Anglo - American Studies Program, Rennes

[SC]

Does anyone have any direct experience of their children attending the Anglo – American Studies Program at  the Ile-de-France Lycée at Rennes please?

sc

 

[Fil]

Hi,

I am sorry this is late, but I was just browsing and saw it and also saw no-one had replied. 

Well, you need warning.  It is vast and impersonal to start with, but that can be overcome.  What can't is that although they market it as for english kids too, it is really aimed at the french ones.  All lessons taught in english are taught slowly and simply for the french students, with repetition etc.  The lessons taught in french are raced through at normal speed, no repetition allowed, no help to the english kids.  Unless your child is pretty fluent he or she will be lost and get low marks etc.

My son was there for two terms and got so depressed by it (you're so stupid etc) that he left.  They had transferred him to Français Langue Etrangere but that was not much better, as although it taught him more french, everyone else in it was from another country (lots of trouble spots so lots of refugees) and no-one had good accents to copy!  The teacher was not even french herself!  And she hated my son.

He still has friends there, but not many of the english kids stuck it out and he was really glad to get away.  The pastoral care was none existent, but I suspect that is the same in most lycées.  He is now in a training scheme hopefully leading to an apprenticeship as he doesn't really know what he wants to do even yet!  I do feel that the Lycée Ile de France was to a great extent responsible for his leaving education early, and I am dissappointed in them as he is a very bright boy with 10 GCSE's at A to C.  Bit of a waste.  He does want to continue on in France though rather than return to the UK.

Email me personally if you want any more info.

Good luck.

Fil

[SC]

Thanks for that Fil.
We visited the Ile de France Lycee at the open day last year, and we will be choosing a lycee for our daughter shortly.

With the exception of the French teacher in charge of Anglo-American studies who seemed very capable and was passionate about the course, no-one seemed proud of the school and we didn't get a good impression of the lycee. It was our first experience of the state system, our daughter having been in Catholic schools for the past five years, and we have been considering it as a stepping stone to a degree course in the UK.  On the same afternoon we visited a Catholic Lycee which impressed us much more than Rennes.

Thank you for your comments in your second paragraph, we could only get such information from first hand experience.

I'm sorry to hear about your son's difficulties with the system and hope that he has found a way forward. He should consider a teacher who continually belittles him as a failure both as a teacher and a human being, and beneath contempt.
 
What mortified our daughter after visiting the lycees, was that it was 'more school'; she had been expecting something more like A level college. If she does finish her education in the UK, we hope that she will then learn to enjoy her education in the way that our son did there.

Good luck to you too.
SC

[chicfille]

Well that has put me right off! Our daughters are at primary school in Rennes at the moment but we are wondering which collège to send them to later on. We were considering this programme but if this is what it is like for English-speakers.... no way!

When looking for a primary school we visited the Ecole/Collège/Lycée Saint Vincent in Rennes which also has a bilingual programme, and although it was good and gets excellent results, we found it frighteningly bourgeois, very catholic and rather elitist. Children who arrive from other schools sometimes find their average marks fall dramatically - it is very competitive and demanding. We decided against it.

So we don't know where to look for post-primary education... if we're still in France when the time comes.