EBiHS Administration
The International Bilingual School of Haute-Savoie is a non-profit association administered by a board of Directors which organizes meetings to elaborate the School strategies and ensure its mission is fulfilled.
On a daily basis, the school has an administrative and financial management, and the pedagogical Directors. Welcoming the students and leading them towards success is a top priority for the pedagogical team.
Committees and working groups allow for creative thinking on educational themes and they participate in making EBiHS an active school willing to take on major forward-looking educational issues of our time.
The 2019-2025 Strategic Plan gives the broad school goals and explains the major strategies that will be used to achieve them.
Administrative team
Mathilde Mondongou
Co-founder and director
Nadège Caruso
Head of administration & finance
With an engineering degree from ENESAD in Dijon, coupled with a Master’s degree in Biology from the University of Kentucky, USA, Nadège worked in a university research laboratory for 6 years in the United States.
The DAEFLE (Diplôme d’Aptitude à l’Enseignement du Français Langue Etrangère), obtained in 2004, enabled her to teach in language schools in Brazil and Mozambique.
At the same time, she led a survey on child labour in rural areas for ECLT (Eliminating Child Labor in Tobacco Growing), a non-governmental organisation based in Geneva.
When the Ecole Bilingue Internationale de Haute-Savoie opened its doors in Annecy in 2010, Nadège first became involved as a parent in the school. Her commitment enabled her to obtain the position
of Assistant Director in 2013. Over the years and with the development of the school, Nadège has seen her functions evolve to now be in charge of the administrative management of the school.
Nadège is fluent in English and Portuguese and has many years of experience abroad. The multicultural environment offered by EBiHS suits her perfectly. Administrative management came naturally to her thanks to her interpersonal skills, her ability to adapt to the evolution of the school, her rigour and pragmatism.
Nadège advocates bilingualism, an excellent asset for the child’s intellectual and personal development. She works to ensure that the EBiHS offers the right conditions for children to master both languages, French and English.
Emilie Lefebvre
Human ressources officer
Emilie is originally from Northern France. After obtaining her literary high school diploma, she joined Metz’s faculty of Law subsequently joining Paris’s faculty of Law and gaining a Master Degree in Private Law.
Attracted to the English language and British culture, she decided to spend 6 months in London before joining the Westford Graduate School of Business, located in Grenoble, where she was awarded a second Master Degree in HR Management.
Having graduated in both Private Law and HR Management, Emilie joined her future husband in Annecy and began her career as recruitment consultant in a major temporary recruitment agency.
Her next career move was to join a medium sized firm in serious difficulties as the Human Resource Executive and Administrator. Using her legal training, Emilie managed to extricate the company from proceedings which enabled the company to become competitive and successful. She was responsible for increasing the scope of the board of Directors and developing the human potential within the company.
With operational experience of more than 13 years, and convinced that “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” (N. Mandela), Emilie joined EBIHS in March 2019 as the HR manager to contribute towards its continued development.
Nadine Wolff
Head of admissions
For as long as she can remember Nadine has been around many cultures: from her early childhood in Madagascar, Elementary and Middle School years in Reunion Island, High School in France, and the majority of her adult life in the United States. She has always been intrigued by the many cultures, languages, and customs surrounding her.
After her baccalauréat she had the opportunity to study in the United States where she finished a degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences while working at the French Consulate in San Francisco, organizing all the receptions at the Consul’s residence. Ready to take on a new challenge, she went on to study Marketing, Communication & Management and joined her first early-stage start-up. Over the years she built a successful Marketing and Communications career with tenures in several more start-ups as well as a few larger companies, ending with her dream international role on the LinkedIn Digital Marketing team.
Committed to raising their twins to be bilingual, Nadine and her husband joined the French-American School of Silicon Valley at the start of preschool, finding a kind and empathetic environment focused as much on academics as on children’s wellbeing and development. When a possible move to France became reality, their top criteria was finding a bilingual Middle School with similar values: they found this at EBiHS, which led them to beautiful Annecy.
Nadine strongly believes in the value of a bilingual education and the many opportunities it can provide children along the way, allowing them to cultivate their curiosity, build confidence, embrace the world with an open mind, and develop strong values and work ethic. She is excited to join the EBiHS team to continue to raise awareness of these benefits, and accompany new families, whether local or back from expatriation.
Catherine Lapierre
School secretary – Pré de Challes & club secretary
Catherine spent more than 21 years as an officer in the French army. She exercised administrative and operational responsibilities in regiments, headquarters as well as in a military high school. She hold positions in various fields such as, Intelligence, Training, Communication, operational management…In addition to this, she participated in an overseas operation in Bosnia as a chief of Staff.
She came back to her hometown, Annecy, in 2010, and ended her military career at the 27th Mountain Infantry Battalion. Then she worked for nearly 5 years in Geneva as an administrative assistant and receptionist for important international companies (HSBC, IATA, CATERPILLAR).
Catherine has a literary training and she’s graduated in foreign languages (english, portuguese), european studies and management of local governments. She was looking for an attractive mission where she could use her organizational and relational competences to serve a dynamic institution, in a multicultural environment and where quality of service and team spirit would be present.
The position of administrative assistant and receptionist in our Pré de Challes school, because of its versatile and central aspect, seduced her immediately![/expand]
Carole Griot-Pezzini
School secretary – Pré Faucon & head of communication
Specialized educator for 25 years (in Foyer de Vie for adults and then in ULIS-college for students with learning disabilities), Carole has always been keen to adapt and adapt her care to bring out the best in students.
Mother of 3 children and an active member of a parents’ association, she knows the school environment well, having worked with principals, municipal teams and, of course, many parents.
