La Miranda and Camí Vell early-childhood learning centres, or escoletes, are services of the Consell Insular de Formentera. The schools are accredited through the Balearic Ministry of Education and University and affiliated with the regional network of public schools.
What is an escoleta?
The period from 0 to 3 is the first stage in a learning process that involves families and educators alike.
Escoletes are places where we grow in community; where children are encouraged to learn by doing, experimenting and having fun, and to share those experiences in their own way and at their own pace.
Escoletes are meeting places, and ones where stories are written—sometimes individually, sometimes as a group. They are places where we express emotions and feelings.
Escoletes are also welcoming places—not just for kids, but families as well. Our hope is that this daily contact fosters a climate of real dialogue.
We believe parents are pillars of the escoleta process.
Services and fees
Annual registration fee: €70
Time | Activity | Monthly (5 days/week) |
Drop-in |
7.30am-9.00am |
Drop-off | €20 | €2 |
9.00am-12.30pm |
Class time | €168 | - |
1.00pm-2.00pm |
Cafeteria (payment due at end of month) |
€5/day | |
2.30pm-4.00pm |
Break and pick-up |
€20 | €2 |
Timetable and calendar
Escoletes are open from 7.30am to 4.00pm, and each day is divided into periods of learning and childcare. Learning activities take place from 9.00am to 1.00pm. Childcare is offered twice daily — 7.30am to 9.00am, and again from 1.00pm to 4.00pm. The building itself is open for eight and a half hours, although children may not remain in school for more than eight hours a day.
Drop-off and pick-up times must be respected. However, families are absolutely free to choose from the list below the schedule that best suits their needs.
START AND FINISH TIMES HOURS OF OPERATION: 7.30am to 4.00pm LUNCH AT HOME: 12.30pm to 1.00pm |
Cafeteria service
Meal service includes home-style breakfasts and lunches prepared by a chef and kitchen assistant.
Meal plans are prepared by a nutritionist according to early-childhood nutritional recommendations in line with legislation published in the regional gazette.
Updated in spring, summer, autumn and winter, meal plans incorporate seasonal produce and are crafted based on recommended family dinner plans.
Activities
‘La Panera dels tresors’
La Panera dels tresors —“the treasure basket”— is a game of exploration for children over six months old. It incorporates a wide range of materials and is aimed at promoting healthy sensorial development, which is typically sharpened and fine-tuned during the first months of childhood.
Heuristic play
Giving children aged 12 to 24 months the chance to explore and combine a variety of objects, heuristic play is the continuation of the Panera dels tresors. Participants exercise and enrich their physical, mental, emotional and social skills.
Children should have freedom as they begin to use objects for make-believe play: toys as kitchen tools, jars as cars... Children engage in heuristic play until age two, when symbolic play takes its place.
Symbolic play
In symbolic play, children imitate a grown-up or other individual, the focus being on the everyday things adults do. Such play emerges once children have learned to make believe, re-enact simple imaginary actions and follow pre-established rules. Typically appropriate for children ages 2 to 7.
Psychomotricity
Based on the methodology of Bernard Aucouturier, the brand of psychomotor (or motor skill) learning that is practised at escoletes aims to use physical movement to shape children’s cognitive development.
Such instruction seeks to promote the child’s ability to express her full motor, emotional, cognitive and relational potential.
Experimenting
Very often in the escoletes we experiment with a range of materials —flour, sand, paint, flowers and more— that grab children’s attention. It is here that children begin noticing and physically interacting with what they see around them. They observe materials and how they work, discover the possibilities of their own senses, notice the effects of their actions on material, experiment with sensations and learn to tell the difference between the qualities of various materials: soft, cold, shiny, sweet, savoury, sticky, dry, moist, warm, etc.
Freedom, the exploratory impulse, the need to discover our surroundings, to touch and to feel, make the experience absolutely unique for each child.
Music
Music naturally affects cognitive, motor and emotional development, and it is an important factor in the growth of the child.
With songs, lap games, musical instruments, sounds and movement, children can begin discovering their body, dance and rhythm, and learn to express themselves.
With these principles as a baseline, the escoleta philosophy is grounded in the basic conviction that music is vital during the first years of a child’s life. As rich, varied and captivating language, and one that is accessible to even the youngest children, it is a crucial consideration as we programme activities.