Our raison d'être

Everything that we see in and around the Ecole Internationale Le Verseau has been founded through the vision of Suzanne van der Straten who was originally influenced by the concept of holistic education and the philosophies of Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Suzanne wanted to create an inclusive, multicultural and multi-lingual environment where children could learn to live and grow in harmony with one another in readiness to become conscientious and contributory ‘Global Citizens’.

With unerring support of her business-minded husband Hugues, they personally acquired the land and financed the construction of the buildings which were used to host the school when it opened its doors to 150 pupils in 1969.

Shortly after opening, to facilitate the growth of the school and to be able to enhance the educational experience of the children, Suzanne and Hugues created Les Amis du Verseau, a foundation to which they endowed the land and the buildings in order to ensure the continuity of their project beyond their own lifetimes.

It transpired that, through this foundation, additional funding would enable smaller class sizes, specialised teaching, including English with native speakers and many other enriching activities and facilities.

Over time, and thanks to significant additional donations made by the van der Straten family to Les Amis du Verseau, extensive campus infrastructure has been constructed to facilitate the school’s development – now supporting a community close to 1000 students with a teaching staff of over 150.

The enhanced curriculum and the green campus development, designed to bring the children closer to nature, were all part of Suzanne’s original vision.

The van der Straten family continues to make a considerable contribution to the school with Everard van der Straten and his wife Chantal Malou committing a great deal of time and energy in their roles as active Governors of the school and volunteers in continual fund raising.

Suzanne van der Straten died in 2021 a few years after Hugues passed in 2016. A link to a commemorative article can be found here.