Early Years welcome children at the start of French compulsory education, which begins at the age of 3. It is usually organised into 3 levels:
- petite section (PS, for 3-4 year-olds)
- moyenne section (MS, for 4-5 year-olds)
- grande section (GS, for 5-6 year-olds)
Early years are an essential stage in a child’s journey to success at school. Its main mission is to inspire children to go to school to learn, and to affirm and develop their personalities.
At that stage children learn together and live together. They develop their oral language (French, English and the local language) and begin to discover the written word, numbers and other areas of learning. They learn by playing, thinking and solving problems, practising, remembering and memorising.
PS, MS and GS form cycle 1 or the primary learning cycle, which is organised into 5 areas:
- using language in all its dimensions (French, English, Spanish/Portuguese)
- acting, expressing oneself and understanding through physical activity
- acting, expressing oneself and understanding through artistic activities
- acquiring the first mathematical tools
- explore the world
