Schools in Lassay Les Chateaux

[Emma]

We are thinking of moving into our holiday home in Champeon (nr. Lassay), on a permanent basis.  We have two children aged 8 and 5, any comments/suggestions/advice on english speaking children settling into french schools, in particular schools in this area.

Many thanks 

[Emp]

Make sure they  are ready to start school at the beginning of the September term so that they start with all the other children.

[godwinsj]

Hi Emma; we live nearby and make the effort to take our youngest into Don Bosco in Mayenne. There is another English family in the primary school, and one I think in the collège. I am not saying it will be easy for them but it is a good school with a sympathetic director. 

However, there is a lot of prejudice against the English in the Mayenne and if you are considering coming then you ought to go round the local schools and see what you think first! Ask the director whether they would be committed to ensuring your child has an education & will not just be ignored at best or bullied and victimised as has happened to ours. I couldn't find a state primary to take the youngest in Mayenne, Jublains or Aron. The directrice in the big primary in Mayenne told me that she had enough to worry about having to to take the 'gens du voyage' children without having to put up with an English child too! I know that a family went home because their kids had such a bad time at the Grazay primary and another person I know was looking to go home as his kid had such a bad time in the schools at Le Ham & Le Horps.

What I would say is avoid the small village primaries & go for a Catholic school! 

[Viv]

I would say read ALL the comments on education and make your own mind up!

Not all catholic schools are good / bad and neither are all state ones.

Do your homework and approach your chosen school with an OPEN mind (there's a novelty!)

Take into consideration other peoples good/ bad experiences but they are just that, OTHER peoples experiences!

[godwinsj]

Viva - do you know of any schools in northern Mayenne that are happy to receive English kids & treat them well? 

I have heard/read that the collège in Ambrières la Vallée seems okay but I would be happy to find out about others, especially the lycées.

[Viv]

I don't want to get into an argument here, but to be honest I find your insinuation on this post and your other post elsewhere that all French Primary state school staff are somehow racist to English children and that all private Catholic schools are wonderful, quite offensive.

It is clear that you or your children have had a bad experience with a French state school and I do sympathise but this does not mean that ALL state schools are bad. There are bound to be good and not so good schools in both the private and public sector. A.N. Other English person could go to the school you had problems with and think it wonderful.

I do not see French schools or life with rose tinted glasses, but I do try and look at the whole picture and get as much evidence as possible before making my mind up. This is what I would advise the OP to do, ( there has been so much written on French schools) by all means they should take into account your bad experiences but no way should they be led to believe that everthing is as black and white as you seem to think.

As I say, it is not my intention to get into an argument and I hope I haven't come accross as rude or if I have, not too rude!

[godwinsj]

I don't want to get into an argument here, but to be honest I find your insinuation on this post and your other post elsewhere that all French Primary state school staff are somehow racist to English children and that all private Catholic schools are wonderful, quite offensive

I don't wish to be offensive in any way. Emma asked about the schools where we live & have experience of. I am just describing what has happened to me, my family & other people who have lived/live in this area.

I am not even putting the Catholic schools over the state ones but it does seem to me that the Catholic Education department  in the Mayenne is more committed to an English style approach to teaching & teacher training than the Academie at Laval.

Believe me, when the secretary at the Mairie of the village where we have just moved to expressed relief that we wouldn't be taking the youngest out of Don Bosco to put him in the village school; I didn't feel particularly happy about it. Do you think I am lying or do you think I should just not say anything but let some poor family land themselves in as much unhappiness as we have had to undergo in the Mayenne?  

Small village primaries struggle to cope with foreign kids or gens du voyage. Their staff appear to have neither the requsite skills or the committment. I have seen for instance a young gypsy kid dragged kicking & screaming across the playground by his teacher - he was 3 at the time. I have also seen her chuck him on the ground when he tried to hold on to her leg. Another gypsy family - the teachers just refused to teach them and all of them ended up being statemented and were heading for SEGPA. I used to talk to their mother who said she wished she had my determination to stand up for her kids but felt beaten by the system. I have had to confront a doctor brough in by the school to try to statement Joseph because he is left-handed!  It is surely no coincidence that the majority of kids from these categories are in the big Catholic school in Mayenne, which is why I recommended it! 

