education in france

[preston]

Hello, Our family want to move to France (Dordogne) by the end of this year. I know my 9 year old daughter is going to be fine.  She is bubbly and outgoing and makes friends very easily.  As a mother, my only real concern is my son.  He has just turned 13.  Some of you must be horrified that we would uproot him now .My husband says he will settle in time.  We are sending them both for private french lessons, as I want them as fluent as possible but are we still expecting too much of him.  How do we find the right school that has a few english children already and teachers that are used to dealing with foreign children settling in.  If we don't do the move now the time will never be right until they have both finished their education totally.  To me finding the right school is the most important thing for a happy move and find a house in that catchment area.  Am i right or not?  My husband set this up for me, my nmae is Nicky not Preston.

 

[Holly1]

Hi Nicky not Preston :-)

Our oldest was 9 when we came so I don't have personal experience of moving older children but a few English families have moved to our area recently with teenagers. Of the ones at our college, two families have gone back and one child from one of the other families have also gone back. Two children are still in school and one of those is thinking of going back too! There are another 8 english speaking children who have been here longer and are bilingual or nearly so and settled in. The college got extra funding for extra french tuition last year but haven't been able to this year but seem to make every effort they can to help the english speaking children. So, from my own limited view it seems the age at which they move makes a huge difference....I'm sorry to say that I don't think it's going to be easy. Having said that, if I were in your position I would still give it a try. There are lots of other benefits for children of living in a different culture, the education system here is good overall, and if they can get over the initial hurdles it is well worth it. And having truly bilingual children is wonderful!

Good luck, whatever you decide

Holly (north Dordogne)

[battypuss1]

Though I am now back in London with my two younger daughters (both bilingual) I have had many years experience with French schools and Colleges, both public and private. Private schools are not expensive, by the way. It would be impossible to categorise schools unless you have made a close study of all the ones available in your area - and be warned that the public schools only take kids from their catchment area unless you have a convincing argument to send them elsewhere and can explain this AT LENGTH in good French to whichever official deals with it...in our case it was the Mayor, but could be the Head of the College. Be prepared for a long battle, though perhaps you'll get lucky; I hope so! So, depending on your area and the number of other 'foreigners' around, and whether the school has enough funds, you may or may not get extra help in French. And whichever it turns out to be, you may well not get the same answer next week. The College you choose might have an International option, where the pupils have more English lessons. Obviously, your son will not need these, so he might be able to do extra French instead without cutting into time set aside for other subjects.

French schools are very regimented in general and the children are expected to fit neatly into the appropriate boxes. My two, being of a rather independent and obstinate mien, did not fit AT ALL (!!) and were constantly in some scrape or another, not academically where they were fine, but becaus they chose to voice their opinions rather than just repeat stuff. That said, the education is good on the whole, my daughters think England is a breeze compared to France, so this might work against you the other way round.

I wish you the best of luck, act positively and sound confident and your son and daughter will probably be fine.

[tetley]

hi there, we are fairly new arrivals and live in north dordogne...we have two children, but the eldest of these is 9, so sorry no experience of schooling a teenager.  i would echo the sentiments of the previous responses...you've got the opportunity, take it, it will be hard, keep positive,visit the local schools..get a feel of them,there's always a solution to a problem! my two have found school life here to be very different to what they knew....(although it reminds me of my school days) ..wish you all the best  

[Dotty0]

Nicky

My family moved to France last summer.  I have 3 children, 6, 10 and 12.  Our 12 year old daughter, nearly 13, went straight to college.  We too thought she would find it harder than her younger brothers to get on at school, with the learning of a second language.  Most people intimate the older the child the more difficult it is to grasp.  However we have been totally surprised, she has settled in so well.  She is pretty fluent, not having had any private French lessons before we moved, and is partaking in the class along with all the other French kids.  She started school last September and she was a little nervous about the whole thing, but she has always been positive and now its paying off.  I recently asked her if we could turn back the clock, would she like to go back to the UK.  Her answer was a definate NO.  Just goes to show how we can worry un necessarily.  I'm sure there are cases where it does just not work, but equally some that do.  Its still relavtively early days but its heading in the right direction.  Sometimes you have to do what you feel is right, and just be positive about the decision.

Dotty

[preston]

From Nicky

Thankyou to those who replied.  It was good to get other peoples views.  Is there anyone in the South Dordogne area who has a child in a college who is happy and progressing well.  This is the area we want to move to and to make contact for him with someone already there is going to be a great help.  Please reply if you live in this area. Thankyou.

[Clarkkent]

You may want to read an article in the March edition of Living France. It is called "Bad move" and concerns the experiences of a couple who took 13 and 11 year old daughters to France. It does not make pretty reading.

Its final paragraph reads"

" ... It might be wise to delay your departure for a few years until they've completed their secondary education. They probably won't realise how lucky they are to be able to enjoy the fun and friendship of their teenage years in England. But you will."

[sturner]

We are in the north Lot et Garonne, so not too far from South Dordogne, our children have been here for a number of years and are bilingual, our oldest daughter started at college last september and she was top in her class in french. A couple of months after starting she said that all the foreign children had been gathered together and told that they had to do extra french lessons once a week in their lunch times. I was shocked and asked her french teacher about it who said she was not aware of this but could think of other children who could do with the extra help other than our daughter! However in hindsight, the sentiment was good, the college was really trying to get the english, belgian, dutch and american children at the school to be successful and our daughter has made the most of it and used it to help with any issues she had. The College is very proactive and I would recommend it to anyone coming to the area. We fought quite hard to get her there and I am glad we did. If you want to know more, just let me know.

[MargaretD]

Hi,

You've also got to think about the pressures in the British system in Years 10 and 11 compared to that in the 3eme in France.

The kids do their college Brevet at the end of 3eme (our Year 10), but it is only in French, Maths and History/Geography.  However, your 13 year old will have to be able to get to grips with the French as soon as possible.  With an understanding college, you should be OK.  You might find that French language courses open to you would also be a benefit to your child.  Maths is different here as well... but the words are easier to sort out, and now I've got a hang on how to do French divisions I can't seem to remember how to do them the British way! (I'm a teacher!)  The geography curriuclum will be familiar to them, but the history of course will be different, but not too different - the Cuban Missile Crisis is the same in every language.

The alternative is that you choose 5 GCSE's to do through a correspondence course to leave a second option open. 

But I would say, make the move, otherwise you'll never do it.  Margaret