...and back to school

Tomorrow is a new school term. In July I couldn't wait for this day to arrive, but once the kids settled into a summer routine they got easier to handle, and as August went on I got more and more apprehensive about September.
Laila has already done a year at Ecole Maternelle in the French Public (State) school system. This went very well for her but we weren't completely happy with the school. Their parent-teacher relationships were non-existent and none of them were particularly "caring" about the children, it had the feel of an inner-city school despite Lannion being a fairly small town.

During the school year we learned about a small private run school just down the road from our house and we went to visit it on open day. We fell in love with the village style school and its beautiful surroundings, and the staff are so open, welcoming and friendly.

Ecole Diwan is a Breton language school and it is private-associative. This means it's a private school but we don't actually pay anything, they have a very large parents committee, and all parents are expected to contribute in some way to fund-raising, organising an event or a teaching experience. The children are immersed in the Breton language from the age of 2 to 7, when French is gradually introduced in the teaching. The theory being that the children speak French (or their maternal tongue) at home, they will learn and speak Breton at school. The parents don't need to speak or understand Breton as it is only used at school, of course there will be some crossover and the school helps the parents with this. They provide translation of homework instructions and have started Breton lessons for the parents.
Now we know Breton isn't a very widespread language, our aim isn't to send Laila out into the world with this language and expect her to get very far with it, although you never know! But what it will do is teach her about another culture, the culture most local to her here in Brittany. It will also continue to expand that part of the brain with the aptitude for learning languages, as she's already bi-lingual and has very little trouble switching between the two, we don't see a problem adding a third and giving her the skills to pick up more languages when she gets the opportunity.
The classes are mixed, so Laila will be in a class of 25 two - six year olds. This way the younger ones hear the older ones talking in Breton and learn from example as well as from the teacher. They are grouped by ability or activity and not necessarily by age. The children are never forbidden from speaking in French, they are just continually replied to in Breton. The teachers say the kids all speak to each other in French in the playground.

We've introduced the idea of her new school to Laila very gradually over the summer. She was with us on the 2 visits and liked it all very much, her best friend and next door neighbour Thomas already goes there and she'll be in his class. She also knows 2 others her age that will be in her class too. She knows her teacher is male and called Ludovig. We have told her they speak in Breton, but as she doesn't understand what this means yet, we haven't pressed the matter, she'll soon discover for herself!
All she seems to be worried about at the moment is whether she's eating at the Canteen or not! She doesn't like eating at the Canteen, no matter where the school is!

So Kenavo (goodbye in Breton) for now and I will update you in the week!