I used to teach in the Mayenne but  gave up on the collège after overhearing one of the other teachers in the English department telling my next class that they didn't have to do anything I said as I was only English.  

[Viv]

[quote user="godwinsj"]

I don't want to get into an argument here, but to be honest I find your insinuation on this post and your other post elsewhere that all French Primary state school staff are somehow racist to English children and that all private Catholic schools are wonderful, quite offensive

I don't wish to be offensive in any way. Emma asked about the schools where we live & have experience of. I am just describing what has happened to me, my family & other people who have lived/live in this area.

You are doing it again, speaking for 'other' people 

I am not even putting the Catholic schools over the state ones but it does seem to me that the Catholic Education department  in the Mayenne is more committed to an English style approach to teaching & teacher training than the Academie at Laval.

Believe me, when the secretary at the Mairie of the village where we have just moved to expressed relief that we wouldn't be taking the youngest out of Don Bosco to put him in the village school; I didn't feel particularly happy about it. Do you think I am lying or do you think I should just not say anything but let some poor family land themselves in as much unhappiness as we have had to undergo in the Mayenne?  

No I don't think you are lying, but I can't see why any Mairie would express relief as you describe it, our village school was pleased to have extra because the more children the more resources they can have. Why on earth should you assume that another families experiences mirror your own?

Small village primaries struggle to cope with foreign kids or gens du voyage.

what every single primary school in France, or can we narrow this down to the ones that you have had contact with? In which case , could the common factor be something other than the schools?

Their staff appear to have neither the requsite skills or the committment. I have seen for instance a young gypsy kid dragged kicking & screaming across the playground by his teacher - he was 3 at the time. I have also seen her chuck him on the ground when he tried to hold on to her leg. Another gypsy family - the teachers just refused to teach them and all of them ended up being statemented and were heading for SEGPA. I used to talk to their mother who said she wished she had my determination to stand up for her kids but felt beaten by the system. I have had to confront a doctor brough in by the school to try to statement Joseph because he is left-handed!  It is surely no coincidence that the majority of kids from these categories are in the big Catholic school in Mayenne, which is why I recommended it! 

And a poster on a similar topic reported how a jewish kid at a catholic school was told he should use the oven to warm up! Awful, but lets  keep a sense of perspective here.

I used to teach in the Mayenne but  gave up on the collège after overhearing one of the other teachers in the English department telling my next class that they didn't have to do anything I said as I was only English.  

And that, I fear could be at the heart of your issues with French schools!

[/quote]

[godwinsj]

hey Viva lighten -up! This is what is wrong with these forums: someone asks a question and they are given an honest reply. However, if this reply is not agreed with then they are shouted down in a rather illogical manner!

Emma asked:- comments/suggestions/advice on english speaking children settling into french schools, in particular schools in this area.

And I thought I answered her!

[Viv]

I thought I had been quite logical actually.

I am all for honest answers and as I said, I appreciate that your experience was a bad one and yes, the OP should be mindful of what happened to you.

But the way that you seem to assert that your experience is the absolute norm and that this experience will befall everyone ( when it won't) irks me.  It was you after all that said that state primary schools should be avoided and I  and many others, do not think that they are all bad.

Anyway, I'm off to lighten up!

 

 

[Emma]

Hi godwinsj

Thanks for your reply, must say I've taken the time to read all the education related threads on this site and feel confused and concerned to say the least.  We were keen to enrol our children at the small village school in Champeon as it is the closest and we had been advised that a smaller school would be much easier for them to cope with and hopefully the teachers would have a bit more time for them.  I guess that all we can do is visit several schools in the area when we are out there in April and try and get some feeling of them for ourselves.

 

What started out as a wonderful idea giving our children the fantastic opportunity of being bi-lingual whilst ducking out of the rat race has turned a little sour although we are of course adult and single minded enough to make up our own minds.  I think the best way really is to suck it and see and make our move on a temporary basis until we can see how it will all pan out.

 

Thanks anyway for your comments