DIRECTOR/HEAD TEACHER
Marie-Gaëlle Casset-Ford
was born in Paris, France, in 1970, and moved back to the family home in Brittany in 1982. From an early age, with her young friends and family she forged a passion for sharing her love of the arts, nature and languages. In 1991, she came to Portland to pursue a degree in Fine Arts at the Maine College of Art where she received a BFA in Sculpture in 1996. She began her teaching career through Spiral Arts Inc., which offered art classes to the multicultural Portland community, focusing on three-dimensional concepts working with clay and found objects as well as two-dimensional art forms like book binding and paper making. In the pursuit of higher education, Marie-Gaëlle was accepted into Lesley College’s Masters in Education program. Specializing in Creative Arts in Learning, she received a Masters degree in 2000 and continued teaching art in French-based programs throughout the greater Portland area. After spending 2002 in Brittany with her family to share her heritage with her children and broaden her experience, Marie-Gaëlle returned to Maine to accept a position at L’Ecole Francaise du Maine /French School of Maine to teach to preschoolers and introduce art in French to children from pre-K to 6th grade through a total immersion program. After 3 years working in the immersion context, Marie-Gaëlle and family went to Ireland for six months. They reconnected with Europe and closer to home! She is now back in Maine and moving on to share her joy in combining language acquisition and artistic talent to all children in the Greater Portland area. With over 15 years of teaching experience, Marie-Gaëlle has put all her devotion as an educator to create her dream: a unique Bilingual Art-venture called La Petite Ecole. Her mission is to promote learning languages-French/English- at a young age through fun hands on experiences with the fundamentals of, from and through the Arts.
Marie-Gaëlle Casset-Ford
was born in Paris, France, in 1970, and moved back to the family home in Brittany in 1982. From an early age, with her young friends and family she forged a passion for sharing her love of the arts, nature and languages. In 1991, she came to Portland to pursue a degree in Fine Arts at the Maine College of Art where she received a BFA in Sculpture in 1996. She began her teaching career through Spiral Arts Inc., which offered art classes to the multicultural Portland community, focusing on three-dimensional concepts working with clay and found objects as well as two-dimensional art forms like book binding and paper making. In the pursuit of higher education, Marie-Gaëlle was accepted into Lesley College’s Masters in Education program. Specializing in Creative Arts in Learning, she received a Masters degree in 2000 and continued teaching art in French-based programs throughout the greater Portland area. After spending 2002 in Brittany with her family to share her heritage with her children and broaden her experience, Marie-Gaëlle returned to Maine to accept a position at L’Ecole Francaise du Maine /French School of Maine to teach to preschoolers and introduce art in French to children from pre-K to 6th grade through a total immersion program. After 3 years working in the immersion context, Marie-Gaëlle and family went to Ireland for six months. They reconnected with Europe and closer to home! She is now back in Maine and moving on to share her joy in combining language acquisition and artistic talent to all children in the Greater Portland area. With over 15 years of teaching experience, Marie-Gaëlle has put all her devotion as an educator to create her dream: a unique Bilingual Art-venture called La Petite Ecole. Her mission is to promote learning languages-French/English- at a young age through fun hands on experiences with the fundamentals of, from and through the Arts.
Co-teacher and Before and After care giver:
Pauline Bonnet
Pauline was born and raised in Paris. At a very early age she became fascinated by the world’s diversity of languages and cultures. After completing her High school’s degree in Literature and Philosophy, she went on to study “Language, Literature and Foreign Civilisation” in English at the University of La Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.
Pauline discovered her taste for teaching young children when spending a summer as an “au pair” to a two year old in San Fransisco in 2006, and was offered a grant to study abroad for her Master’s degree. She therefore spent a schoolyear at Randolph Macon, VA, where she was also given the opportunity to be a tutor and a teaching assistant for the French department.
In 2009, Pauline moves to Portland, ME where she now lives, and meets Marie-Gaëlle Casset-Ford at the very beginning of the building of what is now La Petite Ecole, LLC. Pauline is now teaching her third year as an Assistant Teacher to Marie-Gaëlle at L’Ecole. She is very invested in the school with a lot of enthusiasm in the language acquisition spectrum of the program and enjoys developing experiences with bilingual children.
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Yoga Teacher:
Donnabeth Davis
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Pauline Bonnet
Pauline was born and raised in Paris. At a very early age she became fascinated by the world’s diversity of languages and cultures. After completing her High school’s degree in Literature and Philosophy, she went on to study “Language, Literature and Foreign Civilisation” in English at the University of La Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris.
Pauline discovered her taste for teaching young children when spending a summer as an “au pair” to a two year old in San Fransisco in 2006, and was offered a grant to study abroad for her Master’s degree. She therefore spent a schoolyear at Randolph Macon, VA, where she was also given the opportunity to be a tutor and a teaching assistant for the French department.
In 2009, Pauline moves to Portland, ME where she now lives, and meets Marie-Gaëlle Casset-Ford at the very beginning of the building of what is now La Petite Ecole, LLC. Pauline is now teaching her third year as an Assistant Teacher to Marie-Gaëlle at L’Ecole. She is very invested in the school with a lot of enthusiasm in the language acquisition spectrum of the program and enjoys developing experiences with bilingual children.
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Yoga Teacher:
Donnabeth Davis
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