Debra

[quote]Thanks for your responses. My issue however is my position with my neighbour? In relation to the disposal of waste. The waste goes through a filtration system and than through soakaway pipes. It is t...[/quote] Well originally you said 'the waste pipe from the septic goes into a nearby stream' which is a different matter to the waste being filtered and dispersed underground.  If its a new installation of a fosse septiquie, wouldn't it still come under the current laws about being so far away from a water course (if the stream is considered as such) and having to be on your own land? Your neighbour might have a point if permission was never given before - especially if he never knew about it.  But if he did know about it, he might also have allowed some sort of right of way by letting it happen, without objecting, with the previous system for such a long time.  You really need to consult the notaire, as previously advised, I think.  

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When we were looking at regulations for putting in a fosse septique on a property we were told that the whole thing had to be 10 metres away from any tree, food plants or water source (including springs, streams and lakes) - so I would really think its not possible to have a pipe from a septic tank going into a stream.  Are you talking about a septic tank which has to be emptied, in which case its the overflow pipe? (definite no, no, going into a stream, I would have thought) or a fosse septique - because I understood with a fosse septique it was all underground and there were no 'waste pipes' and the piping that there is has to be contained on your own land (and you have to have a certain amount of land to install one) and not near any of the items mentioned.... 

[quote]Nicola Do as you would be done by, even if you get no recognition or reward. Perhaps one day, someone else will do the same for you. I think you all, Nicola and those who have posted replies, have t...[/quote] I agree.  But how awful are these people??!!  I would be sooo grateful if someone helped out in this way if one of our family were hurt on holiday and I just can't understand this kind of behaviour at all!

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My hubby uses Floorplan 3D, which he says does all that.

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I'm not sure whether you are interested in buying the mobile home on site or off site, but if its off site, Canvas holidays sell theirs off and will deliver anywhere too: http://www.canvasmobiles.com/  

Hi - this is a while ago now and noone seems to have answered it - I found it while searching for info on Charente!  As I've mentioned in other posts, our estate agent advised us to send our children to Montbron school.  Its not classified as a biligual school (I don't think) but he told us there are many English and Irish children there and many English teachers, and a lot of support for teaching the children French.  I don't think its the way we want to go as we feel (and I've asked on here and other people agree) that our children may learn better if they are thrown into the deep end of the local village school where no English is spoken.  However, hope the info is of help to you. Debra

[quote]I still feel that this right of parents to home educate is deliberately kept quiet. And possibly wisely. Like euthanasia, it may be acceptable in some circumstances, but you don't want everyone to ...[/quote] lol - I get your point, but then don't we get into a debate about whether such people should be allowed to have children in the first place, since they are solely responsible for their children's lives from when they are conceived up until they go to school, and even then, outside of school hours! Debra

Hi Cary, In the Charente.  Montbron is the town the estate agents think we should send our children to.  Sent you a pm. Debra

Thanks.  This is how I'd figured it up until the Estate agents looked at me as if I was crazy!  They said I would have no assistance and would have to do the 20k drive every day, and since this is around small country lanes I could see one of my sons arriving at school car-sick every day! I think I'll concentrate on teaching them as much French as I can learn myself, and get over as much as possible on holiday so they get practice,  before we come out permanently.  I've found the more we come over (6 times this year) the more confident they are to try to communicate, even with the little they know now.  The first couple of times we came over they wouldn't try speaking French until we were on the ferry back to England!  This week they were all saying hello and goodbye to everyone they met, telling them their names and asking people's names and saying thank you every opportunity they got.  When people spoke back to them very quickly, they just grinned and said 'he suis anglaise' . People are very friendly with kids we've found, and a few even practiced their small amount of English on them and asked how they sounded. My eldest son found it hilarious that he spoke to a boy in the play park and when he explained that he was English, the boy said he was English too!  He keeps telling everyone about it now we're back. All very worrying but its lovely to hear that children around their age have managed very well and settled in.  Thanks. Debra

We've just been to France to sort out the contracts for the property we are buying and had a discussion with the estate agent about the local schools. The estate agent is Englishh (recently relocated to France) and his partner/manager (or whatever) is French.  They told us that the school in the town they are in (20k from the village we are buying in) has English and French teachers and a lot of English and Irish children go there.  There is a lot of experience at this school with integrating non-French speaking children and support for teaching them French.  They seem to think the local village school near the house we are buying doesn't have any support for integrating non French speaking children and we won't be able to send our children there. I wouldn't have thought that the local school would actually refuse to accept children if they can't yet speak French - has anyone any experience of this? I've read posts from people who suggest that a large English presence in a school isn't necessarily a good thing because the children may stick together and learn less quickly because there is less of a drive to communicate.  There is also the thought that it may help because other English speaking children may help newcomers to integrate by providing a little translation and explanation. Practically, it would be handier if my children went to the local school (a certain age group in the village and another age group in the next village, with a bus provided by the mairie) as it means we don't have to drive them 20k there and back and it would be practical for them to spend their long lunch break at home, friends made would be local etc - but it seems we may not have the choice and I'm also a little worried about what the right choice would be! If we have to, I suppose we could always drive them to the town for the first year and then move them to the local school once they are happy with the language.  Is there any reason we couldn't do this? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Debra Still trying to make my mind up about whether to even send them in the first place, but really worried they won't learn the language if I don't...........  

