– La Petite Ecole –

La Petite Ecole is a recent initiative of the vzw RED-Laboratoire Pédagogique that was founded in 2010 in Brussels by two passionate teachers, Marie Pierrard and Juliette Pirlet. A pedagogic laboratory is a place for research and experiments with regard to education, with the central question: how can knowledge be passed on in a different way in practice?

In 2015, the association launched “La Petite Ecole” as an experiment for the children of migrants and refugees. Above all young children have often experienced only war, exile and unimaginably difficult journeys; they are unable emotionally and cognitively to adapt to school in Belgium.

La Petite Ecole offers them a place specially for them for a few months to prepare, not only by learning a new language in a customised way, but also by giving them the self-confidence again emotionally speaking to leave the protective family circle and go to school regularly.

In this way, La Petite Ecole helps the children to leave their traumas behind, but it also helps their families who for the first time in a long while can dream of a future for them. The project thus helps with the integration of the entire family. La Petite Ecole receives support from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Following a visit by the president of the European Committee of the Regions, there was much positive attention for the initiative in other countries.

The Joseph Schepers – Germaine Lijnen Fund offered La Petite Ecole financial support when it started up for three years and now continues to finance its operations every year.