So far, there are around 12 teaching staff, including expatriates. And those teachers are at different levels of their career, from those starting teaching experience to degree holders. There are 12 to 15 pupils in each class. This is to give as much attention as possible to all.

“We may be an English-medium school, but I strongly believe we still have to stay in the Mauritian context. We cannot walk away from it. This is the reason why we are working for the CPE. We want to make the children more flexible later on, whether they want to carry on in the private or in the public system at a later stage.”

However, she adds: “We use the Mauritian curriculum to implement our program. But we use different ways of teaching. For example, the kids have to do a lot of project work, group work and so on. This is to make them learn how to be more independent.”

Indeed, as far as primary schools in Mauritius are concerned, “Step Ahead” offers a very unusual curriculum - a blend of the Mauritian and the British. Their program puts emphasis on extra-curricular activities. For example, activities such as swimming, music or physical education are included. They have something straight from the British curriculum called “Circle time” where the kids have to reflect on their social and emotional development.

Last year, 12 children from “Step Ahead” took part in the CPE. Nine got into national schools like Royal College of Curepipe, Queen Elizabeth, Mahatma Gandhi,etc. Furthermore, all of them passed.

Jane Wilcox remains very ambitious and optimistic about the success of her school. Despite being constantly under stress, she feels she has the support of her staff. Furthermore, she feels really happy about the arrival of someone very special: her daughter Nancy, who has just completed her Bachelor’s degree in education and special needs, arrived last year to assist her.

But Jane’s real wish has not been fulfilled yet: “At a later stage, I would love to see both my primary school and pre-primary school on the same campus. And one day, I might try a secondary school. But, for the time being, I just want the children here to be successful and happy and in the end leave here full of confidence about their future.” For the moment Step Ahead is working hard at giving all pupils ‘education at its best’.