​their “best school”. “The results and studies we have observed during our various experiments prove it: children coming out of these immersive schools have perfect control over both languages ​​because they are perfecting themselves, including the language of the region, in which they live,” said Baptist Delvalle. Is interested in exporting this model to France, where, according to them, it is not in this form, the two neo-Arizio decided to start themselves by creating an IA school (to immerse themselves in English).

Definitely, therefore this private institution which is out of government contract – for the time being – will welcome twenty children in the same class called “Kindergarten” from the next school year, namely: Kindergarten. Aside from the linguistic uniqueness of those places, I have to say that both authors want to develop a teaching as a result of their past experiences. “In kindergarten, we assume that the child should give free rein to his or her imagination, experimenting with a certain number of things, such as social learning, and the teacher adds. Clearly, without restraint, set the framework for children. “For example, we may have joint moments, readings or shared learning moments where the child wants to do something else but he or she should participate. If so, we will say yes to him or her, but not now.” Want to establish a garden and some chickens, which will allow to learn many lessons through care.

It is now up to the school to find suitable land to provide the best setting it can expect. Because already, families will be interested in this new curriculum. “We think this device will make it possible to attract new families to the area, especially with the potential for the development of teleworking. We know the school will be an important motivating factor.