This is hands-down, the best school you will find, in all the western suburbs of Paris. Perhaps the…read morebest, even including Paris. My daughter started here at age 4, and what the French call moyenne section (it's a year before kindergarten). Upon arrival, she could not count to more than 29 in English and she spoke not one word, a French. She knew her alphabet, but didn't know all the sounds of the alphabet in English. After 1 year at the school before she started kindergarten/Grandesection, my daughter could read English and when I say, read English, I mean very complicated sentences not just " Jack Sat or the rat" she was doing addition, subtraction, multiplication, and she could count to 100 in both French & English. The school has a Wednesday program for English and it also has evening programs where you can leave your child there until 6:30 PM/ 18h30 and choose the language the child is exposed to during the evening program. During my daughter's second year, I chose to put her in the evening program so she could have more exposure to French.. she did not attend the Wenesday program as it's for English and she doesn't need any English. She attended the school four days a week and she had 20 hours of English instruction and 18 hours a French instruction per week. At the start of her second year in September she really couldn't speak much French and I was a bit disappointed but with the addition of the evening program, she was speaking French by March. In the school starting at age 5, you can sign your child up for pony they go from 11 AM to 16h twice a month to do pony. They also go on a ski trip all together for six days in the alps without their parents, and they can go at age 4, and at age 5. At age 6 they go elsewhere, sometimes to the sea where they can swim and go boating. They have art exhibits that exhibit the children's artwork.. and like all Montessori schools there is an emphasis on emotional and social development on top of quite a rigorous in my opinion, academic program. It should be noted that at the age of four and five a child is either in the French section or in the English section. This is because they need to learn to read and one language first. My daughter was in the English section. That's why she got 20 hours of English instruction. But she also had the opportunity to have 18 hours in French instruction. Children in the French section had 20 hours a French instruction and they could have 18 hours of English instruction if they put their child in the evening program and additional 2 1/2 hours on Wednesday morning. Try to find any other school where you can have that much English instruction. If you speak French at home and you really want your child to be in the English section on top of an English speaking evening program & in an English speaking Wednesday program then you could have 32 hours of English instruction per week. Other schools in the area will tell you, that they are bilingual and at best they'll give you maybe 45 minutes a day for four days. I think it's not enough. Finally, I will say., there are other schools that also called themselves a bilingual Montessori program in Versailles and they even have the same name as this school but in fact they're not at all related to the school. If you want to attend the school, make sure you talk to Veronique who is the head Director and make sure that you're at the school located at the train station of gare de Montreuil. My daughter is now in first grade at the school with a French call CP and what this school calls junior section. And she is absolutely beyond happy. The teachers of the kindest ever I have absolutely no worries. With them. And if I ever need something they are the first to help me even in my every day life outside of school with my daughter. Honestly you can't get better than the school and if anyone tells you differently, I strongly suggest you don't believe them. The have personalities and issues!
