HI, We are thinking of selling up here in the Uk and moving to France,prob Brittany as ive heard there is alot of english there.my concerns are for my children. My boy is 6 and my daughter 5 yrs. its schooling and fitting into a french school with basically at present no french language skills. I would be heartbroken for them and us if our dreams were to be come a nightmare.any help or advice on a good area , i have read some horror stories, families returning to the Uk because the kids hav'nt settled! thankyou so much in advance for any help .
Hi Emma, we came over three years ago when my girls were 4 and 2 respectively and settled in 87150 in the Haute Vienne. Our eldest started maternelle immediately and her teacher gave her extra 1 2 1 tuition for the first 6 months to get her language up to speed (prior to that the girls had just soaked up the BBC Muzzy DVDs). We had tears for the first couple of weeks but she settled in well and by the end of the academic year was on a par with her classmates. Two further years on, she is really happy and loves her school. We found that her written english was slipping so we try to mix that in with "fun" key stage learning at home on saturday mornings.. Our youngest was gagging to start school and as her birthday is in december she actually started school just before her 3rd birthday. It has been a seamless transition for her. Both girls still love reading and watching stuff in english but equally seem to switch to french ..effortlessly. I think it depends where you are; my children are at the same school as Valerie's son and it may be that we are just lucky. all the best !
Hi Emma,
I have two girls, 10 and 13 and we came over in January (from the US) for a 6 month french immersion. Yes, they had difficulty with the language but not so bad as the teachers were accommodating (the 13 year old actually answered her tests in English). The ecole provided a private French tutor for my 10 year old four days a week (now only two days b/c she was progressing well) while the college did not (and the 13 year old did not want extra tutoring). They have had private French classes in the last 3 years before but clearly not sufficient if one was using the language all day.
The first two weeks were challenging but once they made friends, it eases up considerably. I think that's the key.. making friends. My 10 year old told me that her seatmate kept on asking her if she needed help or if she understood what was going on (smile).
And, for long term stay, do choose a place that is close to both the ecole and a college so that their friends will be close by. We have a maison secondaire in our village and it helps that they are making local friends to hang out in the future when we return for the holidays.
Bonne chance!
Elizabeth
In France I witnessed a two year old being smacked round the head by a parent waiting for schools out and a head teacher calling a child over to reprimand it and smacking its bottom in front of everyone in the playground.
Message put up on FaceBook by Johnny Summerton: Raising your hand to a kid is a form of child abuse - but try telling the French that. A new video has a go. Not that it'll do much good.
http://www.france-today.com/2013/06/will-french-tv-campaign-to-stop-parents.html
France Today: Will French TV campaign to stop parents smacking children lead to a ban? Fat chance
www.france-today.com
FRENCH NEWS - in English of course. Politics, sports, reviews, travel, a slice of life in France and stories you might not necessarily be able to find elsewhere on the Net.
Plus something from me to lead you to a place where children's rights are defended, so have a look at this people: http://jprosen.blog.lemonde.fr/
It is the blog of Jean-Pierre Rosenczveig who set up the French branch of Defence for Children International some many years ago, allow yourselves to use the translate function if necessary. You will see what it happening here in France that is positive for children. It needs everybody's support.
All those years ago I felt very much in the minority with my views on the French education system as at the time it was being extolled in UK newspapers as the system to follow. Over the years though I have read articles agreeing with my viewpoint. I was just a concerned parent with an innate interest in children and their education.
Agreed, the difference is that because we are 'educators' as academics, as parents we are treated differently, especially my wife having been entirely educated in the French language above age 16 (albeit Swiss and a different way of seeing things) so that they imagine it was 'one size fits all' as you describe it. Our field of expertise is also childhood and what we find is that French teachers know surprisingly little on that topic. They appear to learn the content of teaching but not the social needs of those they teach to. Yes, never either of ours, but children are still occasionally smacked. I have seen schooling in quite a few countries, many of them developing nations, and feel that France has a lot of work to do to get the educational establishment up to the level of many other countries. However, as parents if we are involved and remain on top of them teachers deliver whatever necessary to keep their lives easy.
Brian - like I said that is a different discussion! But I am in agreement with you and the rigid inflexibility of their education is the reason I decided not to have them educated in France. It is very much a "one size fits all" education... and they were not afraid to smack the children (head, bottom) long after it had been banned in the UK - do they now? I have no idea.
