English

Background

The Ecole Nouvelle d’Antony was founded in 1961, thus it is over 60 years old!

Where?

It is located in the southern suburbs of Paris, on the RER B line, 3 minutes walk from the Parc de Sceaux station.

Address : 4-6 Avenue d’ALEMBERT, 92160 ANTONY

How is it organized

The Ecole Nouvelle d’Antony is a private, pre-school and primary school with no religious affiliation, that since 1967. It has an association contract with the French state. The French National Education Ministry thus funds most of the school’s teacher salaries.

The association contract with the French state obliges the School to follow state educational directives and the official state school curriculum.

How is the School managed?

The School is managed by an association : the Center of Active Pedagogical Research (Centre de Recherche de Pédagogie Active in French or CRPA) which includes parents of both current and former students. The CRPA employs additional persons to ensure that the students are able to undertake the activities it judges as important for the child development – music, library time, and English classes from nursery onwards (Petite Section in Maternelle).

What is the schedule?

For a long time the School has a 5 day a week schedule, as is now required by the current scholastic reform, with the following hours:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 9 am to 4:15 pm, (time for lunch included)

Wednesday: 9 am – 12 am.

How is lunch organized?

There is a canteen and the majority of children eat lunch at school four days a week. The children may also bring their own lunch to school if they wish.

Before/ after school activities?

The CRPA also manages a Leisure Centre that is associated with the School and manned with qualified personnel, which allows parents to drop off their children in the morning prior to school opening (from 8 am) and to recuperate them after school until 6:20 pm, including Wednesdays. This is a paid service.

How much are the School fees?

The School fees are calculated on the basis of each family’s income at the time of enrolment or re-enrolment, and the number of children enrolled.

The fees are available on this page:

What is the educational programme of the School?

“A school where a child does not do what he wants, but where he wants to do what he does”, Roger Cousinet, Educator

The pedagogical team of the School requires a true commitment by the family to the School, seeking a deep acceptance by the parents of its pedagogical practices.

What are the main objectives of the School?

To establish an atmosphere of confidence between the children and the adults.

To motivate the children to become independent.

To accept that the children are independent and stakeholders in:

• their education. The necessary conditions are created so that the children learn and appropriate knowledge. Comprehension, experimentation, knowledge of how to learn and know-how are privileged, rather than the accumulation of knowledge.
• their projects. The children construct their projects based on their own interests and/ or the interests of the group. The children have rights and obligations which they apply to chose, decide, create, lead and communicate. Working on projects constitutes a privileged way to acquire knowledge.
• their social interaction at the School. During school class committees children are exposed to democracy, learning to defend their point of view and their rights, to listen and to respect others, and to manage disagreements/confrontations/contradictions. Certain life school rules are born from discussions between the children and the teachers. These rules gain even more authority for the children as they have been jointly elaborated by them with the adults.

How are these objectives achieved in practice?

By all the means which contribute to the development of the pleasure of learning, discovery, using self realization or group realization, including:

• Decompartmentalization, working in cycles
• Small work groups
• Tutorials between students
• Individual work contract
• Self-correction
• Usage of play and concrete material in learning
• External/ outside classes
• Celebrations
• Class committees
• “What’s Up new” in the moring
• Library and documentation center
• Music
• Foreign languages
• Individual presentations and project work
• Sport

What is the role of foreign languages?

Although the School offers English classes twice a week beginning from nursery, it is not a bilingual school. That said, it places importance on the acquisition of foreign languages in the development of the children.

There is also the possibility of registering bilingual English speaking children at the Roaming School Houses’ Friday afternoon school classes (this is a private institution unrelated to the School, for further information see: Roaming School House.

How are the children evaluated in their learning?

• Pursuant to official instructions, the fundamental notions/ skills are acquired in class so there is no homework. The School prefers a pedagogical dialogue that permits the student to evaluate him/herself and progress in confidence. There are no grades.
• The evaluation is global: knowing how to learn, how to behave in a group, how to take control, reflect, respect others, have acquire self-confidence, express his/ her personality, take pleasure in knowing, critiquing – this is the equilibrium between all knowledge that characterizes the global education.

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