a structure offers “preparation” for children entering kindergarten

La Petite École, present in the 2nd and 6th arrondissements, welcomes children between nursery and kindergarten to best prepare them for the start of the school year.

For many children, starting kindergarten is a complicated step. While most of them do not remember the pain of leaving their parents, the parents themselves have an unforgettable memory of it. In Lyon, the Petit École structure offers preparation for entering the first section of kindergarten to families who wish to avoid difficulties for their children.

This is the case of Marina, 37 years old. This mother has already experienced going back to nursery school with her first child.

“Having experienced the big adjustment, which is starting the first year of nursery school for my eldest, it’s still a leap into the deep end, even when you come from a structure like that and a nursery,” she explains to BFM Lyon.

Adjusting to going back to school

For the 2025 school year, she therefore chose to enroll her son Ambroise in this structure. “I found that it was a good step towards community life and school,” adds Marina.

In Lyon, two centers are accessible to prepare: one in the 2nd, the other in the 6th arrondissement. And like Marina, Clarisse, 38, made the same choice. The two mothers have the same thing in common: they had a difficult start to the school year for their first children.

“I found that for my two eldest, it was a lot to discover at once. The school is very big, there are big children and the organization of the day is very different,” the mother told BFM Lyon.

Motor skills and arts classes…

To avoid any inconveniences at the start of the school year, the Petite École offers an “educational program that encourages the assimilation of the major prerequisites of kindergarten,” it states on its website.

The program therefore includes motor skills, arts and sensory classes. The goal is to help children discover “autonomy, cleanliness, language and socialization.”

“It’s everything that revolves around living together. We work a lot on that because it’s one of the prerequisites for entering kindergarten. There’s also motor skills but also language, which we’re going to work on a lot,” says teacher Ophélie Reymond.

But this “preparatory” school has a cost: 800 euros for four days of reception per week.