Etiquette of addressing a letter to school?

[Daft Doctor]

Thanks again.  Idun, yes I am aware of the inheritance laws in France, but wise of you to flag it up.  Before I start busting a gut and spending some money obtaining missing documents and so on, can I just clarify if we will need this level of info to get Jack enrolled in school next April.  It would also be interesting to hear what recent administrative experiences other forum members had when trying to enrol their kids in school.    

[Sprogster]

Would it not be less emotive and disruptive for your son to move at the end of the school year, as I understand you are retiring and a few weeks delay would presumably not make any difference from your perspective.

I would also suggest that you investigate what language support your son would get in school, as there have been some reports from other members that this is far from guaranteed, especially in smaller town & village schools.

[Daft Doctor]

Sprogster, we considered that option but decided against it.  We sought advice on that very subject from others both directly and in a specific post on the subject some months ago http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/2480238/ShowPost.aspx and the general opinion was that the extra term before summer would be less full-on, allow him to bed in and crucially, he would make some aquaintences to enjoy the summer with.  I don't want to restart a the discussion on that particular point but thanks for your interest.  We have checked and there is indeed language support for non-francophones at both local primary schools, so feel reassured on that score.

[idun]

Paperwork, well, we had to send back to the UK for some of ours once we got to France. There was no way of us knowing that we would need it before we left and it would have been easier to take it with us.

 

 You'll certainly need the offical paperwork to say your son has had his jabs. Even if the school doesn't need the rest, I'd still get every last thing, and then you have it

[NormanH]

[quote user="Daft Doctor"]Thanks again.  Idun, yes I am aware of the inheritance laws in France, but wise of you to flag it up.  Before I start busting a gut and spending some money obtaining missing documents and so on, can I just clarify if we will need this level of info to get Jack enrolled in school next April.  It would also be interesting to hear what recent administrative experiences other forum members had when trying to enrol their kids in school.    [/quote]

You may not need all that to enroll your son in School, but there are various elements that you may have to produce in the future, and it would be easier to make sure that you have the originals from the UK while you are still living there.

I detect a certain spirit of 'it can't be that complicated'. Some times it isn't and things have certainly been simplified, but getting all that together in one place  at the beginning has certainly speeded things up since on a few occasions.

To get an idea of French administration scroll down this link to 'Modèle de livret de Famille'

http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexte.do;jsessionid=CBB81F1DB3322816271D52DC6548ABD3.tpdjo15v_3?cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006053798&dateTexte=vig

[Daft Doctor]

Hi Norman, thanks for that link, and of course you are right, much easier to cobble everything together in the UK before leaving rather than from a distance.  I know already from buying a property in France and dealing with French banks, etc that it is far from straightforward and in some ways light years behind the UK in making things easier for the average man in the street.  Add to that (in my case at least) the lack of language fluency and it becomes a minefield, and that's why advice from yourself and others on the forum often proves so useful. 

[Daft Doctor]

Perhaps unsurprisingly I know our GPs personally, so getting whatever health summaries and immunisation records will be the least challenging!

[idun]

I realised that getting the immunisation records should be easy, just make sure that you have everything that they want[Www]

[idun]

DD, just wondered if you knew what these two french 'illnesses' were without looking them up, one is probably only known of in France[;-)]

The first is mal de coeur.

The second is crise de foie.

[Daft Doctor]

Hi idun, now I feel the pressure! I'm guessing the first might be heart failure (or attack at a push) and the second seems to be a liver problem (could it be cirrhosis of just liver failure??). Put me out of my misery either way.

[idun]

And that is just what I used to think, how could they be anything else.

 I was at a gym class with some older ladies and  at the break one started gasping for air holding her chest,and saying she had mal de coeur. I was frantic, asking who we should ring. The others were unimpressed and told her to go outside and get a breath of fresh air. They thought I was mad. It meant that she just felt sick......... probably after the bending excersizes we had been doing.

 

And crise the foie, well that is particularly french. As I have never had it, from what I can gather it is due to the excessive eating of rich foods and in some ways is quite understandable after the eating orgies of the revillons. Symptoms, well, it varies, and I know people feel really ill with it,  stomach pains and feel sick, maybe are sick, could have vertigo and I've known of friends to have head aches too . The thing is that people know when they have this.

