International/Bilingual Schools

[thepoms]

Hi everyone, we are seriously considering a move this year to the Marseille area.  Like so many others contemplating a move to France, our main concern is our children adjusting to the new life - particularly settling into school.  Our son is approaching 5 years old, is very outgoing, makes friends easily and does not really give us cause for concern.  Our daughter however is 10 years old and we think is at an age where the transition might not be so easy.  She has travelled a lot, we have spent 2 stints totalling 5 years in the Middle East so she is used to moving and making/breaking friends but she has not had to deal with the language issue before. 

Our question is, does anyone have any experience of International/Bilingual schools, especially in the Marseille, Aix en Provence area?  Are they worth the investment and are they likely to make my daughter's transition any easier?  Are any of the State Schools or "Sous Contrat" bilingual?

We're not trying to wimp out but having moved around so much previously we desperately want to make this one smooth and do the best for our children!

Any advice greatly appreciated.

The Poms

[Mistral]

As far as I know, there are no state primary schools in Aix with a bilingual/international section. But I think there are a couple of sous contrat private schools. There is the international bilingual school of provence, it's private  but I don't know to what extent. http://www.ibsofprovence.com/

On the other hand, the state collège Mignet has an international section. I think they have "normal" English lessons when the class has English and I think history/geography is taught in English too. you'll find more information here http://www.clg-mignet.ac-aix-marseille.fr/   There is also at least one private sous contrat collège; St catherine http://perso.wanadoo.fr/saintecatherine/college/ 

This leads on to the lycée Duby at Luynes http://www.lyc-luynes.ac-aix-marseille.fr/

All the state schools will need your daughter to take some sort of test to check her English ability. From what I've heard, most the pupils in the international sections are native English speakers.

[thepoms]

Mistral - thank you very much for your reply. The IBS Of Provence looks good although, from what I can make outit is fully private, it may be worth it to get my daughter settled in. 

One of the reasons we're a bit concerned is that a work colleaugue's move to France failed and the family returned to UK because his daughter couldn't settle in at school.  Of course everyone's different and it may well be we won't have a problem, but if anyone else out there has experience of this school or similar then we'd love to hear.

Thanks - The Poms

[thomas16]

hi, i am not sure if i can be of help, i brought my daughter here at 11 just as she was going to change from jnr to secondary.  she was at a private girls school in sevenoaks, kent, music,ballet,theatre, the lot, here it is totally different, she is a very independant academic girl, used to travelling, etc, but, dont expect it to compare with the english private schools, my daughter has 12 hours a week of F L E , french for a foreign student, she does not go to a local village school as they wanted to keep her down with the 9-12yr olds and she is too mature for this, so we  sent her to a french language school, i dont see any point in sending her to an english school albeit international, as she is going to be brought up here and needs to be fluent, the private system is not like uk, all the curriculum is the same in france, my daughter goes private, only because of the language and the fle that they offered, but we are moving her in the summer to the local school at least now she will stand a chance with the other 30 or so kids per class as her french is excellent, in six months she has done wonders, but only cos she boards and is with the french all the time.  she still want to go back to the uk, she misses her friends, swimming, team spirit in sports, etc.

 

hope this helps

[Tourangelle]

Going private means two things in France.  Either it is a school which is sous-contrat, which means that the curriculum is exactly the same as in a state school, the teachers have basically the same training, and fees will be very low indeed, or it is a "real" private school (so not sous-contrat) where the fees will be high and these are equivalent to a private, or indeed a public school in the UK. 

[thepoms]

Thanks for the replies.  Thomas 16 - some interesting points, it sounds like it's worked well for you.  My daughter has had private education whilst I worked abroad in the Middle East and so is in almost exactly the same situation as your daughter was.  I think I tend to agree with the point you make about sending her to an English school, how would I go about finding out about a French Language School?  The idea of sending her for a while to get her French up to speed before "re-integrating" into a local school makes a lot of sense.

[dyson3]

If you've travelled alot then get her into a private international school. Mougins is especially well known on the cote d'Azur - See these links -

http://www.cad.fr/fr/te/te002.htm

I have a thirteen year old and we moved back to the UK after eight years in Northern france, two years being at a french bilingual school in Rennes. She started at Maternelle aged 2. I was not that enthralled with the prospect of her forthcoming secondary education in French state school. France I found was not a very broad minded country and although your daughter will make friends and be happy within it, the education is pretty victorian and the french very fixed in their opinions. Please bear in mind that there is a big unemployment situation in France and even if your daughter/son works really hard and does well there won't be much for her to come out to unless the government changes dramatically very soon. There were recent articles in The Guardian that there are more than 300,000 young people who have come to live in London to find work and are very happy to not be tied up with all the red tape that goes with finding careers and employment.

