The Horace Vernet crèche was officially opened on 13 April 2018 – the 6th Rigolo Comme La Vie crèche in Roubaix!
Rigolo Comme La Vie is the leading crèche network in the Hauts-de-France region where it now has 33 crèches out of a total of 36 countrywide. This represents an average of 2,000 children accommodated every year!
The latest is the Horace Vernet crèche which officially opened on 13 April with Rigolo Comme La Vie’s partners: the Nord département, the Town of Roubaix and the Nord Child Benefits Office in the presence of Catherine Osson, MP for Nord’s 8th district; Max-André Pick, Vice-President of the département; Guillaume Delbar, Mayor of Roubaix; Catherine Cressent, early childhood councillor; Lydie Librizzi, chair of the Nord Child Benefits Office; and families, members of the Rigolo Comme La Vie team and ÏDKIDS staff.
Situated close to the Boulevard de Fourmies in Roubaix, the crèche covers an area of over 500 sqm and offers a variety of childcare packages to suit families’ needs (regular, occasional and urgent). With 40 places available the new facilities accommodate children aged 2½ months to 3 years with the same desire as always: to create community ties.
Each Rigolo Comme La Vie crèche is built around a specific educational model designed to identify best practice and disseminate it to the other crèches in the network. The Horace Vernet crèche is unique in offering an education plan focused on freedom of movement called “Healthy body, healthy mind”. It encourages children to enjoy free movement in a thoughtful, measured way in terms of both form and content guided by a team of ten professionals who adopt a hands-off approach as the children explore and receive emphatic support.
Jérôme Obry, Rigolo Comme La Vie managing director: “Here play is sacred and rarely interrupted. Children’s time and adults’ time are harmonious and mutually respectful. Discovering and exploring are rich and valued experiences. We offer them an environment that prefers ‘maybe’ to outright ‘no’.”
Watch Jérôme Obry on “Les Rendez-vous de l’Eco” on Grand Lille TV
Charlotte, paediatric nursing manager, Rigolo Comme La Vie: “Free movement means letting children experiment, building their confidence and helping them grow” and Noémie, assistant early learning educator, Rigolo Comme La Vie: “It obviously means freedom of movement but it also encompasses freedom of thought and choice so the children can understand themselves better and grow through experimentation”. This philosophy also applies to daily life at the crèche as all the children, youngest to oldest, share the same living spaces to promote open-mindedness and encourage them to get to know each other. An open-minded approach that even extends to the families who can pop in during the day to have lunch with their child, for example. This also allows mums to continue breastfeeding after they’ve gone back to work. Read the article about the Horace Vernet crèche on the Les Pros de la Petite Enfance website More about free movement: It means letting children move around freely so they can explore their bodies and grow in confidence. It gives them enough of a sense of security to feel at ease with their bodies, build strong self-esteem and develop in a more harmonious, fluid way. All the intermediate steps are important and children must discover them for themselves under the watchful, caring eye of an adult.