And another one, mal aux reins, which is lower back pain and doesn't signify specifically the kidneys.

 

These are just things from everyday french life.[:-))]

 

[Daft Doctor]

Thats fascinating!  I thought the crise de foie thing might have been something to do with over-indulgence but as you say it'll be a whole new culture in France, health included.  If anyone I don't know asks me any medical questions these days my stock answer of 'said I was a doctor, didn't say I was a good one' usually throws people off the scent!  I might have to learn the equivalent in French in the fullness of time. 

[thepenofmyaunt]

E-mailing anything to an organisation in France, more often than not, will not garner any response. When I asked about why I had not had a response to an e-mail I sent to a government department I was told that 'e-mail is not considered a valid form of communication in France because many people do not own a computer'. I didn't bother to point out that as I had e-mailed in the first place, the chances are that I did. Faxes are acceptable though.

As others have said, there is little point in trying to do anything before you arrive as you have to enrol your child at the Mairie of the village where the school is situated and to do that you have to provide proof of residency. You are moving to the land of rigid rules and round pegs for round holes. While the new carte scolaire has supposedly made it easier to go to school outside of your designate one, France is still a long way from Open Mornings or school tours for prospective parents. Most still go to the nearest school or the one nearest the parents place of work. There are no maximum class sizes in France so getting a place is unlikely to be a problem. There is no need to warn them as your child will be treated the same as a new French child arriving at school and no special action will be needed.

Help with French is by no means certain and your child may also not be welcomed with open arms for the new 'diversity' he'll bring to the class. A foreign child with no French language skills is often more of a hindrance than a help. I had a teacher at one of my children's schools come up to me when I was out shopping to ask me to tell all my friends not to move to France because it wasn't fair on the French children or the teacher to have foreigners holding them back! And this from a school that had only 4 non-francophone students.

[idun]

Goodness DD you do not understand french culture at all. [:-))]

You cannot say that, a  hightly qualified professional in France saying you are a bad Dr.  I cannot see many seeing the humour in it, but looking askance and probably doubting your qualifications too. It is so HARD to become a Dr in France, then once someone has 'qualifications' such as yours they are fit to do the job. It doesn't really matter if they are not much good unless say a Doctor was really negligent and getting it constantly wrong and risking people's lives.

My friends daughter went to Uni to study medicine. 1000 in the class and they only took 80. As you can see most failed. The students were allowed to resit once. She did. Of the 80 who passed in the following year, 70% were resits. She didn't pass. She went to do a year's prepar in physiotherapy and then her physiotherapists studies.

My son had a french teacher with a very bad speech inpediment, I really could hardly understand her, apparently the kids who couldn't either were in bother, as that was their fault. She was highly qualified, so that made it alright.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="idun"]

Goodness DD you do not understand french culture at all. [:-))]

You cannot say that, a  hightly qualified professional in France saying you are a bad Dr.  I cannot see many seeing the humour in it, but looking askance and probably doubting your qualifications too. It is so HARD to become a Dr in France, then once someone has 'qualifications' such as yours they are fit to do the job. It doesn't really matter if they are not much good unless say a Doctor was really negligent and getting it constantly wrong and risking people's lives.

My friends daughter went to Uni to study medicine. 1000 in the class and they only took 80. As you can see most failed. The students were allowed to resit once. She did. Of the 80 who passed in the following year, 70% were resits. She didn't pass. She went to do a year's prepar in physiotherapy and then her physiotherapists studies.

My son had a french teacher with a very bad speech inpediment, I really could hardly understand her, apparently the kids who couldn't either were in bother, as that was their fault. She was highly qualified, so that made it alright.

[/quote]

The "numerus clausus" may seem irrational but it does sort the wheat from the chaff. The year is not completely wasted as it can be used to enroll in related vocations.

In addition the costs to the institution are minimal at this stage of medical studies, so it is relatively cost/effective as means of selection.

 

[idun]

So after two years of first year medicine she still had a year of prepar to get onto a physio course. That seemed mad to me.

