Presentation
The kindergarten grades have existed since September 2006 at French International School Boule & Billes. We welcome children aged 3 to 5 years on the Binh Thanh campus.
Children are divided into 3 levels:
- First Year
- Second Year
- Final Year
Classes are created according to the number and age of children and they can be single or several grades.
For example, children in the First Year can be in a single level class or in a double grade First/Second Year or First/Final class or in a triple level First/Second/Final class.
The children have class all day until 3:00 p.m. (see Kindergarten timetable).
Class sizes are on average 14 to 23 children maximum.
All teachers have a teaching diploma.
The main teacher is mainly of French nationality, but we also welcome qualified teachers from Belgium, Switzerland or Canada.
A Vietnamese French-Speaking Assistant is present in each kindergarten class. They are qualified and hold a diploma in early childhood education or education.
From the First Year onwards, all the children do workshops in English and Vietnamese.
Kindergarten: a unique cycle, fundamental for the success of all
Kindergarten constitutes a unique cycle of education, fundamental for the success of all students. It is characterized along three main axes:
- - A school that adapts to young children, which strives to guarantee their emotional security and develop their self-confidence
- - A school which organizes specific learning methods, prepares them for fundamental learning, in particular by developing their language, an essential element of access and structuring of learning
- - A school where children enjoy learning, progressing and living together
The length of the school week for students in kindergarten (First - Second Years) is set at twenty-four hours, 26 hours for Final Year spread over nine half-days.
The school year has 36 weeks, divided into five work periods. (Calendar)
Organized in a single cycle, kindergarten is the first step to guarantee the success of all students within a school that is fair for all and demanding for everyone. It adapts to young children by taking their development into account and builds bridges between family and school. It organizes specific learning methods by setting up varied situations: problem solving, manipulation, training, memorization. Play has a special place here: it promotes the richness of lived experiences and the exchanges that result from them in all areas of learning. Kindergarten also allows children to learn together and live together: it ensures a first acquisition of the principles of life in society and respect for others, by allowing the child to build themselves as a unique person within a group.
The Boule & Billes kindergarten program is based on the French kindergarten curriculum.
Kindergarten Program
Kindergarten: a unique cycle, fundamental for the success of all
The kindergarten program organizes lessons into five learning areas
The lessons are organized into five learning areas:
- Mobilize language in all its dimensions;
- Act, express yourself, understand through physical activity;
- Act, express yourself, understand through artistic activities;
- Acquire the first mathematical tools;
- Explore the world.
Each of these five areas is essential to the child's development and must find its place in the organization of daily time.
The primordial place of language is reaffirmed as an essential condition for the success of all. The practice of physical and artistic activities allows you to develop interactions between action, sensations, imagination, sensitivity, thought and language.
The areas "acquiring the first mathematical tools" and "Exploring the world" focus on developing a first understanding of numbers and the first mathematical tools, of the children's environment and to encourage their questions. Young students' need for exploration, discovery, manipulation, experimentation, play and exchange is stimulated to lead them towards the progressive mastery of new skills and knowledge. By relying on initial knowledge linked to their experiences, kindergarten sets up a course which allows them to order the world around them, to access usual representations and knowledge that elementary school will enrich.
The main axes of the program in kindergarten
Mobilize language in all its dimensions
The primordial place of language in kindergarten is reaffirmed as an essential condition for the success of all. The stimulation and structuring of oral language and the development of understanding of texts read by adults and awareness of the sound and visual components of language constitute priorities for kindergarten and concern all areas of learning.
Act, express yourself, understand through physical activity
The practice of physical and artistic activities contributes to the motor, sensory, emotional, intellectual and relational development of children.
These activities mobilize and enrich the imagination and are an opportunity to experience new emotions and sensations. They allow students:
- to explore their physical possibilities
- to develop their motor skills and balance
- to better situate oneself in space and time
- to understand the image of their own body
They also aim to develop cooperation and constructive relationships with others, while respecting differences, and thus contribute to socialization.
