The preschool (la Maternelle), which has 15 classes, is located at Carrer de Munner 5, near El Paseo de la Bonanova. It educates children from ages 3 to 6
Preschool
A SCHOOL DEDICATED TO WELL-BEING AND SUCCESS
The Preschool (which is comprised of a 3-year-old class, Pre-K and Kindergarten) constitutes a single cycle – cycle 1 of the French early learning system.
The schools aims to be:
• A school adapted to young children
• A school that offers specific learning methods
• A school where children learn and live together
The duration of the school week for preschool students is twenty-six hours.
Reception hours are as follows:
• 9am to 12:30pm and 2pm to 4:30pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday.
• 9am to 12pm Wednesday.
• 9am to 12:30pm and 2pm to 3:30pm on Friday.
General teaching objectives
Our main mission is to create a desire in children to want to go to school to learn, assert themselves and develop their personality. Preschool establishes the educational and pedagogical foundations on which the student’s future education is based and developed for their entire schooling.
Organized in a single learning cycle, preschool is the first step in ensuring the success of all students in a school that is both fair and demanding for everyone. It is adapted to young children according to their development and builds bridges with the family. In Preschool specific learning methods are organized by setting up various exercises: problem solving, practice, memorization. Play has a special place in it: it promotes the richness of lived experiences and feeds all areas of learning. Preschool allows children to learn together and to live together! It ensures a first acquisition of the principles of life in society and allows the child to develop as an individual within a group.
Lessons are organized into five areas:
- mobilizing language in all its dimensions
- acting, expressing oneself and gaining understanding through physical activity
- acting, expressing oneself and gaining understanding through artistic activities
- building the first tools to structure students’ thinking
- exploring the world
Each of these five areas is essential for a child’s development and must find its place within the daily activities.
The fundamental place of language is reaffirmed as an essential condition for every student’s success. The practice of physical and artistic activities contributes to the development of motor and sensory skills, as well as imagination, sensitivity and thought. The areas “Building the first tools to structure students’ thinking” and “Exploring the world” focus on developing an initial understanding of numbers and the first mathematical tools, the child’s environment, and it encourages questioning. By relying on initial knowledge related to their experiences, preschool sets up a path that allows them to organize the world around them, to access visual cues and obtain knowledge that will be enriched in elementary school.
Languages
Multilingualism (the coexistence of several languages) is a part of life in our school. Plurilingualism (the ability of a person to master several languages) is the goal we set for our students. Thus, Spanish and Catalan are integrated into weekly learning with 4 hours for our 3-year-olds and 3 hours in Pre-K and Kindergarten. An introduction to English is also offered starting in Pre-K. Children who do not speak Spanish or Catalan have the benefit of special introductory classes to facilitate their integration into the school community.
Music lessons
In addition to the musical activities implemented by the teachers in their class, a teacher specialized in music with a degree in musicology works with the children. The students develop listening skills, rhythm and voice structuring that promote their language learning abilities as well as their aesthetic sensitivity.
Student monitoring and assessment
A report card is sent to parents once a year for the 3-year-old class, twice a year in Pre-K and three times a year in Kindergarten. It assesses the child’s progress and development. An initial meeting is organized at the start of the school year, and it is recommended that parents have regular meetings with teachers throughout the year.
LFB School-wide project and preschool project
The preschool develops a project that is evaluated every year and updated every three years. This project is one of the components of the Lycée Français de Barcelone’s school-wide project. It is established in line with its various fields of activity.
A day at preschool
The various activities are distributed throughout the day according to the children’s attention span. The instances of regrouping and collective work alternate with hands-on learning in workshops (groups of 5 to 8 children).
The library
The library is the school’s hub for linguistic and cultural resources (books, videos, audio cassettes, satellite TV, computers, the Internet, etc.). It is managed by a teaching librarian. Multilingual resources are abundant with special priority given to the French language. The classification system, which is currently being computerized, is identical to those of the BCD (The Elementary School Library) and the CDI (The Center for Documentation and Information).
Fields trips
Approximately once per trimester children leave school to discover their surroundings. They take a day or half-day trip supervised by teachers and parent chaperones.
Specialized preschool teachers’ aides (ASEM)
In accordance with French law, children benefit from the services of specialized teachers’ aides in preschool. The teachers’ aide has an educational role with the children. They support the teacher during specific times, such as bathroom breaks, snack time, mealtime, naptime (3-year-old class), etc. They prepare the equipment for activities and ensure its cleanliness and storage. The ASEM are trilingual staff who are a permanent part of the educational team.