Melissa - that says half and half about non-French children in the system. There are plenty of Dutch and German children hereabouts and our daughters are actually half-Swiss rather than being any kind of 'typical' UK children. The non-French in local schools doing well tend, it seems, to do well because parents are supportive rather than 'pushy', so unlike the top French children who often appear to be pushed they are studying comfortably. At the other end of the machine, I had French students in UK universities and they wanted to be told what to and how to learn far more schematically than young folk from UK and other northern European secondary backgrounds. They insisted that is how it had been at school so I had the task, along with other people doing supervision and tuition teaching, of persuading them to think for themselves.
Hi Emma. I moved over here 18 years ago and had my children here, so I have no idea what schools and teachers are like in the UK. My school and teachers when I was young were like the ones in France. However, there is usually an association of pupils' parents that you could get involved in. I think it would be probably better to rent or move around at first as some villages are more friendly than others, some have more children than others, etc. My village is very friendly but some villages only a few km away are not. Also, if you are in a village you will need to drive a lot, really a lot. I can clock up easily 100km in a day just taking the children to activities, going to work etc. However, there is a very good system of school buses, which, up to this year, were free.
Hi Emma
Our children went into French school when they were 6 (son) and 9 (daughter) for 10 months. Our daughter cried every day she returned home for 6 weeks, then she was fine, made friends, caught up with the French children (she moved with her age group, no extra tuition) and many years late did a French and German at degree level. Girls tend to be the great communicators, get frustrated with themselves and are desperate to fit in. Our son, who had done over a year at English Primary School, was put in a remedial class of 7 with another English boy and refused to speak a word of French to his teacher till the day he left school, he also refused to eat anything other than bread in school lunches, but he played with the other children and did not seem too miserable. Back in the UK our son gave up French as soon as he could. I did not want them educated in France but that is a whole different discussion, though it is a conclusion you may also come to as others have. Just be aware that boys and girls are different when it comes to languages. Girls will muddle along, boys tend to want to be fluent before using the new language at all so they are not teased. We know others with these experiences, some boys can go two years before speaking the language. The most important thing for children is to make friends which I think takes about 6 months. If they make friends they will then learn anything in any language. Be aware also, from my experience and other friends, English children often do exceptionally well in French school. I am not sure this says so much about the schooling as the type of families who move to France, the standards of the French schools and the fact that children tend to thrive when learning something new and being good at it and encouraged.
Hi, I came to the SW (near Cahors)21 years ago when my son was meant to move into secondary, aged 11…we decided to leave him in primary school to pick up French and, albeit at the end of a year!, he’d managed to the extent that he got really good marks in his first year in French Secondary school. Sadly his dad died shortly after and this resulted in difficulties at school BUT he’s now 32, married to a French woman and proud father of two …who DON’T speak English however! My son went back to the UK to art school but feels more French than English. I also have British friends here whose 2 teenagers were born here and though they speak English at home, they also feel more French…be prepared for such perfect integration! As a qualified teacher I have managed to get some work in teaching (although this can be difficult as our degrees are NOT recognised here) and I totally agree with the comments on the French education system…much stricter than UK and no PTA system,(just delegates to the school council)and not often extra classes for non-French speakers) teachers aren’t very approachable and don’t do after hours
club/band/games stuff either. Hope this is useful.
Hi Emma, we moved over here 10yrs ago to the Poitou-Charentes region. Our oldest daughter was 6 at the time. We moved over at the end of May, just over a month before the schools broke up for the summer. Our daughter went to school for 3 weeks before the holidays. Admittedly it was very fraught for those first weeks because of the language barrier. We found a private tutor and throughout the summer and the following two years we had french lessons. By the time the Toussaints holiday (mid autumn term break), my daughter was more confident and speaking french. At this very moment she is sitting in a room doing who written French Baccalaureat. 5 and 6 years old are good ages to move children to a new country, they are less worried about friends and more receptive to changes in their lives. Have faith, don't expect everything to come up roses and remain realistic. Everyone has ups and downs in a new country but you will find strong support as we all have in this area.
I wish you the very best of luck. Enjoy it. I wouldn't go back.
Hi Emma
I came to France with my 9 year old daughter 5 years ago.
My advice would be to rent a house and leave yourself free to move elsewhere if you need to.
You also need to be ready to speak to the school regularly, this is a bit scary if you don't speak french very well, but in my experience, if you ask for help you do get it and they do appreciate your efforts to speak their language, no matter how lousy your french.
