The CRAIE project aimed to provide a linguistic and cultural immersion for staff of bilingual schools in order to strengthen their professional and linguistic skills, to develop their confidence in their mastery of German or Spanish and to discover new pedagogical methods and tools. The diversity of the profiles involved in the project (teachers, school directors, educational managers, animators, facilitators, etc.) was a stimulating asset. By supporting the staff of the academy and the City of Paris in their desire for training, the project aimed to develop a common work and training culture, to create a real emulation and to strengthen the links within the school in order to facilitate collaborative work around this language device. Through a snowball effect, the project also aimed to contribute to the European and international openness of the schools in the consortium, to encourage early learning of foreign languages and to create a European space for education and training.
The "Académie de Paris" and the Paris City Council's Department of School Affairs are working together to set up and develop public bilingual pre-elementary and elementary schools offering early learning of the foreign language. Immersive practices in a foreign language are experimented with for exposure to the language during school, extra-curricular and after-school time, provided by all the school's staff. While these bilingual schools were initially in English, a diversity of language offer is being introduced, with bilingual schools in German and Spanish. In order to support this experimentation, language training needs for teachers and City of Paris staff were identified, in particular with regard to the development of oral skills to improve their ease of communication and transmission. These schools also expressed a need for support for European and international outreach. The consortium was created around the Académie de Paris, the City of Paris and the schools involved in the progressive expansion of bilingual schools.