Private Schools

[Harley]

Hi evereyone,

We have been here three years and our children attend a private Catholic school.  Now, when I say private I mean that we pay about 300 Euros a year for three children plus lunches and school trips.  We are not Catholic but the children attended a church school in the UK and we wanted them to go to a school here that shared the same values.  We have had a very good experience so far with the French education system.  They were welcoming and helpful.  They are strict but fair and the children have a great deal of respect and affection for their teachers and fellow students.  We are given twice yearly reports on progress and in between we are told if the teacher feels they could be doing better/trying harder in certain subjects. 

Has anyone else sent their children to similar schools?  I would be interested to know what your experiences are and also if the same rule about teachers "being placed" by the government applies to private Catholic schools or indeed any private schools.

Thanks.[:)]

[Jo53]

The only school in our small village is an ecole prive, and our kids go there (for now). It is woefully underfunded - no school trips, hardly anything for the little ones to play with, and we parents have to battle to raise money just to provide the basics (and I mean basics). The whole thing is such a struggle. Most of the village kids go to the school, and basically they are not getting an adequately funded education, in marked contrast to the private schools in the town 12 km away. I believe you have the right to send your kids to the nearest ecole publique if there isn't one in your village.

I would be vary wary of small rural private schools, because of the funding problems.

Jo

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Ecoles Privées clearly differ - the one our two girls attend could not be a starker contrast to what Jo describes above.

From what I understood about funding (my wife is on the OGEC of the

school, and I sometimes pay attention), there are three sources of

money:

- state grant, which covers the teachers' salaries;

- funding from the commune that is calcualted on the basis of the

number of children in the school and which is solely for educational

materials;

- fundraising by the OGEC / parents.

It is this last that, I think, makes all the difference between

individual schools as it has to cover any expenses to repair buildings,

fund school trips, buy any non-core materials, etc. We have several

mothers and a preist who are well versed in the arts of extortion, so

we do well out of the third stream of cash, but I know that other

schools around us have had a hard time.

We chose the école privée for fairly shallow reasons: of the two

schools on offer, it looked the nicer and the staff smiled more. As it

turned out this was quite a sound judgement as the école publique 

here is  nothing to get excited about - they vary a lot too, after

all.

Our teachers are required to have the proper formal qualifications, but

they are not employed by the state but by the school. This gives them

far more latitude in their day-to-day teaching programes, though they

are still required to teach to the published curriculum.

[godwinsj]

Our youngest goes to the primary part of the big Catholic school complex in Mayenne which goes from Ecole Maternelle all the way up to the Lycées. It seems to me very well funded - for instance the kids go by coach to the town swimming pool; they don't have to walk like the state schools do!

I have been very impressed by the teachers so far - not only are they all smiley & make an effort to say hello to me which is a bit of a novelty in the Mayenne, they have taken a lot of trouble with Joseph and keep me informed of his progress at all times. I do a bit of conversation work there also & all the kids appear to be happy and confident.

For us it is definitely a case of bigger is better, and the school philosophy of keeping parents involvoed and treating the kids like human beings has certainly been a welcome change to what we have experienced elswhere.

[simon]

Harley,

 

Hi, my family and I are moving to France, near Argentan. I read your message and was wondering how I can find out more about catholic schools in our local area?

 

hope you can help.

 

Simon Cachia.

[Harley]

 

Hi Simon,

Sorry, have been away.  You are looking for Ecole Prive if you want a Catholic School.  However, don't be put off by the Prive part.  It's nothing like English Private school,  price wise.  Our children were the only English children when we arrived and they were warmly welcomed and very quickly settled in even though their French ability was almost non existant.  They love it here and have no desire to return to the UK.[:D]

Good luck with your move.