La Petite Ecole Monaco is the Bilingual Montessori pre-school in the principality of Monaco located on the breathtaking port of Monaco. In order to discover more about this new pre-school combining the most advanced educational philosophies in an eco-friendly beautiful environment we decided to interview its co-founder Stephanie Ayre and Aviv Pode.

1., La Petite Ecole Monaco is a brand new initiation opening this September, what was the inspiration behind it?

“La Petite Ecole has actually been open for the past two years in Cap d’Ail. Our inspiration to move it to Monaco started from the amazing feedback we have received from existing parents, the joy and development we see in our existing children, and the need we identified for such a unique preschool in the principality.”

– Stephanie Ayre, co-Founder

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“Our preschool offers a Montessori, completely bi-lingual school, eco-friendly, only organic food, and combining the most modern educational approaches. We believe all these principals are inherent in Monaco culture and values.

Another Monegasque core value is helping the less fortunate. We partnered with Mission Enfance, a Monegasque humanitarian aid organization, and together we constructed an entirely new school in struggling Laos, that will educate 120 children that otherwise would not receive school education. The construction of this entirely new school has been fully financed by La Petite Ecole Monaco”

– Aviv Pode, co-Founder

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2., What are the key languages in the pre-school?
 

“Our preschool is fully bi-lingual: English and French.
Every class has a native French teacher, a native English teacher, and an assistant, at all times.
This way, our children learn real proper English and real proper French.
It is amazing to see our children understanding both languages and feeling confident to speak, play and interact with anyone.”

– Stephanie Ayre

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3., The Principality has 139 different Nationalities. How do you prepare for this cultural mixture?
 

“Our preschool has its own philosophy and culture respecting all nationalities and cultures.
Our preschool is very family-like. We have created a warm, caring, loving, safe place, which our children are happy to arrive to every morning.
In our view, building their confidence and their passion for learning crosses all nationalities. All of us want the best for our kids, no matter where we came from.”

– Aviv Pode

 

4., Do you expect children more from residents or from people in the surrounding of Monaco?
 

“The vast majority of our families are Monaco residents.”

– Stephanie Ayre

 

5., Why is it important to enroll a child for a pre-school?
 

“The preschool ages are crucial for a child’s development. From a scientific point of view, these are the years in which hundreds of billions of neurons can interconnect and develop the brain.
From our point of view, these are the years in which we build our children’s self-confidence, their passion for learning and exploring, their social skills, beyond motor skills, reading, writing and much more.”

– Stephanie Ayre

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“To achieve all this, we created a truly intimate, personal, caring, loving and safe environment.
We are so excited to see our children develop at the school: learning a new language they would otherwise not understand, interacting confidently with other children, the happiness in their eyes when they overcome an obstacle or succeed in a challenge. There is nothing as rewarding.”

– Aviv Pode

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6., La Petite Ecole Monaco welcomes children from the age of 18 months. Is the pre-school function as a complete day-care as well?

 

Our school has classes from 18-months to 6 years old. The school opens every weekday from 08:30 to 15:30, and we also offer different afterschool activities every weekday, included in the school tuition, until 16:30. We offer a wide variety of after-school activities, to broaden our children’s horizons and expose them to many subjects and activities, such as:

• Science for kids

• Music and dance

• Sports and gymnastics

• Land art

• Cooking classes

• Private Piano lessons

• Yoga for kids, and more.

 

7., Is there any chance for short term enrollment as well? (For example many people are seasonal in Monaco)

The school enrollment is for the entire school year. Naturally there are families that join throughout the year, and that is possible as well.
Additionally, we offer holiday programs, which are open to children that are not enrolled in the school.

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8., How can people contact you and what is the primary condition for the enrolment?
 

Our contact details are:

Founders: Stephanie Ayre, Aviv Pode
Contact: info@la-petite-ecole-monaco.com
Mobile: (+33) 0640617717
Website: www.la-petite-ecole-monaco.com

We accept any child from 18 months, and that is able to walk.

Discover more at La Petite Ecole Monaco SAM