Since arriving back in the UK and found a state school in West Sussex for my daughter I can say that education in the UK is so lively and engaging in comparison. My daughter played the violin and was taught on her own from the age of five and it was looked on as an extra curricular activity. There was no junior orchestra, no junior performances even at the conservatoire in Rennes. Since back in the UK she is a member of two junior string orchestras, and has individual and group tuition for one hour a week. I am overwhelmed with all the activities she could get involved in.

I would say realistically it takes children about a year to adapt with the language change. Your five year old will probably be OK. Your 10 year old would find it harder.

Please contact me if you would like to chat about our experiences. Marseilles is a city and all could be different but I would not go into french state education, even the private catholic option (not expensive), The french I found went for the Catholic prive option when they had unruly children and were looking for a stricter approach. there are no other alternatives other than private international.

I hope this helps.

Dyson3

[dyson3]

Alternativley go to www.google.fr and put in ecoles prives marseilles and you will find loads of options

Dyson3

[Kitty]

French private schools (sous contrat) are amazingly cheap.  We are educating three of our four children in this way and the annual fees total less than £5000.

[Kitty]

Am I right in saying that the fees at sous-contrat priavte schools are low because the French government pays the staff salaries?  Can someone correct me on this?

[Tourangelle]

Yes.  The school has to work "truly" independently for a number of years (5?) before it can apply to be "sous-contrat", which means they follow the curriculum and so on and, as you say, the teachers are paid by the state.  They are also recruited via the same exam, but opt, when enrolling, to work the the private sector.  They are slightly less well paid, (so rumour has it) than teachers in the state sector because as they are not civil servants the employer has to pay more social charges (like higher rates for potential unemployment, which civil servants have to pay, but not as much as people who might potentially use it do)

[nimjacole]

Hi Cathy,

I was just wondering what area you decided to send your children.  I have two girls, one 5 year old and the other 12 months.  My 5 yrear old currently goes to a private all girls school and I was looking for something similar and the school you describes sounds like a starting point.

[lalavande]

Hi Poms, I'm in Provence, a teacher myself, but my kids finished their education in the UK. As far as I know there are 3 bilingual schools in Aix and others in Marseille. There is an excellent one near Vallbonne and Mougins. However, you can't go wrong with children as young as yours by putting them directly into the french system. It will be a bit strange for a couple of weeks. Most schools in the area cater for giving expat children extra french lessons to adapt. At least in a french school the staffing remains even. In some bilingual schools there seems to be a fair amount of movement of teaching staff (english speakers) and that can in itself be disruptive. I know this is true of one of the bilingual schools in Aix. I turned down a job because of the way the wanted me to teach english children. After all I'd been doing it for years in the UK!! I've quite a few expat friends and alot of them have put their children into the french system and have been pleased with their progress. look at  www.aagp-provence.com (anglo-american group of provence) might be something there.

[thepoms]

Hello again,

Thanks to everyone who has replied, we are still at the planning stage, the job is organised, the house on the market so we just have to wait.  We visited Aix last month, it is a great area and we still hope to be there by the end of the year but until we sell the house we have to be patient.

Once it all comes together we'll 1. Panic 2. Probably post for more help!!!

Cheers The Poms

[thomas16]

hi, the poms,  saint denis in loches is a fantastic school, my daughter has great results, but due to our circumstances she has to go local, i would say her french is almost fluent, if u can say that................she misses her swimming as she swam for kent, and misses her music.  saint denis is a church school very strict and quite tough on the child as its all french but saying this there is lots of help, you have to be cruel to be kind.  she was also taking chinese which, although she find hard she did this for fun.  its a long day at st denis 8-9 as you have two hours obligatory etude(homework study)  i am a bit nervous about the local school as they are often short staffed and do not seem to push them.  st. denis will push hard for results.  if this school does not turn out too great then she will board in the u.k.  if u need to contact me please do just email and i will give u our phone number.  good luck

[Philadelphia]

Hello.  I came across this post on the website, but I noticed that it is nearly three years old.  We are a family living in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania in the United States.  Our daughter is very interested in spending the fall of her senior year in high school in France (next fall), and we are looking very closely at IBS-Provence.  While she has taken fours years of French to date, she is not yet bilingual.  (This is one of the reasons she wants to go.)  I wondered if you might have any thoughts on this for us.

Many thanks!

[vinux04]

hi,

Yes french private school are very cheap and quite good.

I'm in Paris, there's "le petit cours" which is a bilingual school, international school english.

It's good, nice learning, nice teachers and not too much expensive :

bilingual school paris: le petit cours