About Us

The mission of La Petite Ecole is to educate young children in a foreign language to make them better citizens of tomorrow’s world.  We operate as a not-for-profit corporation. It is overseen by a Board of Directors.

Janet Russell

Director

Joëlle Quoirin

Founder

Joëlle Quoirin, is the founder of La Petite Ecole. Joëlle is a native speaker of French, who grew up in Belgium and was educated in the U.S.  She holds a Master of Arts degree in French (M.A.L.T.) and further pursued an Educational Specialist degree in Foreign Language Teaching (Curriculum & Instruction) from the University of Missouri at Columbia.  She has seventeen years of teaching experience in both French and Spanish with children as young as three and seniors as old as eighty.  Joëlle is also the mother of two bilingual (French and English) children.

“I have taught French and Spanish for several years to children and adults alike.  I have to say that the greatest success I have experienced as a foreign language educator has been with young children.  Preschoolers not only learn effortlessly and without the anxiety most older learners associate with learning a foreign language, but when spoken to exclusively in the target language, they are also able to replicate a native speaker’s accent.  That is simply amazing to me!”

Kate Darnell

Head Teacher - Preschool Class and PreK-K Class

Aurélien Mauxion

Head Teacher - Toddler Class

Aurélien Mauxion is a native of Brittany, France. He and his wife moved to Columbia so she could take a job. Aurélien is finishing a Ph.D. in Anthropology (with a focus in African Studies). He has taught for three years at a Waldorf School in Pennsylvania where he worked with two year olds. He is the father of one of the La Petite Ecole students.

“I love singing and playing the guitar. Teaching young children is very rewarding to me.”

Victoria Skyvalidas

Head Teacher - PreK-K Class

Amity Interns

Each year, La Petite Ecole invites young people from French-speaking countries to come and teach at our school. They are hosted by American families. In exchange for room and board, they take part in this cultural exchange.

The Amity Interns for the 2010-2011 academic year are:

Lucile DelVallée

Célia Isoard