Good afternoon all,

Having narrowed our relocation choice to Bordeaux, we have a reccy trip planned for next week to explore the area in more detail. So far we have only scheduled an appointment to visit Bordeaux International School and a couple of properties nearby so will have plenty of time to explore the surrounding suburbs. We are hoping to live no more than 40minutes drive from BIS (assuming that we like that school of course). We are living in a semi-rural village so something similar would be the dream -we are just not city folk! We have a 3yr old son & an 18month old daughter so need plenty of space to roam.
Just wondered if there were any recommendations of places to visit / advice on nice areas for families to live within commuting distance to BIS? Also I've read that mother & baby groups are not as popular as they are here in UK, so if anyone knows of any activities / groups we could tap into during our stay that would be ace. We are very busy at home with forest school, music club, climbing, swimming classes etc - it would be comforting if we could establish a similar network.

Thanks so much in advance, any advice would be most welcome.

Your kids are 3 and 18 months, and you're basing your choice of destination around an International School?

That's real commitment to living in France I must say.

Kids that age are language and culture sponges. Choose a place you want to move to on an entirely different basis, i.e. where you want to move to.

Most french women will be back at work by the time the children are 3 years old - that's when conge parentale is stopped and yes, you are correct, there aren't many mums and toddler groups.

For the 3 year old, maybe register them at the local ecole maternelle? They can go for half a day or full day -whichever you wish. This is a way for you to meet local mums at the school gate and for your 3 yr old to learn to speak french.

If you are attempting to recreate an english existence in France, it's going to be difficult. The whole system is set up to encourage mums back to work.

Maybe BIS is a better source of help, you can presumably mingle with english mums then.

Thanks Novocastrian - I'm quite sure they will absorb the language like sponges. My initial thought was to enrol them in a local village school but having researched it, I've moved towards International School. My reasons were based on not liking the French approach of teaching children by rote, very authoritative teaching with little room for creative thought. Each to their own though. We have friends who were educated in French state system and are doing really well. It's just not right for my two.
Thanks also Petitefrancaise - I too, hope to be back at work (at least part-time) when youngest is 3. I'm not looking to replicate our English lives, I understand it is different. I just thought a group would be a good way to socialise with mums (and dads) of all nationalities.
Thanks for your help though.

Hi, if you decide that French Education methods are not for your children, then why choose to live in France?
Also, children who go to a distant International School or the like won't have much of a social life, as they'll be "different" and won't get to know the local children except at Wednesday afternoon sports clubs, and friends made at school will be living too far away.
As they are very young, why not risk putting the elder one in Maternelle for 3 years? Maternelle teaches children how to live together and get used to regular school hours. My two went to Maternelle and I didn't notice any "authoritative teaching", unless you mean the necessary discipline, but was pleased with all the creative activites that they did. When the time comes to go up to CP in Primaire when they learn to read and write "à la française", you can decide on their further education then.
Meanwhile your younger child could absorb the French language and culture by going to your local Halte-Garderie from time to time unless there's room in an all-day crêche if you wanted to work.
I always recommend an International School for 10-11 year olds and over with no knowledge of French or French culture, but for infants, it seems excessive, unless you don't intend to live in France forever more. Even then, a few years in Maternelle can only be beneficial!

You appear to have a "road map" of what you want for your children.
What are your views on the various periodic injections for children?

Thanks for your opinion dmu - maybe I'll see if I can visit a Maternelle section whilst on our reccy then. Did your children go to local French Primaire? I'd be really keen to hear your thoughts on this too. I guess education is such an important factor for us (neither my husband or I had a great time at school, we did ok but more through sheer hard graft and luck than schooling). My (albeit limited) research has shown that french approach is more authoritative; telling children off if they get a wrong answer; learning by rote rather than truly grasping the topic. There are lots of positives too but these factors do concern me. I'd love to hear otherwise. Saving ourselves the BIS fees would open our options no end.
Cyrian - no roadmap, just know my children are quite sensitive and do better through gentle encouragement than through strict discipline.

Another excellent post from DMU!

A number of times I've heard & read this similar comment about teaching in France, "Very authoritative teaching with little room for creative thought", and frankly, imho - it's nonsense.
Comparing with the UK, the teaching of course is different, which amazingly surprises so many new ex-pat parents in France. But from experience I can tell you, that in general the education here is first-class.
Our son did all his schooling in France (with the exception of 1 year in UK). He was an 'ordinary' scholar, certainly not the brightest, but his education here set him up for a first-class dual-lingual career. I got to know a large number of his class-mates over the years, and to say that any were hampered in creative-thought would be totally untrue. Had we put our son into a permanent English established education system here, I'm convinced he would not have done so well. In fact for a short while he did attend an International school, but as I've stated in a previous thread, the smoking of 'Rastafarian Woodbines' and other drug-related habits was rife (fortunately not by Junior TP) at that establishment, and led to him suggesting a return to a 'normal' French education. Which he did, subsequently flying through his Baccalaureate a few years later, and onward to successful further education. Not bad for a very normal, not particularly talented, albeit creative-thinking kid.
So naturally I have great esteem in general for the French education system.
To the OP. Don't miss a great opportunity whilst in France. Put the children into local education. They will thank you for that decision in years to come - guaranteed!

Mine were born in France (with a French father) and went through Maternelle, