Information evening to be held at the EPFL on 24 May
A new bilingual school, offering both clubs and daycare facilities for children aged from 3 to 6 will open this August in the canton of Vaud.
Situated in Saint-Suplice, near Lausanne, L’écoline has been created by two young mothers, Marion Julia, and Aurélie Andriamialison, to provide what they believe is a greater choice in the provision of education and daycare facilities for young children in the region.
Marion told knowitall.ch, “Short opening hours, restrictive age ranges, boredom in the class, and inability to learn a second language from a young age, are just a few of the issues being raised by parents in this region of Switzerland. I was “fortunate” enough to lose my job at a time when we had to make decisions over our own children’s education, as this gave me the opportunity to look at alternative solutions for them. Discussing the problem with Aurélie, we very soon came to the conclusion that it would be easier to create our own school, which would address all those issues about which we were concerned, and more!”
Marion added, “We really want our school to remain small, catering for no more than 40 children at a time, and only in the 3 to 6 age range. A small campus is definitely more beneficial to children in this age range - we believe 3 to 6 is a wonderful time to catch the love of learning, creating and discovering, which can be the best tools to possess for the future years of schooling. We’re particularly pleased to have Clare Anzevui on our team. Clare is an English teacher experienced in Reggio Emilia pedagogy, which is for me the ideal inspiration for children from 3 to 6.”
At the moment there are no plans to extend the age range of the school. According to Marion, the public school system in Switzerland is more flexible beyond the age of 6, and will cater for the needs of most families. It is in the 3 to 6 age group that she sees a real need for a more open-minded, innovative solution to children’s education.
The classroom at L’écoline will be organised around thematic corners with toys and materials to discover, to experience and to stimulate learning and exploration in a wide number of fields: the world of language; discovering world and time; science & numbers; arts & crafts; construction games; logic and deduction games. The classroom will also have an area for gathering together, a napping space, a reading corner, a nature corner, a small hut for playing alone or for quite time when a little one needs his/her own space, white&black boards on which to to draw and write, walls to display artwork and projects, and an access to the school’s dedicated Atelier (read about clubs below).
In addition to the normal school program (which runs from 8h30 to noon in the morning and 14h00 to 16h30 in the afternoon on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays), the school will offer extensive day care facilities for those families unable to look after their children outside the normal school hours: before school, during the lunch break and after school. In addition, day care will be offered all day on Wednesdays. A special Day Care living room has also been allocated at L’écoline to provide the special facilities and space required for those children.
The “icing on the cake” for those families looking for yet more ways to stimulate their children is L’écoline’s wide choice of clubs being offered for children not just in the 3 to 6 range, but also those in the 6 to 9 range. Wednesday, weekly and holiday clubs, which will take place in the school’s dedicated Atelier, will provide a variety of activities for children of all ages, including arts and crafts, theatre and music, and English. There is also a large terrace with stunning views where children can extend their activities into the open air. Just meters away from L’écoline, a pedestrian walkway leads straight to vast playgrounds, the shores of Lake Geneva and to several natural grassy and wooded areas.
An information meeting will be held at the EPFL in Lausanne on the evening of 24 May to introduce the school to prospective parents. More details can be found below or on our Events Calendar.
L’écoline
7 chemin de la Venoge
Saint-Sulpice
Switzerland
+41 78 845 64 86
www.lecoline.ch/en/
Email:This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Information Evening
24 May 2012, 17h30 to 20h30
EPFL – Quartier de l’innovation
Bâtiment E (1st floor)
1015 Lausanne
Contact: Marion Julia, 078 845 64 86, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