In order to give a new impetus to her professional life, she chose in 2019 to follow a reconversion training course to become an administrative assistant. From now on, she wishes to use all the knowledge and skills she has acquired over the years, both relational and technical, in a reception and secretarial mission.
Camille Lecourt
Communication Marketing assistant
Son alternance en tant qu’assistante communication dans le cadre de son Master en Marketing, Communication et Digital, lui permet d’allier son intérêt pour le domaine de la communication et sa passion pour l’anglais. Son désir de contribuer au développement de l’école ainsi qu’à l’épanouissement des jeunes et de leurs parents dans un contexte multiculturel l’anime également pleinement dans ce nouveau rôle.
En dehors de ses études, sa passion pour les voyages et les langues témoigne de son ouverture d’esprit et de son adaptabilité. Coralie s’applique toujours à apporter une contribution significative que ce soit dans ses études, son travail ou ses passions personnelles.
Pedagogical direction
Emilie Tarraf-Lescoffier
Pré de Challes director
Born in Paris as the child of an American mother and Syrian father, cultural diversity has been a central part of Emilie’s life since her earliest memories and a defining aspect of her personality. Languages – English, French and Arabic – have followed her from birth to adulthood, each one bringing with it a different culture. This particularity certainly contributed to Emilie’s open-mindedness and led her to teach despite her varied educational cursus.
Indeed, Emilie studied Political Science and Economics at the University of Illinois, during which time she completed a successful year at Sciences Po in Paris in the International Program there. After graduating Summa Cum Laude from the University of Illinois, Emilie returned to France as a Language Assistant at the Université de Bourgogne. In her free time, she taught as an English Assistant at a private middle school. During these two years, she spent her summers as a Language Assistant at the University of Homs, in Syria. These two years which included so many different teaching and cultural experiences encouraged her to pursue a career in teaching and she applied for and was accepted for Teach for America, a prestigious program in the United States which “enlists, develops and mobilizes…future leaders to grow and strengthen the movement for educational equality and excellence.”
Martine Ouellette
Pré Faucon Director
An atypical career path led this Canadian-born lover-of-life to take up the challenge of a job change. After graduating from the Université de Sherbrooke with a degree in Business Administration (Marketing branch), Martine worked in the field for around 8 years. Her lifelong passion for teaching led her to obtain a second degree in Preschool and Primary Education from the Université du Québec à Montréal, in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a teacher! As soon as she graduated, Martine began her career in an English-language school district in Montreal, teaching French immersion to English-speaking first graders.
Constantly keen to learn more, she made a habit of attending further training courses. As a result, Martine set up long-term projects in her class, differentiating her instruction according to the needs of the students. She created and adapted the texts needed to teach the various subjects of interest to her students. Looking to create a happy and motivating environment for all pupils, Martine was involved in various school projects, such as artists at school and meetings with authors and illustrators. She sat on various committees to consult and implement new projects within the school district.
After arriving in France in 2008, Martine pursued her career teaching a diverse range of pupils before joining EBiHS when the school opened. She obtained a Diplôme universitaire (“DU”) in Neuropsychology, Education and Pedagogy from the University of Lyon, and these courses gave her the essential knowledge she needed to better understand learning difficulties and adapt her teaching to the specific needs of her pupils. And so the creation of a programme for gifted and talented students stemmed from this deepened understanding. Even though the programme is no longer in place, Martine remains a point of reference in the field for teachers, students and their parents.
At the start of the 2018 school year, with the success and well-being of as many children as possible at heart, Martine enthusiastically accepted the position of Primary School principal at Pré de Challes.
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Frédéric Laparre
Collège Head of School
He began his career as a History and Geography teacher, French as a Foreign Language teacher and Educational Coordinator in the United States, Russia, Zimbabwe and Senegal, where he worked in schools belonging to the AEFE network or the Mission Laïque Française. He spent most of his time in Zimbabwe, where, in addition to his teaching duties, he was responsible for the administrative and educational management of the High School. He was also involved in the Board of the Alliance française in Harare.
From 2018 to 2021, Frédéric was Director of Education at LCB, the Collège et Lycée Bilingue in Dakar, Senegal. He managed a team of 50 teachers providing education from the 6th to the 12th year, with a French section and another preparing for the International Baccalaureate.
In 2021, after a long career abroad, he returned to Montpellier, France, to take up the post of Deputy Headmaster at Eridan International School and set up a bilingual High School. He has also piloted a number of sustainable development projects, enabling the school to be awarded the Eco-Schools label in 2022 and 2023.
Over the course of his career, Frédéric Laparre has led numerous projects, including internships, partnerships and competitions with organisations, associations and research centres (NASA, IGN, CIRAD, CNRS, UNESCO, Génopolis in Montpellier, Alliances Françaises, Universities, Dakar Hospital, etc.). His students have benefited greatly from these projects, with knowledge growing with experience! One of its classes won the photo competition launched by the AEFE and supported by the Paris 2024 Bid Committee to illustrate the values of Olympism. This photograph has become the photographic ambassador for the AEFE (The Agency for French Education Abroad).
Frédéric Laparre is an educator who believes that school should be a place of exchange, providing pupils with an educational framework in which they can develop with complete confidence. The importance given to oral expression, interactive activities and experimentation should encourage initiative and autonomy. The right to make mistakes is necessary so that pupils can try and try again to make progress. School must also be a place where everyone’s differences are taken into account and where everyone can flourish.
Mr Laparre’s varied career path, his involvement in international and bilingual schools, and his involvement in environmental and humanitarian challenges are proof of his motivation, benevolence and honesty in his private and professional life. These are qualities and a wealth of experience that he will be able to put to good use as head of the EBiHS Collège and future High School !