Lots of other english kids is not necessarily helpful. My daughters school had no other english children and within 3 months she was coping really well with the language and had french friends.
It was a small primary school (2 classes, 60 kids) in the Vendee and it was great, they had an external person who took her for extra lessons (You may need to ask for this as it does exist in every education authority but I don't know anyone else who has benefited from it) A local retired guy also volunteered through the school, to come to our house to do reading and comprehension with her for a couple of hours every week. She hated it but it was a massive help and it helped us to integrate with the local people.
Secondary school, was a different story, but its too soon to talk to you about that. Good luck.
It is a roulette like anywhere else. One of our daughters is Down Syndrome, so found it a little difficult, the other had no problem. The older one had already been in Portugal for a year and in the five years to coming here was in a school in Wales where Welsh was part of the life. Her aunt in Switzerland is a very experienced special needs teacher and thinks that if she is anything to go by then everybody should be inspired. Just go for it. The beginning of school may be sticky but they'll pick up fast. It's we older folk who have it harder...
Emma hello, I am glad to hear you are considering moving to such a beautiful place as France and more specifically Brittany. I agree with all of the previous comments- the sooner the better perhaps in terms of children settling in and being happy. However, there is another side. This is the second time we have moved over with the family from the UK and I am not sure how familiar you are with the French Education system but all i can say is that it is SO different from the UK system, although i understand that this is also true of where you are in the UK. I am a secondary trained teacher from the UK and have also taught in France in Primary, college and lycee. I still cant get my head around how it all works over here in France. There are a few observations that i can make however, from my own personal experience. My son doesnt have any homework apart from spellings every week, which i find bizarre, though considering the length of the day this is probably for the better. According to our headmistress, in Primary, teachers are not obliged to set written homework and this is being addressed due to the huge difference when the kids hit college and are hit with quite a lot of homework. Teachers dont seem to be as much on the ball as their UK counterparts. they are not as approachable. depending where you are if in the city/ village, we live in a village the kids seem much more robust and your kids seem to need to be all the more tough skinned. If your child is in difficulty, there is not the supportive,inclusive approach that exists in the UK. I have seen on the whole that children are excluded and sent out of the classroom. I am still struggling with truly understanding the Education system here in France and I know what it feels like having the tears streaming down your face for days on end because your child does not want to go to school. The teachers in general will not hesitate either to push and pull and shout at your child- i repeat that this is my experience however, i have witnessed this on several occasions and it does seem a stark contrast to how teachers behave in the UK. as i have said, it is very/extremely important to understand what your expectations are so that you are prepared and not disappointed. your experience could be completely different to mine however, the more we share and discuss the more prepared you are and the happier your are likely to be you and your family. bonne chance !!
You’re welcome xx
HI valerie, its great to hear its worked out for you, we were thinkning french lessons too for ours before we move over. we hav'nt put our house on the market yet, and im also waiting on the sale of another property, so once both are sold we shall be looking for property, concidering only that im satisfied my children wont suffer in anyway... the more i hear the more i like :) and your right, any school change can be distressing for them. xx
it would be in the summer :) thats brilliant you have a job and moving nearer. yes i also want a house near shops etc, i couldnt be driving ten miles for a pint of milk ;) thankyou for your advice xx
Hi Emma. We move here just over a year ago (Feb 2012). My son was then 7. I had arranged for some French lessons before we left but, because it wasn't a reality to him at the time, he paid probably 50% attention. That was for about 4 months. So we came with an extremely pathetic amount of French between the two of us. He is now 8. Of course he is one year behind at school, as is to be expected, but he is getting good marks in almost everything and is soaking up French like a little sponge. Your children are the perfect age to move, which is why I did not want to leave our move any later than I did. I think the majority of problems and the horror stories emanate from slightly older children, or teenagers who already have their set of friends and are not as "immersible" to a new language.
I have absolutely no problem with my son having to repeat his first year. When we came he spoke English and Maltese and I was anticipating the absolute nightmare scenario of my buying a house for us then him hating France to such a degree that I would be forced to sell and move back to Malta (where he was born - I'm English). He has proven me wrong to the Nth degree. He loves it here and has no qualms about being in one class lower than his peers. He knows that it is because he is still learning and simply accepts it (why are children so intelligent?).
So don't worry - at their age, your children will be fine. Yes, expect a few tears at the beginning. Of course that would happen anywhere in the world starting at a new school and not having made any friends yet. But seriously, it was my, not his, major concern in case I had made the wrong choice. He proved me wrong.