The participation of all students in all the physical activities offered, the organization and the approaches implemented seek to combat stereotypes and contribute to the construction of equality between girls and boys.
Physical activities contribute to health education by leading all children, whatever their "performance", to experience the pleasure of movement and effort, and to get to know their bodies better in order to respect them.
Act, express yourself, understand through artistic activities
This area of learning refers to visual arts (painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, cinema, comics, graphic arts, digital arts), sound arts (songs, instrumental and vocal music) and performing arts. (dance, theater, circus arts, puppets, etc.).
Kindergarten plays a decisive role in providing all children with access to these artistic worlds; it constitutes the first stage of the artistic and cultural education journey that everyone completes throughout their primary and secondary schooling and which aims to acquire a personal artistic culture, based on common benchmarks.
Acquire the first mathematical tools
Discover numbers and their uses
Since birth, children have an intuition of sizes which allows them to compare and roughly evaluate lengths, volumes, but also collections of various objects ("there are many", "not many" , etc.). This perceptual capacity constitutes a basis on which the learning of numbers is anchored.
Kindergarten gradually leads students to understand that numbers can both express quantities and a rank or positioning in a list. This learning requires time and confrontation with numerous situations involving pre-numerical and then numerical activities.
Explore shapes, sizes, organized sequences
Very early on, young children intuitively discern shapes (square, triangle, etc.) and sizes (length, capacity, mass, area, etc.).
In kindergarten, they acquire knowledge and reference points on certain shapes and sizes. The approach to plane shapes, spatial objects, and sizes is done through the manipulation and coordination of actions on objects.
This approach is supported by language: it makes it possible to describe these objects and these actions and promotes the identification of initial descriptive characteristics. This knowledge constitutes a first approach to geometry and measurement which will be taught in elementary school.
Explore the world
Finding your way in time and space
From birth, through exploration, children intuitively perceive certain spatial and temporal dimensions of their immediate environment.
These perceptions allow them to acquire, within their living environments, a first series of benchmarks, to develop expectations and memories. However, this knowledge remains implicit and limited.
One of the goals of kindergarten is to gradually lead students to consider time and space as relatively independent dimensions of current activities, and to begin to treat them as such. It also seeks to get them to gradually go beyond their own point of view and adopt that of others.
Explore the living world, objects and matter
When they enter kindergarten, children already have representations that allow them to gain bearings in their daily lives.
To help them discover, organize and understand the world around them, the teacher offers activities that lead students to observe, formulate more rational questions, construct relationships between observed phenomena, predict consequences, identify likely characteristics to be categorized. Students begin to understand what distinguishes the living from the non-living; they manipulate and manufacture to familiarize themselves with objects and materials.
A redesigned assessment
- a learning logbook, completed throughout cycle 1, and
- a summary of the student's achievements, established at the end of the Final Year, the last year of cycle 1. The summary document of the student's academic achievements is communicated to the parents or the legal guardian at the end of the Final Year.
As for the transmission of the learning logbook throughout the cycle, this summary given to parents reflects what their child knows how to do at the end of their kindergarten education. It is an opportunity to interact positively with families. It also allows, if necessary, to reassure them that their child's needs and weaknesses are being taken care of, so that they can calmly approach Grade 1, the first year of cycle 2.
To learn more.
Official texts
An action plan for kindergarten: giving all pupils the foundations for their success and guaranteeing their flourishing
Memo dated January 10, 2023
Kindergarten curriculum
Official Bulletin No. 25 of June 24, 2021
Kindergarten, the school of language
Service note no. 2019-084 of May 28, 2019
A fundamental lesson in kindergarten: discovering numbers and their uses
Service note no. 2019-085 of May 28, 2019
Modern foreign languages in kindergarten
Service note no. 2019-086 of May 28, 2019
Timetable
SCHEDULE OF A KINDERGARTEN DAY (First Year / Second Year)
SCHEDULE OF A KINDERGARTEN DAY (Final Year)
Educational project
Language policy
| Language taught | First and Second Year | Final Year |
| ENGLISH | 1 hour | 2 hours |
| CLIL* ENGLISH Physical and artistic activities | 1 hour | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| VIETNAMESE | 1 hour | 2 hours |
| Total language teaching hours | 3 hours | 5 hours 30 minutes |
Teaching objectives:
- Meet the demands of families and the requirements of our multilingual environment,
- Follow the recommendations of the AEFE (Agency for French Education Abroad),
- Offer a curriculum corresponding to the needs of our students and thus ensure a personalized success path,
- Propose a coherent course ensuring continuity with the French high school,
- Develop language learning skills, knowledge and intercultural skills.
