Pomme d' Api Preschool

Pomme d'Api is a French immersion preschool in Vancouver. We help children foster their social and cognitive development while teaching and encouraging the use of the French language. Our preschool caters to families who desire to have their children benefit from the richness of a French immersion program, as well as Francophone families who want their children to continue learning in their first language.

As a parent participation preschool, Pomme d’Api relies on parent and caregiver volunteering to operate the school. We have two staff members, our Early Childhood Educators, who are responsible for class planning and instruction. Parents and caregivers lead or contribute in all other areas, including registration, financial administration, publicity, communications, cleaning/disinfecting, facility maintenance, volunteer coordination, website management, and more. They also manage the preschool by filling positions on the Board of Directors. Pomme d’Api is community built, and it also builds community.

Classes:

Pomme d’Api offers four sets of classes that differ by schedule rather than by content. All classes are open to children from 32 months of age (as of the start of the school year) who are potty trained. Children can enrol in any set of classes, with a fixed schedule of 2, 3, or 5 days per week.

French in the Classroom:

Throughout the preschool year, French is used in the classroom, and children are exposed to the language according to their individual needs and abilities. Some children will already understand or speak some French when they start school, and some come from Francophone families. Some will come from Anglophone families with no experience of speaking French at home.

We incorporate French in class through the repetition of phrases and expressions during our routines. From the start, we sing our transitions in French, and French songs will be sung at circle time over and over again. A child who has no prior mastery of the language will be gradually introduced to French, whereas a child from a Francophone family will be addressed by teachers solely in French.