Au Beau Sejour French Preschool
Community SubscriberOakland, CA
- May 2021: Capacity has increased from 45 to 55
ABS provides a challenging education inspired by the Education National curriculum in France. Our children’s well-being, happiness, academic, creativity, Social Emotional Learning and language development are at the foundation of our learning model. At ABS we make learning FUN in a French immersion setting!
Parent Q&A
Parent Reviews
Parents, please Sign in to post a review on this page.Our son has been at ABS West Campus since he turned two and he is about to (gasp) turn five and graduate this summer. We have been so, so happy with the school. It is fairly structured, which is a good fit for my son, but they incorporate a lot of very thoughtful and creative activities -- art, gardening, chickens, cooking (less so since the pandemic, alas), etc. They just did a unit on trash and recycling and we got to send him to school with some empty containers to sort. One thing that drew us to the school initially was a civic-minded flavor that shows up in activities like that. Also, they give them lunch, which is such a luxury. It is also very well-organized and the communication is great. They are very responsive to questions via email, which I don't think is true at every school. The director, Coralie, is really incredible. She is very passionate about early childhood education and unbelievably motivated and energetic. I have been so in awe of how she adapted the school to the new normal during the pandemic and was able to keep it all going, keep everyone safe, and even grow the school during that time. I have the impression that she invests a lot in the well-being and development of the staff and we have been so happy to see one of the head teachers, Lillia, step into the role of assistant director as the school has grown. There is a lovely community of parents and just a relaxed vibe to the whole place. I don't know the exact numbers but I would estimate that at least 50-60% of the kids have a connection to French outside of school, so it is also a good place to connect with other francophone families. Before the pandemic, they would host big parties a few times a year for all the families to come and eat and hang out -- maybe that will come back one day. The bottom line is that we really trust Coralie and all the staff and we have been delighted to see our son grow and mature during his time there. Happy to chat by phone if there are specific questions I can answer!
Our oldest has been at ABS West Oakland pre school for two years now and will begin his third in September. His younger brother will start in the TPS class in September (he attended one week of summer camp as well). We really love Coralie (the director) and the teachers. They have only had one “covid scare” (last June) and had a prompt and comprehensive response. The food at school is well balanced and exposes my kids to new flavors and combinations (plus many of the vegetables are grown right on site) - and they are willing to eat things there that I can’t get them to eat at home. We have no French at home and comprehension by our children has been wonderful to watch progress. I also really like the flexibility of a school year and summer camp (July and August are week by week enrollment), so you aren’t paying whether you use the program or not. Also, I appreciate that the teachers come from many French-speaking countries, exposing my kiddos to more cultures. In all, we are very big fans of ABS preschool. I don’t have specific experience with the new location, but if Coralie brings the same passion and joy will be a wonderful place for the children to grow and develop.
Our daughter is at Au Beau Sejour in Oakland near Emeryville and she loves it. Lunch is provided and looks very tasty — it is French-run and French immersion so no surprise they take food seriously. They just finished a “semaine du goût” (taste week) where they talked in great detail about food :) Happy to provide more details on our experience if helpful and can also refer you if you decide it’s a good fit.
Au Beau Séjour in N. Oakland is a lovely new preschool (French immersion) that provides lunches. It's amazing and great -- even if the menu isn't exactly how we would feed our child, we are grateful to have only one (older child) meal to pack every day -- and we like the homogeneity of everyone eating together without comparison or envy. The food is nutritious, and our only real complaint (to ourselves, not to the school) is that there is more sugar on the menu than we give our child.
The kids also have a little garden that they get to work in sometimes, and there are chickens. The school is new but the director has a lot of experience. We've only been there since September but are very happy with most aspects of the school. We switched our child from a more expensive school, and although it had some things we preferred, we've learned with two kids that no school is going to have ALL the attributes....or unlikely anyway!
Hello,
Our two year old began attending ABS at the beginning of December, so we have a three week view of his experience there, but I must say he's really had a wonderful time at the program. Currently it's a mixed-age program as it's small while they enroll more students, but the director and teacher have been fantastic with him and have helped him immensely get situated and really feel at home. A couple things we have really been happy with:
1) The founder, Coralie, is really on the ball and has designed a great curriculum and program of mixed play and structure: our son does yoga and participates in structured physical events outside, but also has plenty of free-play to play with the many items inside (he loves the plastic drills and kitchen area).
2) The meals are really great, including french food - I'm more than a little jealous of some of the food that he eats, such as the Salmon Pasta with a cream sauce.
3) They sing songs a lot, and he's really taken to them.
4) The school had a wonderful holiday party where the children sang songs in french for the families and we had a pot luck - it really was a really nice way of having us feel at home as a community.
Again, it's only been 3 weeks but we, and most importantly our son, are very happy with ABS!