Meet the people behind the Martinat French-American Learning Hub
Meet our team of passionate, trained, and deeply committed educators. Here, we believe that who is with your child matters just as much as what they learn. Our team is made of native, bilingual professionals who love children, understand child development, and believe in learning through play, exploration, and emotional safety.
✔️Strong relationships.
✔️High standards.
✔️A big heart <3
Marie Martinat
Founder – Academic Director – Educational Vision
Marie Martinat is the founder and academic director of the Martinat French-American Learning Hub. She is a French teacher, educational content creator, and passionate advocate for joyful, inclusive, and child-centered education. With a large international community of families and educators following her work, Marie has spent years sharing concrete classroom practices, reflections, and tools focused on making children love learning.
Marie has completed numerous trainings in:
- Active pedagogies
- Play-based learning
- Neuroscience and child development
- Emotional regulation
- Neurodevelopment and neurodiversity
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- ADHD
During her Master’s degree, she wrote her thesis on autism and learning through play, studying how hands-on, playful approaches support engagement and learning for autistic children. Marie’s vision is deeply personal. As a child with ADHD who struggled in traditional school settings, she knows what it feels like to not fit into rigid systems. This lived experience shapes everything she builds today. Her mission: create learning environments where children feel safe, respected, capable, and excited to learn.
Marie oversees:
- Educational vision
- Program design
- Pedagogical coherence
- Team training
- Quality of experiences
Francois Martinat
Co-Founder – Financial & Administrative Director
François Martinat brings strong business, financial, and organizational expertise to the project, built over decades of experience leading and structuring companies in the energy and industrial sectors. He ensures that the Learning Hub is developed on solid, sustainable, and well-organized foundations.
Beyond his professional background, François is also a father of five and has always been deeply passionate about transmission, education, and learning through experience. He strongly believes that children learn best when they are active, engaged, and enjoying what they do.
François is a 3rd-degree black belt in karate and taught karate to children for many years. Through this role, he discovered how powerful playful, progressive, and respectful learning environments can be in helping children build confidence, discipline, and perseverance. Teaching has always been part of who he is.
Within the Learning Hub, François oversees:
- Financial management
- Budgeting, Legal and Administrative structure
- Long-term development strategy
He is deeply committed to building a project that is both educationally meaningful and structurally strong, allowing the Learning Hub and later the future Martinat French-American School to grow with integrity, quality, and stability.
Our French Teachers
Native French-Speaking Educators
Our French teachers are native French speakers, which is a cornerstone of our bilingual immersion approach. Being surrounded by authentic French from an early age allows children to hear natural pronunciation, real intonation, and rich everyday language. This constant exposure builds strong foundations in a way that feels natural, effortless, and meaningful.
Our educators have experience working with young children in early childhood and elementary settings and are trained in active pedagogies, play-based learning, differentiation, positive classroom management, and language immersion. They understand how children learn best: through movement, manipulation, exploration, and joyful interaction.
In their classrooms, children discover French through stories, songs, games, creative projects, and hands-on activities. They build vocabulary naturally, begin developing early reading and writing skills, and gain confidence expressing themselves. The objective is never to pressure children or demand performance. The goal is to gently invite children into the French language, to spark curiosity, and to create a positive emotional connection with French that will support long-term bilingual development.
Our English Teachers
Native English-Speaking Educators
Our English teachers are native English speakers, providing children with daily exposure to authentic, natural English. Hearing real pronunciation, rhythm, and everyday expressions helps children develop strong listening and speaking skills in a spontaneous and meaningful way.
They have experience in child development and hands-on learning, and are trained in play-based and project-based learning, emotional regulation, differentiation, and positive behavior support. They understand that children learn best when they feel safe, engaged, and actively involved.
Through English, they guide children in exploring math, science, art, construction, and creative projects. Children are encouraged to communicate, ask questions, experiment, and collaborate, while naturally building vocabulary and confidence.
English is never approached as a rigid academic subject. It is lived, spoken, and experienced through action, play, and interaction — just like a real language should be.
Continuous Training & Shared Values
All members of our team receive ongoing training in neurodiversity awareness, emotional development, inclusion, active pedagogies, and child-centered practices. Continuous learning is essential to us, because children evolve, research evolves, and educational practices must evolve too. We work as a truly collaborative team. We share observations, discuss children’s needs, reflect together, and adjust our practices when necessary. No one works in isolation.
We strongly believe that children are not static and education should not be either. Our team grows, learns, and adapts every day, in the same way we encourage children to do.
What Makes Our Team Different
We do not look for “perfect” educators. We look for:
✔️Kindness
✔️Patience
✔️Curiosity
✔️Professionalism
✔️Love for children
We believe relationships come first.
Learning comes next.
✔️Patience
✔️Curiosity
✔️Professionalism
✔️Love for children
We believe relationships come first.
Learning comes next.
A Team You Can Trust
When families join us, they are not simply enrolling in a program. They are joining a community. A community of educators who deeply respect childhood, who see children as capable individuals, who value differences, and who believe that learning should feel good. We are united by a shared vision: protecting children’s curiosity, honoring their rhythms, and creating environments where they feel safe, confident, and eager to explore.
We would be truly honored to welcome your family into our community.
If you are an educator who shares these values and would like to apply, please contact us at bonjour@martinatfrenchamericanschool.com with a cover letter and resume written in your target language (French or English).