schooling in brittany any ideas?

[polly]

we are going to move to brittany this year. we know a fair bit of french but does anyone no any good secondary schools in brittany. i am sure there must be many but any particular ones good for english who have moved abroad!  thankyou polly [:$]

[Teamedup]

Polly, Brittany is a very very big region. I don't think that any one can even start to mention their local schools until they know where you are moving to.

 

 

[polly]

[:)]ummm well we were thinking of possibly pontivy, dinan and guingamp! thanks![:D]

[Wendy]

Polly, you can only attend a College within the commune in which you live. Find out exactly where you will be living first and then ask us. Once here, I hope your French turns out to be better than your English if your post is anything to go by!.

[Chrisb]

Come on, Wen, don't put Polly off - I think it's great that she is using her initiative and asking questions about things which are worrying her - there are a huge amount of adults on here whose spelling, grammar and punctuation are far worse than Polly's!!
Actually, Polly, it is not strictly true about only being able to attend the College within your commune - if you go to a College Privé, it doesn't have to be within the 'catchment area', but you wouldn't want to be too far away, both for the sake of where your new friends might live, and the fact that the school day is already pretty long!

I have 2 sons, aged 15 and 12, and they love it here, and are doing well - it is a bit of a slog at first, though, but if you are prepared for that, then you'll be fine.

Good Luck!

Chris

[Val_2]

As a long standing Brittany resident I have to say you CAN go to a collège outside your commune catchment area if there are spaces available over locals but you will not get a subsidised transport allowance for this from your local coffers. Lycée is far more difficult whereby residents of that particular dept are given first refusal in the establishments there and then if there are places spare,others may come in and I know this from my own  children's experience which thankfully was fine.

[polly]

Thankyou you have helped me understand more now! thanks!

[Mistral]

Another thing to remember is that almost half the pupils in Brittany go to private (Catholic) schools. This means that there are less state schools to chose from. The positive side of this situation is that there are more private schools to chose from. Don't be worried by the words "private" or "Catholic". Most French private schools have signed an agreement with the state to teach the state curriculum, which means they have a state subsidy, so fees are very low and generally based on income. The Catholic side rarely means being taught to recite the bible by nuns and is more likely to mean there is  a non-obligatory hour of RE a week.

Technically, the only reason to go to a state collège outside of your catchment area is to take an option that is not provided by the college you should go to. But depending on the amount of free places, they will accept other reasons.