Ecole-Claire Fontaine

We loved this preschool — both of our children attended for three years each, and it gave them the most wonderful start to school. The focus is on play, nature, and exposure to different cultures and languages. What the children learned there has really stayed with them: music, art, a sense of community, and curiosity about the world. They still talk about projects they worked on, including a memorable end-of-year play about Egypt. The food is high quality and helped develop good habits around trying new foods, sharing, manners, and eating together. With three magical campuses, each with its own character, we feel incredibly grateful our children had this foundation and are part of this community.

My kids have attended this preschool in Venice over the course of the last five years. It is such a special place - the curriculum is unlike any preschool I've ever heard of - chess, sewing, gardening, bike maintenance, journalism, oceanography, the list goes on. They even have an astrophysicist professor from UCLA come to teach the kids. The French language immersion has been great, especially for our youngest, who has picked up so much naturally. The food is also out of this world — organic breakfast, snacks, multi-course lunches, and goûter (French for fancy afternoon snack).

What a beautiful, enriching, loving, adventurous, playful, creative, caring, nurturing, and multicultural school! The teachers, staff and community make this school a gem. Madame Joelle is an incredibly warm and generous woman and it has been an honor to have our son attend Claire Fontaine. We signed up for Summer Camp and immediately saw that we had to get our son enrolled for pre-k. Best decision we have made for our son and family. Being a French and American family the language component and community were very appealing to us. We were able to find more French speaking friends for our son to connect with all the while hear and witness his language skills further develop. The varied classes and offerings at Claire Fontaine has me wishing I attended this school even as an adult. My son came home teaching me new meditation techniques and a lot more French. Highly recommend this school to the community. What a gift it is to have this school in our neighborhood!

Our family has been part of the magical Ecole Claire Fontaine community for three years, with another three to follow. We are passionate fans of this program. Joelle and her staff have created something that is more than a school. It is a family and a place where the children are celebrated, nourished and treated with such understanding. Our son's favorite classes on the big campus have been oceanography, music, architecture and journalism... all created for his imaginative, 4 & 5 year old mind. And for both our children's time at the big & little (camper) campus have been filled with imaginative play, gentle encouragement, fun, friendship and healthy, Californian outside living. The multi-language, multi-cultural, diverse & fascinating mix of families and teachers add such dimensions to their growth. And the teachers take their training & expertise very seriously. This is a piece of gold woven into the very fabric of Venice - gold that should be treated with the utmost care and respect. I wish I could attend a school like this. I hope you too will get to experience this piece of fairy dust.

Our son has been here for the last year — he started when he was almost two and a half — and we could not be happier. When we first toured, we were excited about the older kids/Abbot Kinney campus because it had such a wonderland feel. What we didn’t realize is that the Camper Campus (for the younger kids) is just about the sweetest, most magical place you could imagine. The homey Craftsman and the yard that’s just paradise for kids has a total indoor outdoor feel. But honestly it’s the teachers, aides, and cooks that make it feel like an extension of home. Everyone who works there is so loving — greeting kids, preparing organic farmers market meals, there’s music playing when we arrive... and obviously the language aspect is huge. Only French and Spanish are spoken, so the kids are totally immersed. The school is full of good families who truly care and it feels like pure Venice. Every day, after saying goodbye to my son, i leave with such a sense of peace — that he’s getting an great education and doing tactile things (gardening, tortilla making, yoga) but he’s also well loved.