A fundamental and unique key to future success
Cousteau provides preschool learning program and full-time daycare service in North Vancouver. Rated among the best preschools we provide our students with a truly bilingual and multicultural environment.
The school of development and early learnings
At Cousteau, Preschool starts at age 2 and a half! This three-to-four-year school section plays a key role in the development of children and their successful transition to fulfilled students. The program builds the foundations that the children will use later in their education. It encourages them to question, create and explore while allowing them to assert their personalities, and to develop themselves as individuals within a group. Each child builds confidence in their own ability to think, learn, act, and succeed. Our maternelle program (Preschool and Kindergarten years) strives to install in them a willingness and pleasure to learn.
Kindergarten (Grande Section) represents the last stage, after Pre-K3 (Petite Section) and Pre-K4 (Moyenne Section) of the Cycle 1 “Early Learnings” in the French education system.
While Kindergarten is the first year of school in British Columbia.
Preschool and Kindergarten’s goals:
-stimulating language, motor, cognitive and social development,
-developing self-confidence and autonomy, promoting the assertion of the child’s personality,
-helping the child to become a student.
5 areas of learning:
o Communicating and developing language
o Expressing oneself through physical activities
o Expressing oneself through artistic activities
o Learning mathematical tools
o Exploring the world
A preschool adapted to young children
The French Preschool employs specific methods of instruction adapted to young children: learning through play, reflecting, problem solving, practicing, memorizing, and developing motor skills.
The space and activities are designed to stimulate the curiosity of young children and consider their needs, including play, exploration, movement and rest. The schedule respects their psychological rhythms. Thanks to the caring climate in the class, the children are completely safe and can better develop and learn.
A bilingual education
French is the main language of instruction, representing 90% (in Preschool) or 85% (in Kindergarten) of teaching time. From Preschool, the instruction in English is provided by native speaker teachers, and co-teaching sessions are run by an English teacher and a French teacher simultaneously.
Instruction in English per week: Preschool: 2.5 hours / Kindergarten: 5 hours
Social Emotional Learning
In accordance with the British Columbia curriculum, the focus is on personal, social and emotional skills. Our preschool students learn to communicate, interact and collaborate with others in a respectful and kind way. They learn to know themselves as individuals and as members of a group, and to be personally and socially responsible.
A school educating future citizens
Preschool and Kindergarten classes are involved in the Eco-School project which makes them aware of sustainability through actions such as no waste lunches, no meat lunches, waste sorting, and gardening.
Forest school is a key project for Preschool and Kindergarten classes who walk to Hunter Park in North Vancouver twice a month to study flora and fauna, make sensory experiences, walk in the forest, collect natural materials to create land art, or read.
The teaching team is trained in taking care of your children, with certifications delivered by France and British Columbia. The teachers have the same graduate degree as Elementary school teachers, are trained in child psychology and physical development, and in early childhood education.
In Preschool, each class has a certified homeroom teacher, assisted by an educator. The ratio is 1 adult per 8 children.
In Kindergarten, each class has a certified homeroom teacher, assisted by a part-time educator depending on the number of students. The classes are composed on average of 15 students per class.
The teaching team also includes an English teacher, a Music teacher and a Physical Education teacher.
Staff answer to the needs and specificities of all young students.
2 campuses: North Vancouver and Vancouver
Cousteau Campus in North Vancouver:
Pre-K3 / Pre-K4 / Kindergarten
Monday to Friday
Full-day program: 8:30 a.m. to 3:05 p.m.
+ daycare, before and afterschool activities until 5:30pm
La Calypso Campus in Vancouver:
Pre-K3 / Pre-K4
Monday to Friday
Half-day program: morning session (8am-12pm) or afternoon session (1pm-5pm)