At French International School Boule & Billes, children learn 3 languages:
- French, mastery of which is the priority, and is ensured by the teaching of the French program in French in classes, but also by support in the French language (FLE) or French as a Language of Schooling (FLSco) if necessary,
- Vietnamese,
- English.
The school has a complete system offering the possibility of setting up a language course respecting the child's learning pace and the AEFE directives.
Class sizes range from 14 to 16 students per class, allowing personalized daily teaching and exchange.
The policy for teaching modern foreign languages, built on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), aims to place the school's educational offering in a context of mobility and international openness.
Students, depending on their level of mastery of the foreign language taught, are grouped into small groups for appropriate progression and teaching. Thus 3 languages will be taught within our establishment: French, Vietnamese and English.
In First and Second Year:
The Vietnamese-speaking child who begins to speak will first be secured and supported in his mother tongue in fun and learning activities while participating in the functioning of the class in French.
Vietnamese: 30 minutes of introduction to the Vietnamese language by a native teacher is offered to all children.
English: 2 x 30 minutes of workshops in English with an English-speaking teacher: oral communication, reading of stories, nursery rhymes and introduction to music with the fun Kindermusik method.
Added to this are two 30-minute sessions in CLIL (motor skills, music, art, gardening, logic games)
In Final Year:
One hour of Vietnamese language and culture by a native speaker and one hour of English by an English-speaking teacher (Sport, Kindermusik, fun).
English: 2 hours of English and 2 sessions of 45 minutes of CLIL.
For children whose level of French is considered insufficient, a test will be carried out in order to set up additional FLE lessons (see FLE prices).
Outside class time, the school offers 2 additional hours of English.
After school activities will also be offered to children in French, English and Vietnamese. (See the after school activities schedule).
*What is “CLIL”?
CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) designates a bilingual learning situation in which a language other than the school first language (French) serves as a vector for the teaching/learning of a subject. Language is therefore no longer simply an object of learning, but becomes a tool allowing access to disciplinary knowledge and know-how.
What is FLE?
French as a Foreign Language, abbreviated as FLE. This refers to the French language as taught to non-native speakers in France or abroad. It is a discipline for which specific teaching methods exist.
French as a Language of Schooling: FLSco?
The French Ministry of National Education defines French as a second language as the language which, in France, allows the student to access a qualification. The acronym FLS can in this case be translated as “French as a language of schooling”.
It is a complex language articulating oral and written simultaneously, learned in a school environment and therefore always at a later stage. It participates in the cognitive development of the learner, is developed around an object of knowledge which is gradually constructed in the class. It requires the construction of a meta-discursive and meta-cognitive skill involving complex language material.
The FLSco is offered to students whose mother tongue is not French, but for whom French should enable them not only to communicate with others, but also to take courses. The difference between these two practices is that in France, the newly arrived student most often stays in the country and becomes French, which gives a different purpose to FLS: that of being a transitional language.
Language certification:
- French: DELF level
- Vietnamese: none
What is the DELF?
The DELF (Diplôme d'Etudes en Langue Française) and the DALF (Diplôme Approfondi de Langue Française) are the only French as a foreign language diplomas issued by the French Ministry of National Education. They have a lifetime validity and benefit from international recognition. They allow you to officially validate your learning of the French language. These diplomas constitute recognition of your educational, university and/or professional career in French. In addition, the DELF and DALF can allow you to study, work and immigrate to a French-speaking country.
