We belong to a network of schools, the network of the Agency of French Education Abroad (AEFE) and our school in Brasilia is really the characteristic of an international high school, in which we teach four languages: French, Brazilian Portuguese, English and Spanish. We keep a privileged place for the language and culture of the host country: with the teaching of Brazilian Portuguese from the age of three and the teaching of the history of Brazil for all students.

Three important points about the trends, first, the CONFIDENCE, which is a characteristic of the French teaching that we decline in Brazil: confidence within our organization and confidence with the families. Then the BENEVOLENCE towards our students that we welcome with a comprehensive assessment of each of them to provide individual aid. Finally, INTERDISCIPLINARY logic with an artistic and cultural focuses.

What are the Innovative ways to Encourage Active Learning?

The three key points in terms of educational innovation are, first, the MEANING that we give to our learning, so that children understand beyond being in school, why it is necessary to learn. For this, we connect our school with the “real life” especially with the economic world and the business world, so that there is not a step “acquisition of diplomas” and a step “entering in the world of work”. Then, the concept of PLEASURE, we try to set up learning processes that are not necessarily in constraint strictly. For example, we can cite the media club, a playful project in which students must produce audiovisual content. This project combines the pleasure of doing and the meaning. And it has got a management aspect, since it needs to build a team, to respect the specifications, to respect a deadline, which are major didactic and pedagogical variables.

Importance of Community Programs in schools 

With regard to the governance of the institution, there are a number of instances in which the entire school community is represented (students, parents, teachers, staff, members of the direction, members of the board) which support the community and where all the decision for the institution are made. This goes from the School Council, which is the major instance, to instances where students are present to make proposals to us such as the College Life

Council, the School Life Council and the School Council.

Also, we do not learn by ourselves and we are not strictly the holders of educational and pedagogical power, that’s why we work a lot on the educational alliance and the school-family link that reaches the point of the CONFIDENCE mentioned above. In addition, we develop partnerships with the economic world, with the artistic and cultural field and with the sports field.

In order to create a link with all the elements of the educational community (pupils, teachers, parents, staff, direction’s members, board’s member), we develop methodological communication tools such as the Digital Workspace, a digital platform, which allows to put the community in dialogue.

Finally, our school is part of a worldwide network of almost 500 schools with which we are constantly in contact and with whom we organize joint projects, in terms of both staff training and the meeting between students such as conquests in many different areas.

Role of Athletics in Education

The presence of sport is very important in our school, especially because of its link with WELLNESS and HEALTH, two concepts that are part of our “health care” and “citizenship path” programs that each student start from an early age. Also, sport as a vector for the development of motor skills allows us to develop learning, especially in kindergarten, from the age of three, children enter the language through oral doing sports, essential step before to go on writing. Finally, sport allows us to develop the cultural aspect of our Franco-Brazilian school, with typically French sports or typical Brazilian sports, with for example for French, rugby with inter-school tournament logic and for the Brazil, development of capoeira, typical of Brazil 

After-school Learning : Potential and Advantages

Our extracurricular activities offer a playful complement with activities such as swimming, such as English language or robotics, which propose an alternative approach that is no “evaluated”, so which are less stressful for students and are not perceived as too much schooling. Finally, we offer children different interlocutors who are external speakers, who have a posture perceived as different from the teacher and therefore complementary.

About the Author

Laurent Donnat is the Director of the school Lycée Français François Mitterrand on Brasilia, Brazil since September 2018. He is been successively in many schools, teacher, inspector and director, which allows him to have a complete reading of the educational system from the « maternelle » to the « post baccalaureat » (2 -20 years). In parallel, he led various missions aimed at creating a link between the school and different worlds (companies, « public defense » sector, etc.). Trainer, he is a specialist in educational issues in the field of physical education and sports and the field of new technologies. At the international level, he has done several consulting and auditing assignments in different countries (Scotland, Germany, Portugal, United States, Quebec, etc.). Finally, he develops actions in the cultural and associative sector as quite recently the creation of an artistic festival in the South of France. In conclusion, Laurent Donnat has a versatile profile and a rich and varied career in France and abroad allowing him to pilot structures with the aim of revealing potential.