Just a bit more about the age gap within classes.... It really is quite significant in the early years at school.  I used to feel guilt that I hadn't had the time to teach my youngest how to read before he attended full time school, like I had my eldest, and thought that if I had, he wouldn't have had problems with the sight reading method used at our local school.  I used to try fitting in extra reading practice with him after school and at weekends, only to find it quite frustrating as he was tired from school and didn't seem to have the patience.  He is now flying through learning to read and though this is partly because being taught phonetically makes sense to him, I realised that hi sproblems were also probably partly down to his age and the stage of development he was at as well as the experience he'd had.  He had nearly a year less nursery experience than his brother did and started school 9 months younger.  This meant he had less time to learn to read at home before school for these reasons, not just because Mum now had two children and lots of personal things going on and less time for one to one reading lessons.  However, I also feel he wasn't actually ready to learn to read when he started school at age 4 years and 5 months.  He was just expected to, along with the other kids who were aged up to 5 years and 4 months. Debra

"So all in all - and I've given this a lot of thought - my default would still be to try school first, and THEN try HE if things went disastrously wrong." I think this is how a lot of home educators end up home educating.  I have met a lot more people who started home educating after their children had been at school for a while than I have met people whose children have never been to school. Personally, I didn't even realise it was legal until I started looking into it all when my children started having problems with the ways they were being taught.  Once I found out, it didn't take long before I realised that home educating was the only way I felt I could rescue them from the situation they were in. I have to say that had I known that home educating was possible before I sent my children to school then I would have still sent my eldest boy to school.  He was born in October and was the oldest in his class, confident and very ready and keen to go to school.  However, my younger son was born in August, the youngest in his class and less confident (big brother always took charge and he followed) and I really wished I didn't have to send him for at least another year, possibly two years.  I knew a neighbour whose son was also born in August and had decided to keep him off school until the September (he was supposed to start in January).  She had a lot of contact with the local LEA who pressured her to send her son to school.  When he did go, in the September, he was placed straight into the Year 1 class because of his age, rather than being allowed to start in Reception because of his experience so far.  This seemed a little harsh at the time and he had problems for a while catching up.  He hadn't been home educated; his parents had simply delayed his start at school because they felt he was too immature to go at the 'compulsory school age'.  All this made me feel I had to send my son to school in January - so I was pretty sick when I found out later that there was no need at all and I could have simply educated him at home until I felt happier to send him to school.  I still feel that this right of parents to home educate is deliberately kept quiet.  How many times have we seen news items about parents who are prosecuted for not sending children to school over bullying concerns?  Are any of those parents ever told that they can simply de-register their children and opt to educate them at home? Until this forum, I've never seen or heard negative comments about my decision to home educate.  Most people react along the lines of they wished they could do it, but don't feel they would have the patience or the intellectual capability.  Some wish they could do it but don't feel they can afford for one parent to stop work to take the main responsibility.  Others emphatically state that under no circumstances would they consider it as they would miss the space they get when their children go to school and couldn't stand having them around all day (so let the teachers take them and give them a break)! I feel lucky and privileged to be able to do this now and spend so much time with my children while they are young.  If I ever felt they might be missing out, on balance, from not being at school then I wouldn't hesitate to send them.  I lack confidence about handling secondary level education for my children myself but I won't write the idea off until I get closer to that time and have more information about it.  However, the thought of home educating in a different country with different laws about different education standards is a little scary.  Thanks to those who have tried to answer my questions without attacking the reason for them.  Any tips about how you handled the language issue while home educating in France would be really helpful.  BigJim - did you get the

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will maybe have to look out for one of those in the villages nearby to the hamlet we are buying in then!  Like I said - won't set anything else up on the account until we know for sure!  Hopefully we won't have to set up standing orders for anything immediately we own the property, but can pay by cheque until we make a decision.........

lol OK - I'll keep an eye out!  At least we don't need to log on to check since they send so many statements!

Ours may be the latter version (€.50 for four or maybe more logins a month) since there has only been one charge applied in the month we've had it even though we've logged on quite a few times to check if the money arrived and send emails. We won't set any standing orders up on the account until we're sure we can get away with keeping it.  However, the weekly amount we can withdraw from any other branch of CA seems enough for us to manage along with the card, as we tend not to use cash but cards anyway.   Apparently yes, we do have to close this account and open another in Haute Vienne as they don't transfer accounts.  Having heard about all the different charging structures, I'm just not sure we'll want to do that!  I guess it will also depend on whether there is a CA bank nearby.  Once we have the property and can go over for a while without frantically visiting lots of properties perhaps we'll have time to leisurely look into it! Debra

Hi Palwing, Hope it all went alright for you.  I was a bit concerned to read about your deposit.  We are on our second attempt to buy a property and on both we have only had to pay our deposit AFTER the 7 day cooling off period.  ie 7 days after the vendor has signed  the compromis de vente. Debra

Forgot to mention they also have internet banking.  We were charged €0.50 for this but we're not actually sure if this is a one off sign up fee, a monthly fee or for each time we use it (if it is we've signed on a few times now and don't seem to have been charged again yet, but they may just be slow!) - but it seemed worth it to be able to check what was happening with our transfers and communicate via email without having to struggle in French on the phone.