Learning

Da Vinci Private School works from a defined, formally documented teaching framework, with one essential aim: preparing children to adapt to any situation. Teacher recruitment is particularly selective.

Every parent faces a great deal of uncertainty about their child's future: which skills will they need? What work will they do? Every child will live through widely varied professional and social situations. For the child who will become an adult, adapting means being ready to learn in the face of each new situation.

Solid academic foundations

Alongside bilingualism, it matters that academic foundations are firmly set: learning to read, mastering writing, rules of grammar and spelling, mental arithmetic, mathematical concepts, memorisation, writing in a range of forms, giving presentations. But at Da Vinci school it is also about teaching the child to adapt to widely varied situations — and there, the approach taken counts as much as the knowledge acquired.

The child as an active participant in their learning

From the earliest preschool years, the teacher invites children to learn how to respond to situations, mainly through play for the youngest. They observe in order to identify what interests each child and what stands in their way, then adapt to that child's way of learning. In doing so they create a climate of trust in which the child can voice their doubts and assert what they know.

With class sizes deliberately capped at 15 children, the teacher can offer varied — indeed differentiated — activities suited to each child. The ultimate aim is the child's motivation: if they feel personally concerned, they will be ready to learn. At Da Vinci school, the child understands: “Yes — I'm the one I'm learning for!”

Later, in the upper classes, by placing the child in the position of a researcher and encouraging peer tutoring, the school develops their curiosity, their critical thinking and their capacity for analysis — through themes explored in French and English as well as in mathematics, science, personal and social development, sport and the arts.

Teachers as demanding of themselves as they are of the children

The skills expected of teachers at Da Vinci school cover:

• Command of French or English as a subject, and in cultural, spoken and written form
• The ability to take account of children's diversity, together with empathy and emotional pedagogy
• Classroom management and digital skills
• Teamwork and cooperation with everyone involved in the school
• The capacity to reflect on their own practice, to innovate and to keep training themselves
• An ethical, responsible attitude, and the ability to assess children