.png)
Get to know Petit Loup Academy
Based in the heart of Denver, this isn’t the kind of place you might expect to find a mix of Finnish and French. But once you step inside, that’s exactly what you and your child will experience. We immerse pre-school children in the Finnish education method and the French language, providing them with the skills, creativity and cultural awareness they’ll need to thrive later in life.
While most pre-schools aim to get their students ready for kindergarten, we aim to get ours ready for first grade. This means your child will know twice as much as others in their age group, giving them a crucial head start. This is how we do it:
French Immersion
French is one of the most commonly spoken languages in Denver, but there are only five schools in the area that speak it. Many pre-schools don’t teach it at all, or only offer it as a small part of their program. We immerse our students in the language every day, which is proven to link to better problem-solving, greater creativity and quicker thinking. It also helps build a sense of community and cultural awareness, helping them connect to more people around them and understand the world they’ve been born into. It’s twice as immersive as just using one language, twice as effective at making things stick, and helps our pre-school children learn twice as much.
A Finnish philosophy
Finnish teaching prioritises play-based learning, socialising and teacher empowerment. Every moment is a learning opportunity, and by encouraging a sense of community, sustainable practices and holistic development, we set our students up with skills set to last a lifetime. We believe children learn better when they’re happier. If you speak to any of our parents, they’ll tell you their children are so happy here they never want to leave.
Values designed to expand minds
The values we teach here aim to help your child grow into their best possible selves. By prioritizing smaller classes, we give each child the attention they deserve while empowering our teachers to do what they do best. We treat each child as an individual rather than forcing them into an educational mould, and use innovative, playful, joyful teaching strategies to engage them in every aspect of their development.
We also teach resilience. We know the real world isn’t always easy, and new challenges will appear all the time. That’s why we encourage our children to understand these realities early.
When we go outside we become members of the general public and learn good citizenship. We treat people with kindness, respect and dignity, and talk about the things we see. When we play in our playground, we expect children to fall. That’s fine - we help them back up again and dust them down. We visit galleries and museums where stories might shock and surprise, and refuse to wrap our students in bubblewrap. (We will let them pop some though, if the opportunity presents itself.)