Private international school in Lyon, France

Ombrosa International Bilingual School, Lyon:
Ombrosa is a privately run International Bilingual School with campuses in Lyon and Savoie in south east France. The school comprises nursery, primary, lower and upper secondary sections. The school has an international outlook and pupils are taught in two languages (French and in English). Ombrosa’s pupils are French speaking, English speaking or from other international backgrounds.

Nursery School:
The general aim is simple yet accessible and very important: to learn the arts of self discovery and self discipline in order to involve oneself in an attractive yet formative world: the world of school. This first step is of prime importance if school life and life in society are to be lived as positive experiences.

Joining nursery school is a new motivating stage for the child. Here are acquired new skills and knowledge which are a pleasure to put into practice. The nursery school child also learns to live with others, to respect and to share, to follow instructions in order to be able to discover other new and exciting activities. On the programme are: psychomotricity, language, logic, writing, creativity….

The nursery school is entirely English speaking, with the sole exception of pre-reading which is done in French, throughout the year, in the top classes.

Primary School:
Establishing the basics. English, History, Geography, Science, Creative Writing and Art are followed in English along with Maths and French which are taught, in depth, in French.

The children discover or perfect another language thanks to the process of teaching through immersion. Alternately the classes are taught for one week entirely in English and for one week entirely in French.

Variety, consistence, and consolidation are the key elements of this teaching and these are the results of long experience and hard work. In this way the pupils are guaranteed optimum learning conditions.

Sport plays a large role in the teaching day. It helps to counter balance the rigorous academic schedule and the personal demands this makes of the children.

Lower Secondary School:
Consolidation and growth. The rôle of the lower secondary school is to establish and build on good educational practice and encourage international awareness.

By relying on the content and structure of the French system the aim is to widen the field of interest while at the same time reinforcing the essential basic skills already acquired by the pupils. The aim is also to instill a real sense of personal motivation and to establish good working practices.

This part of the school prepares pupils for the Diplôme National du Brevet, and IGCSE, and these lead on to the High School where pupils study in various streams leading to either the French Baccalaureate or, if in the international stream, to the proposed International Baccalaureate, bilingual option.
English is taught on 3 levels : beginners, bilingual pupils, native speaker level.

To be or to become bilingual, in French and English, is a great starting point for coping well with extra languages :

German or Japanese from the first year as a first foreign language.
Spanish from the age of 14 as a second foreign language.
Japanese is offered in the Sixth Form as a third foreign language.
 
Upper Secondary School:
Study in depth, reaping the rewards. The Upper Secondary School is conceived for French, English and international pupils who wish to fulfil themselves and open as many doors as possible onto the world of higher education, in France or elsewhere (U.K Canada U.S.A.) Open to all comers the Lycée is particularly suitable for pupils who come from bilingual or international sections within Europe or Asia.

It’s a question of how, in three years, one can learn to become autonomous and self motivated as far as work is concerned. With a view to broadening knowledge and deepening thought processes the pupil has to tackle all sorts of different learning experiences (lessons, experiments, essay writing, research and presentations). Some of the topics concerned are imposed, some are chosen freely. Advice on methodology is carefully given in each case.