alicet

Right-oh - Thanks again

dennerlymum

Actually the BCG is no longer compulsory in France; it hasn't been since July 2007, when we arrived.. however you may need to be tested each year instead. You can choose to have it for your children if you wish though as we did.

However the Tetanus Polio and Diptheria is required every 5 years in France unlike the uk; you will need to have this before entering school

derbyflan

Ok, I'll re-phrase that. The school that my son attends will not admit any child that has not received a BCG innoculation - hence me using the words 'usually compulsory'. He started there (Maternelle) last Monday. And we're on the CM/DS border - one of the areas I believe that the OP is considering.

Eitherway, as with most things, its best to check first.

And for insurance, we bought ours at the bank - the same time as we opened our French bank accounts.

dennerlymum

sorry no offence meant! Just stating the known facts; the school doesnt therefore have the right to refuse.... however this being France it is easier to go with the flow!

derbyflan

Agreed

Glad to be home.

Are you sending your kids to french school????? I know some kids cope but its like us adults moving to china and going to college and trying to understand the language ,the course and the discipline. Some schools do have a class to interact foreign children into the french language but my 12 yr old did all that after we had found a good privat ecole for him. He was the only english child, most of the teachers didn't speak english and he was totally isolated. Nothing was familiar to him and in the privat ecole he was left to his own devices and struggled to comprehend what was going on around him. We managed to get him private lessons on the side to help him learn the language along with all the different grammer etc etc. But boy oh boy i hate to say it but he eventually went onto lycee and left the minute he was 16, a few months later. It was a complete disaster and he left education with no cse s, no o levels no nothing!! He tried his hardest, no complaints, just went along with the fact he had to go to school. I regret ever putting him through that. He would have been better off in boarding school in the uk. Or in an international school in france. My other son ,who was 5 also went straight into french school, became bilingual but again dreadful experience and that is exactly what made us decide to move back to the uk when he was 10. He is now in private school in the uk and the change in almost a year now, is unbelievable.

Novocastrian

I think you'll find that your experience re your kids in French schools is not the usual. Do you think it at all possible that your generally negative attitude towards France and the French might have provided them an opportunity or an excuse to not try very hard?

Anyway, I'm glad that you're home.

Glad to be home.

France is a beautiful country, our expectation was to remain in france but sadly for us it didnt work and even though we had friends it was that the French schooling and education system just didnt work out for our kids and at the time we were very positive. We still have alot of good french friends. Maybe it was the area. But we certainly tried to make it work for us and the kids. Especially after just finishing renovating a large property which had taken us 5years to finish. We were hardly looking to move back to the uk after being away for 15 years. On finding a piece written in The Connextion newspaper it would appear that we were not the only ones going thru the same situation. But i do appreciate your comments and hope you will understand that its good to talk about one's good and bad experiences so that others may learn from them and then be aware of the pitfalls and of course the enjoyment of living in france. It is a beautiful place to live and we will continue to own the house and return for holidays- just not school.

Novocastrian

OK. I no longer have kids of school age, I moved to Germany when the ones I had then were 2 and 4 (I think). We stayed until they were 9 & 11 then I moved to Canada.They're both grown up now of course, but they have a massive advantage as a result of experiencing different education systems.

Best of luck to you and yours.

alicet

Thanks all for comments - school is school and kids are kids. Private school is not an option, I want my kids to have a social life locally and belong to a community. Gladtobehome, your comments are interesting - on the whole I think rising 10 (as is my eldest) is pushing it for learning French sans problem, the OH had it to do at 15 (worst possible time to move education system in my opinion) and also failed to get any qualis, but hey no guarantee that the offspring are gonna get good qualis here in blighty either (and certainly they will be bequeathed neither a gift in modern languages nor an appreciation of the big wide world from the British school system). So yes, we are sending them to French school, when in France.
Any tips from anyone on how to supercharge the French language stuff for a 10 year old gratefully received. I plan to carry on speaking English with them at home, which someone else suggested to be a good plan, but some ideas on what sort of strategies might help to get them get off the starting line quicker would be good. As I said elsewhere I speak passable French, good vocabulary, appalling grammar - OH speaks Arabic 1st, French 2nd (perfectly but some written faults) and English 3rd with same faults as I have in French.

Glad to be home.

Hello , we spoke english at home and thats really good because its so important. In the early days we sent him to french school and concentrated on the french language so our child didn't learn to read in english until aged 7 to save the confusion of trying to learn two languages at once. I bought him a cd for the computer which helped him alot at home to learn french. I will try to find it and let you know. Rosetta stone is good. There are lots of sites to keep up with the curriculum in english. I found that my child, having never attended uk school, new nothing about british history, Silly things like guy fawkes and general history that they automatically teach uk children. Obviously in France they teach the history of France. You take it granted that you all speak english and almost forget that they need to keep up with that side too. Of course it's nice in school when they have the english lesson and your child knows it all and can happily explain the pronunciations etc etc. But of course the experience of travel and living abroad broadens a child's education so much. Good luck to you, hope all goes well.