Nikol Athanasiou

English-speaking assistant, 3-6 class

My vision: I have always been passionate about the well-being and development of children. I wish to accompany them with respect and love, while they develop respect for themselves, others, and the environment.
I want us to discover nature and the world around us together and help awaken their curiosity and their capacity to understand and identify with others.

Through Montessori pedagogy, we help children develop their physical and mental independence, their compassion and sensitivity.
We achieve this by giving them a safe environment, which encourages mutual respect and allows them to learn at their own rhythm.

Degrees:

• Master in Art

• AMI Montessori Assistant Diploma for the Children’s House (3-6 class)

• AMI Montessori Assistant Diploma for the Elementary Class, (6-12 class)

Maria José Coutiño

AMI Montessori Teacher, 3-6 class

My vision : For me, to guide the child with gentleness and love towards his personal fulfillment is as much a privilege as a necessity to be able to create healthy and empathic societies. Maria Montessori's own vision helps guide and educate children while respecting their individual rhythm so that they can become self-reliant and confident individuals in a healthy and respectful structure.

Degrees :

• Master of Letters (Bac + 5)

• AMI Montessori Assistants Certificate

• Association Montessori International Diploma for the Children’s House (3-6), ISMM, Paris

• Training in "Creating Empathetic Cultures" (Universal Education, with Pamela Cayton of Tara Redwood School, California)

• Yoga for children and adolescents, Research on Yoga in Education, France (RYE)

Latest work experience :

• AMI-trained Montessori Teacher at Les Voyelles Colorées since september 2017

• Teacher of English and Spanish children, adolescents and adults, Grenoble

• English teacher as volunteer in Ghana

• Kindergarten Assistant, Tel Aviv, Israel

Laetitia Forveille

AMI Francophone Teacher, 3-6 class

My vision: The discovery of the Montessori pedagogy was a logical continuation of my professional career with children. What drives me as a Montessori educator is letting the child express its inner flame, that will lead him/her to become a free social being, aware of his/her environment.
I was immediately convinced by the true sense of this pedagogy, which really meets the fundamental needs of the child.
Working, and offering the child, meaning, respect, altruism, patience, enthusiasm and benevolence are values that I have always wanted to work with; the Montessori pedagogy offers me this opportunity.

Degrees:

• Association Montessori International Teacher’s Diploma for the Children’s House (3-6), ISMM, Paris

• 0-3 years old Montessori Teacher Training

• State Diploma of Early Childhood Educator

• Professional Certificate in Popular Youth Education and Sports, « Loisirs tous publics »

• Trainer training

• B.A.F.A

Latest work experiences:

• AMI Montessori French Teacher for the Children’s House at Les Voyelles Colorées since September 2022

• Montessori trainer for professionals and families

• Montessori educator 3-6 years old in private Montessori preschools

• Montessori educator 0-3 years old in micro-crèche

• Collective School Life Assistant in ULIS

• Director of a Leisure Centre without Primary Accommodation

Patricia Grandvaux

Francophone Teacher, 6-12 class

I have always been passionate about childhood’s developmental period because of the evolution and possibilities it allows. Accompanying my four children on this path has filled me with joy: these great travellers, having had to often adapt to new countries and new cultures; the encounter with others has been incredibly enriching. The discovery of Maria Montessori and her pedagogy coincided with the first school years of my children, and they remain an inexhaustible source of inspiration. It appears, and it is confirmed by being in contact with the child, that from a very young age, he becomes an important participant in his life and development, allowing him to become independent and responsible both for himself and his environment; we are marvelled on a daily basis by what he becomes. I thank each and every one of the children that I had had the great honour of meeting for a brief or longer period

Diplomas:

• Scientific Specialization Mathematics, Physical Sciences/Chemistry, Biology

• Medicine: 1 year

• Diploma in Child Development and Learning Psychology, PARIS VIII University, specialty Ethno psychiatry

• Master's thesis defense: “Deafness, the possible filiation”

• Montessori Primary Teacher Diploma (3-6 years old), California: Montessori Sunflower in Mission Viejo, and Apple Tree in Lake Forest

• Sophrology Training, Lyon and Avignon, Basic and advanced cycle

• Naturopathy Training, 2 years

• PSC1 and IPSEN, French Red Cross

• Ongoing education as a Montessori Elementary Teacher (6-12 years old)

Professional career:

• Volunteer in various associations, meals and sharing

• Assistance and educational support for children with special needs in schools, children in care

• Multidisciplinary support for people with special needs, California, USA, Italy, Morocco, Netherlands, France

• Montessori Teacher 3-6 years old

• Creation and co-direction of the school Les Voyelles Colorées (2015-2017)

• Montessori Teacher 6-12 years old at Les Voyelles Colorées since September 2023

Marine Gutierrez

AMI Francophone Teacher, 2-3 and 3-6 classes

My vision: As a former public school teacher, I quickly became interested and then trained in the Montessori pedagogy, which instills a lot of meaning to my teaching. My everyday mission is to support and guide the children based on my studies and professional experiences, within a prepared environment and in cohesion with my colleagues.

We have so much to learn from children, and we tend to forget it, as the future is theirs, and their destiny is in our hands.

Degrees:

• Association Montessori International Teachers’s Diploma for the Children’s House (3-6), ISMM, Lyon

• Association Montessori International Assistant’s Diploma for Nido and Childhood’s Community (0-3)

• Master MEEF (Métiers de l'enseignement, de l'éducation et de la formation) 1st degree 

• Bachelor’s Degree in Science of Education

Latest work experiences:

• AMI Montessori French Teacher for the Children’s House at Les Voyelles Colorées since September 2023

• Montessori teacher at Montessori School de Gaillac (Tarn) 

• Montessori Assitant at the Montessori School Beautiful Minds of Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine)

• Public School Teacher at the Academy of Versailles

Shiraz Hurtado

AMI Montessori Teacher, 3-6 and 6-12, and School Principal

My vision : My great interest in Montessori pedagogy was developed by listening to the "path of life" of my three young children. Gestures, looks, actions, "listening to the world" have generated in me a questioning and a desire to know, to participate with them in the construction of a true education, and when I say this word, I want A word "in the making", respecting the development of the child, a word of exchange and reception, giving and receiving, as a hand extended to the child, this being at once so close and so Ahead of us.
The work of Maria Montessori is all attention, a reflective and constructive attention, in which no cognitive data can be summed up in an abstract concept that is not determined by the action of the child. Yes, move from knowledge to understanding, from knowledge to existence, a pedagogy in which the child can reveal himself, a pedagogy where happiness arouses the desire to learn.

Degrees :

• Masters in Plastic Arts

• Master 2 in Aesthetics and Visual Arts Practices

• Montessori Educational Diploma from the Montessori International Association, Paris, Atmosphere 3-6 years

• Montessori Educational Diploma from the Montessori International Association, Archamps, Atmosphere 6-12 years

Blandine Ricaud

English-speaking teacher Infant Community, 2-3 class

Blandine Ricaud has developped a passion for alternative education since she was 15, and more specifically for the Montessori method.

Blandine holds several AMI diplomas and is trained for all age groups. She has 25 years of experience as a teacher, trainer and consultant in education.

As a world traveler since she was young, she has been a student, an intern, an educator, a teacher, a mother, a trainer and a consultant in several countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and in the USA.
Everywhere around the world, she has observed how universal the Montessori method is. It is a real pleasure for her to offer this holistic and child-centered education to your children.

Enriched by this diversified professional experience, by bringing up five children, and by her trainings in Positive Education, Non Violent Communication and Personal Development, she still sees the wonder in each child in her daily practice.