By Jay Forte, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Le Sallay International Academy is offering a unique concept aimed at providing quality education for children aged 10 to 14 seeking opportunities for academic excellence, but reside in places short of options – like Brazil.
Often parents living in areas without high quality education systems have only two options: sending their children to a boarding school or home schooling, yet each of these has its drawbacks.
Therefore, Le Sallay International Academy now offers a new approach that combines the best of these two options while minimizing the disadvantages. The solution is as follows: during each term, children spend 3-4 weeks studying together in a European country; the remaining 6-8 weeks, they learn from home using modern online education technologies.
Students are technically still considered to be home-schooled. Founder Sergey Kuznetsov explains, “Our idea is to help Brazilian parents – more specifically, parents living in Brazil – who want to give their children a European education, but are not willing to send them to a boarding school for six months.”
“This is where we can offer not just a high level of education, but, at the same time, the opportunity for the child not to be separated from his or her family for a long time.”
Le Sallay International Academy primarily targets parents who would like to give their children a quality education in English, but do not want to part with them by sending them to an American or British boarding school. The children of expats are also part of their target group: international professionals often change their country of residence every one or two years; our school could be a constant in these children’s lives.
Finally, the school is focused on helping children with psychological and learning difficulties, who often find themselves unhappy at ordinary schools and boarding schools. At Le Sallay International Academy, classes are conducted in small groups, and our teachers know how to help such children. Psychologists, including those specializing in children with different special needs, are also part of our team.
Kuznetsov explains “Our school will be very good for any children who have had difficulties in their relationships with their classmates – we pay a lot of attention to this issue and we do everything to ensure that children with differing interests and personalities can find their place in the company of their peers.”
The founders of Le Sallay International Academy have been conducting educational camps in Europe for many years. The teaching of science and mathematics is based on approaches that have been used successfully for dozens of years in Russia, China and South Korea, and have gained popularity in the U.S. under the Russian School of Mathematics brand.
Yan Rauch, Head of Science and Math Department shares his approach, “You can’t teach science by making kids learn things by heart. They need to learn how to create models of phenomena. Every child is surrounded by a world that can be observed, studied, examined.”
The Department of Humanities is headed by Matthew McConnell, who holds a PhD from Cornell University. The teachers of literature, history and art are graduates of prestigious American and British universities with many years of teaching experience. The Academy also attracts star visitor lecturers for the live study sessions.
A year of studies at Le Sallay International Academy costs €$40,000 (as of the academic year 2019-2020), however at the moment Le Sallay International Academy is offering a pilot program which will start in January, lasts less than two months and cost just €$5,000.
The pilot will also only cover few selected subjects: Science, Mathematics and Literature. While participating in this taster program, students can still continue their regular school or home studies. The number of participants is limited, and registration applications can be made here.
This is a sponsored article for Le Sallay International Academy.