And to society it is not costly, but some families can ill afford such failure.

[Rose]

[quote user="idun"]

 And crise the foie, well that is particularly french. As I have never had it, from what I can gather it is due to the excessive eating of rich foods and in some ways is quite understandable after the eating orgies of the revillons. Symptoms, well, it varies, and I know people feel really ill with it,  stomach pains and feel sick, maybe are sick, could have vertigo and I've known of friends to have head aches too . The thing is that people know when they have this.  

[/quote]

I'm no doctor so I could be wrong but I have had a couple of dreadful attacks of pain on my right side.  My doctor thinks it could be my gallbladder (which he says is not uncommon after a thyroidectomy)... anyway, he and my neighbour have both described it as the 'crise' - not sure if its the same thing?   [8-)]

By the way DD, I sent you a pm

[idun]

Crise is used a lot. Always sounds extreme to me, but that is the way it is. Or did they say 'crise de foie'?

[Rose]

I dont think so idum... certainly my neighbout said just crise... she said if I have three they'll cut it out [:-))]  I hope she doesn't mean my liver [:D]

[Chancer]

Daft doctor you had better read up on heavy legs as well before you get besieged by French women of a certain age asking you to give theirs a once over [:D][;-)]

Oh and while we are at it the menopause does not exist in France, only the andropoause, which I for one had never even heard of in the UK.

[Rose]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Oh and while we are at it the menopause does not exist in France

[/quote]

flippin fantastic... at least I don't have that to worry about that now that I live here [:D]

[idun]

I have a very good friend who is slender and I am well, rather more generously proportioned. I was telling her that my Dr asked me if I had les jambes lourdes, and wondered what they were going on about,  other than the obvious. To which my friend said that she had les jambes lourdes, and apparently her legs feel really heavy............ and mine perhaps should, but don't.[Www]

Frankly some of these french medical things make little sense to me.

I keep trying to think of odd ways of describing medical things in english and can't, or maybe I'm too used to them to notice.

 

Chancer I thought that the andropause was the male menopause????????  [8-)]           [:D]         [:-))]

[NormanH]

A coup de reins hasn't got a lot to do with Kidneys either, as Jane Birkin could tell you...[6]

For a less dubious version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XzipTlEM-Y

[Daft Doctor]

Thank god I'm not actually going to be practicing Medicine when I'm there, just the informal consultations to fend off!  As far as getting into Medical School and qualifying goes, the UK mainly does its selection at Medical School entry, with vast majority of students qualifying eventually, even if some retake a year.  Perhaps its kinder to disappoint at the outset, rather than whip away an opportunity 2 or 3 years down the line?  In my day, 3 B's at A level and being a level-headed decent person was enough to get you in (albeit you had to fight off and average of 6 others if you wanted an offer of a place).  These days to get in you have to sit an online personality/attitudinal test, get 3 A*s at A level, and at least have done a voluntary spell at a Vietnamese field hospital or similar to bolster out your 'personal statement' on your UCAS form.  My colleagues and I often say that we wouldn't stand a chance of getting in now, but I suppose you do what you have to do at the time. 

I can see that I will have to reign in my tongue-in-cheek sense of humour when I am over in France, some of it at least will be completely lost and probably adversely miscontrued.   I guess my air stewardess patient who used to avoid lewd jokes, etc by telling people who enquired of what she did for a living that she 'worked in aluminium tubing' would face the same problem!

Thanks to you kind people at least I now have four France-specific conditions to watch out for and can nod knowledgably if they are brought up in conversation.  Must learn the equivalent of 'its just a virus' or 'pull yourself together'....................................

[idun]

Also, not to be forgotten, people have to pay to see their Dr and then await their reimbursement so you being there and 'free' could seem like a golden opportunity for a consultation gratuit. And watch out which bit of the metallurgie you say you work in, there are lots metallurgie things in the alpes and you could get caught out [Www].

 

And NormanH 's link doesn't explain very well, and in the interests of extending french vocabularly, coup de reins is  thrusting or humping. And if I have misunderstood that term, someone had better put me right two de sweet.