Why choose La Petite Ecole Ho Chi Minh, a French international school?
What you are choosing when you choose La Petite Ecole HCMC
An AEFE-accredited French national curriculum
La Petite Ecole Ho Chi Minh follows the French national curriculum. Our teaching was accredited by the French Ministry of Education in 2020, which brought us into the AEFE partner network, a system of more than 500 French schools worldwide. Accreditation is not a one-time badge. Our methods, our teachers and our professional development are reviewed on a regular schedule against the same standard applied in France.
For families who move, this matters more than it first appears. A child leaving La Petite Ecole can enter any school in the network and pick up where they left off, in the same curriculum, the same year group and the same assessment framework.
Bilingual French-English, taught by native speakers
La Petite Ecole Ho Chi Minh follows the French national curriculum for preschool and primary school, alternating between instruction in French and English on a half-day basis, with lessons taught by native speakers. An introduction to Vietnamese and local culture has also been integrated into our curriculum.
Teaching built around how young children learn
Our approach draws on research into how children's brains develop, and it changes what a school day looks like. Children choose between activities. They are given time to work at their own pace rather than to a clock. Teachers guide rather than direct, and the classroom is arranged around the child rather than the lesson plan.
The point of all this is confidence. A child who is used to making choices and being trusted with them arrives at the next stage of school expecting to succeed, and that expectation does much of the work.
A green campus in Ho Chi Minh City
We are on Nguyen Van Huong, in one of the quieter green pockets of Ho Chi Minh city and a short drive from most of the area's residential compounds. The campus is built around that greenery rather than in spite of it, with outdoor space, a sand playground and a garden the children plant and tend themselves.
Sustainability taught as something you do
Our teachers treat environmental care as a habit rather than a topic. Children grow things in the school garden, watch them change through the year, and learn where their food and their waste actually go. That runs through conversations and activities across the school year, indoors and out.
Choosing La Petite Ecole also means choosing a school built for families from every background, whatever language they arrived speaking.
Come and see the school
Most families decide after a visit. A tour takes about an hour and you will see classes running rather than empty rooms. If you would rather start with a question, we are happy to answer it.
