Our pedagogical principles
- The child should be an active participant in their learning and their stay
- PLAY AS A MEANS OF LEARNING
- PLAY AS A DRIVER OF LEARNING
- POSSIBLE AND CONCRETE DIFFERENTIATED PEDAGOGY
- EDUCATING THE CHILD TO BETTER ENSURE CITIZEN FORMATION
- EDUCATING A FUTURE CITIZEN RESPECTFUL OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND AN AGENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Goal
The child should be an active participant in their learning and their stay.
Definition
Whether it’s workshops or activities, each sequence should be defined in terms of actions to be carried out. The facilitator is there only to provide children with the opportunity to materialize each learning situation through personal action:
– Traditional education: knowing how to give
– New education: knowing how to constructThe concept of participation is inseparable from the concept of action. The child should not be a passive actor during their vacation but should participate by making choices, expressing ideas, and making proposals.
Exemple
- During children’s meetings organized daily or regularly, we must give them the opportunity to express their feelings and opinions about the stay, the activities, daily life, relationships with their peers, and the animation team.
Goal
PLAY AS A MEANS OF LEARNING
Definition
Les vacances que nous leur proposons doivent être proposées et vécues sous le signe du plaisir et du jeu.
- Le jeu induit la consigne, dicte les règles de la situation d’apprentissage qui est en train de se dérouler. Il rend à l’enfant toute l’initiative et positionne de fait l’adulte (animateur/éducateur) en périphérie de l’action.
- Par ailleurs » Laisser jouer » l’enfant est sans doute pour l’animateur-éducateur, l’option la plus délicate à tenir : L’adulte a tendance à vouloir organiser tous les jeux et oublie le caractère de spontanéité, de gratuité et de liberté qui restent propre au jeu de l’enfant.
Exemple
- Le jeu est un vecteur essentiel d’apprentissages. L’animateur doit mettre en place les situations ludiques « intelligentes » qui serviront les apprentissages. « C’est par le jeu surtout que l’enfant diffère de l’adulte. L’enfant joue tout le temps. Quoi qu’il fasse, il joue… Jouer est synonyme de vivre, lorsqu’il s’agit de l’enfant. La joie que l’enfant trouve en jouant est la preuve qu’il doit jouer. Nous devons en éducation admettre la joie », Ovide DECROLY
Goal
PLAY AS A DRIVER OF LEARNING
Definition
The project allows the child to experience, reinvest, and take ownership of learning through concrete, individual, and collective action. « When we started printing, the children wanted to read what they had seen, to share it with their parents. It was already a success; the newspaper was sold in the village. They didn’t feel like it was homework but something that could interest people around them, » Célestin Freinet – Interview from 1961, the printing press in school.
Exemple
- The project enables the child to discover and implement a cooperative way of functioning, to experiment with concepts of autonomy, responsibility, and solidarity.
- The project approach allows the child to give meaning to their actions, their learning, their discoveries, and ultimately to their vacation. Their vacation project takes shape through the stay project (which itself stems from the theme).
Goal
POSSIBLE AND CONCRETE DIFFERENTIATED PEDAGOGY
DEfinition
Respecting the choices and uniqueness of each child:
Encouraging each child to take charge of their own choices in the project and activity helps them define their existential project on their own terms. It allows them to find their place in the group and give particular meaning to their own « education. » Giving them the choice to:
- Act within the framework of an individual, pair, or group project
- Experience the project in its artistic, scientific, sporting, etc., dimension
- Be at the center or on the periphery of the project
- Multiply experiences or focus on a specific learning area
This empowers them to identify and provide immediate or progressive responses to their own needs.
Exemple
- As a result, the animation team should propose a project offering multiple pathways, rhythms, and sub-projects, each of which fits into the overall project. This is to cater to distinct motivations, levels of expectations, or skills.
- « Crossroad moments » planned in the project construction should allow children to reorient themselves or invest in different objectives.
Goal
EDUCATING THE CHILD TO BETTER ENSURE CITIZEN FORMATION
Definition
It is indeed when active citizens are individuals in the full sense of the term that they can effectively contribute to the democratic functioning of society.
Therefore, the development of a person’s unique qualities is essential for the development of civic, cooperative, and community-mindedness, the exercise of autonomy and solidarity, and training in democratic life.
Exemple
To achieve this, it is necessary for each child to:
- Become aware of the social utility of their own abilities and use them for the benefit of the community.
- Understand the existing rules, comprehend their rationale, and consequently respect them.
- Find their place within the group and among others.
Goal
EDUCATING A FUTURE CITIZEN RESPECTFUL OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND AN AGENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Definition
It is indeed when active citizens are individuals in the full sense of the term that they can effectively contribute to the democratic functioning of society.
Therefore, the development of a person’s unique qualities is essential for the development of civic, cooperative, and community-mindedness, the exercise of autonomy and solidarity, and training in democratic life.
Exemple
Reflection must be initiated and gradually translated into actions to be carried out:
- Managing waste, combating waste (sorting and recycling, reuse, initiation to consumption, awareness of wastage)
- Educating about nutrition (nutritional education, taste, culture; gardening, knowledge of seasonal and local products, biodiversity of crops)
- Acting on the environment (collecting one’s own waste and that of others, collecting deadwood, maintaining trails, retaining walls)
- Organizing transportation and travel (rationalizing travel, promoting walking and cycling)
- Participating in local and cultural development (cultural exchanges, children’s participation in local events, visits to artisans or farms)
