“No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.” ― Warsan Shire

Petite Ecole (literally: the small school) is an unexpected place. Hidden in a big street, close to the Brussels' main train station, the school is a little jewel and peaceful oasis in a chaotic and noisy neighbourhood.

Upon entering the school, I find Mélanie preparing the kids' activities for the day after, and my attention is suddenly caught by the drawings hung in the main room  "These are the rhymes that kids love repeating because they have the feeling of being able to speak French" says Mélanie with a smile.

Started as a volunteering initiative in 2015, and turned into a more stable reality in 2017 thanks to a mixture of public and private funding, the Petite Ecole is an educational initiative aimed at promoting access to education for children who have had little or no previous schooling. It offers to them a safe space where the teachers act as benevolent observers.

"With the migration crisis, many families arrived in Belgium. Some of them are illiterate and entering school is often a huge problem for their kids" explains Melanie "so our purpose is to accompany those families during their approach to schools and also to prevent school dropout".

Young refugee children come from a wide variety of backgrounds marked by significant stress and hardship. Poverty, physical and emotional stress factors combine with gaps in language learning to seriously affect their future educational trajectories and integration into a new society.

Research shows that these children need a safe and stress free environment. Jack Shonkoff, Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, highlights two aspects that represent the foundations of almost everything we know on childhood development: “First, healthy brain development in babies and young children requires the consistent availability of a stable, responsive, and supportive relationship with at least one parent or primary caregiver. Second, high and persistent levels of stress can disrupt the architecture of the developing brain and other biological systems, with serious negative impacts on learning, behavior, and lifelong physical and mental health.”

Petite Ecole follows the kids for an undefined and flexible time period.  "This year children that started in September will stay with us during a whole school year. Sometimes, we also have kids that begin in January and, in this case, they will have 6 months experience." explains Mélanie. "We welcome a maximum of 12 children per year".

The days spent in this place always follow the same structure and rituals. The repetition allows children to situate themselves in time and space: the welcoming, the class circle all together and so on. "At noon, the workshop and the end-of-day circle invariably punctuate our daily rhythm" continues Mélanie. "This very precise timeframe reassures our children. Everyone knows what is happening and can engage fully in the present moment with no fear."

While she goes on describing the different learning and teaching activities, she is suddenly interrupted by two young girls and their father, who enters and asks some information on homework. Melanie replies with ease, a signal that she knows the family very well. "These girls were attending the Petite Ecole last year" she says "we try to keep a relationship with them and ensure a proper follow up with the schools that receive our kids".

Then, the phone rings. It's a teacher from a school that received a child from the Petite Ecole. He needs to speak to Melanie about the student's progression and difficulties.  This is part of the follow up activities that Petite Ecole engages in once the children have entered a new school.

The whole project is built around three pillars: reception and accompaniment of children towards learning, cultural mediation with families, and the research laboratory.

After initially trying methods focusing on the children's freedom and creativity, they noticed that this approach was not working properly, as kids seemed to be fearful at school. In Melanie's opinion, the space these children were given to fill with their own curiosity and desires was destabilising rather than reassuring.  For this reason, they changed approach and created a model classroom with strong structural features - six tables facing a blackboard – designed to reinforce the child's perception of a safe learning environment. "From now on, our aim was to represent a reassuring and secure school to the children".

Another innovation in the Petite Ecole method is the families' involvement. Every morning, parents and children are welcomed with a breakfast, parents' meetings are organised with interpreters every month, and registrations are done after a long interview. "When we face sensitive situations, we organise a kind of private interview with families involving a cultural mediator from their community. This mediation is indispensable. "

In the Petite Ecole activity report, Mr Kazemzadeh, doctor of the migrant mental health center EXIL, underlines that "leaving the country of origin implies significant initial resources". These resources will be mainly used by the family to face the difficult process of mourning the loss of their community.

No culture prepares its members to emigrate and experience such deep cultural uprooting. Petite Ecole tries to facilitate this difficult transition between two worlds by accompanying children and family in this challenging new start. 

Athour: Anna Maria Volpe