Levels A1 and A2
According to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages), level A1 (introductory or discovery) is the most basic level of personal language use. At level A1, the learner is capable of simple interactions. He can answer and ask simple questions about himself, where he lives, the people he knows and the things he has. The A1 level learner can intervene with simple statements in areas which concern him or which are familiar to him and also respond to them, by not simply repeating ready-made and pre-organized expressions.
At level A2 (intermediate or survival), we will find most of the descriptors which indicate social relationships such as: uses everyday forms of politeness and address; greets someone, asks them about them and reacts to the response; carries out a very short exchange; answers and asks similar questions about what he does professionally and for leisure; invites and responds to an invitation; discusses what he wants to do, where, and makes the necessary arrangements; makes a proposal and accepts one.
At level A2, we will also find descriptors relating to outings and travel, a simplified version of all the transactional specifications of the threshold level for adults living abroad such as: carrying out a simple exchange in a store, a post office or a bank; find out about a trip; use public transport: buses, trains and taxis; request basic information; ask for directions and indicate them; to buy tickets ; provide and demand the products and services needed on a daily basis.
FAQ
What is the program?
The lessons are organized into five learning areas:
- mobilize language in all its dimensions
- act, express yourself, understand through physical activity
- act, express yourself, understand through artistic activities
- build the first tools to structure your thinking
- explore the world
Each of these five areas is essential to the child's development and must find its place in the organization of daily time.
The primordial place of language is reaffirmed as an essential condition for the success of all. The practice of physical and artistic activities allows you to develop interactions between action, sensations, imagination, sensitivity, thought and language.
The areas "Building the first tools to structure your thinking" and "Exploring the world" focus on developing a first understanding of numbers and the first mathematical tools, of the children's environment and to encourage their questions.
Young students' need for exploration, discovery, manipulation, experimentation, play and exchange is stimulated to lead them towards the progressive mastery of new skills and knowledge. By relying on initial knowledge linked to their experiences, kindergarten sets up a course which allows them to order the world around them, to access usual representations and knowledge that elementary school will enrich.
Are we entitled to the scholarship?
Yes, children of French nationality can apply for the scholarship.
Are you part of the AEFE?
Yes, we are an AEFE partner establishment from cycle 1 to cycle 3. From First Year to Grade 5.
Can my child join the French School after “Boule & Billes”?
Yes because Boule & Billes is a school whose 3 cycles accredited by the AEFE follow the same programs as all accredited French schools in France and abroad.
Is the teacher French? What diploma does he have?
Yes, FLE (French as a Foreign Language) or PE (school teacher) graduate, with at least 3 years of teaching experience.
What time can we drop off our child?
The establishment is open Monday to Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Welcome time is from 7:30 a.m. to 8:05 a.m. for kindergarten and elementary classes.
Can the child have breakfast at school?
No, breakfast must be taken before arriving at school.
What kind of meal is served at lunch?
A variety of dishes, both European and Vietnamese. We favor fruits and vegetables.see Menu of the month
Is the meal included in school fees?
No, lunch is charged additionally. See fees
Is the child still napping?
Yes for First Year and Second Year. For the Final Year, a quiet time is offered to them after lunch.
What time is nap time?
The children of First Year and Second Year go to sleep after lunch at 11:45 a.m.
Do they have snacks at school?
Yes if they are registered in an after school activity.
What time can we pick up the children?
For children who do not participate in after school activities:
Wednesday after lunch, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 3 p.m.
And at 4:20 p.m., every day after their after school activity for those who do it.
Is there a shuttle for kindergarten children?
Yes in the morning, after classes at 3:05 p.m. and after after school activities at 4:25 p.m.
Do you give showers to children?
No, no longer in kindergarten unless it proves necessary.
Would you like to know more?
Our team is available at a time that suits you to show you around our campuses. If you would like to meet us and book a guided tour of Thao Dien or Binh Thanh, please fill in the online visit request form: