CEFA Early Learning was established in 1998 by Natacha V. Beim. Having worked as an elementary school Teacher, as well as a junior kindergarten Teacher in Europe, Beim experienced firsthand the incredible effect of early academic exposure in young children.
Our Founder
As a trained elementary school Teacher, Natacha began creating the CEFA program in 1996 after she witnessed the quality of care received in the daycare and preschool facilities across the Lower Mainland. Natacha has worked as a Teacher in France and Uruguay, and has travelled to many countries from China to Italy, to understand the diverse educational approaches to early learning.
Natacha gained her specialization in junior kindergarten in France, where children have three years of kindergarten before entering elementary school. After observing the positive impact of early learning, Natacha wanted to bring these techniques back to Canada where the typical daycare centres are more focussed on play rather than the a blend of education, play and the arts.
The first school
These plans resulted in the grand opening of CEFA West Vancouver in 1998. Its gentle, yet challenging and stimulating, approach to education was a great success amongst Canadian families and surpassed Natacha’s goal of establishing an exciting and stimulating environment for Vancouver’s youngest children.
The popularity of the approach, as well as the evident results in the children who had graduated from the school, resulted in the franchising of the school in 2003, and so CEFA Educational Systems was born.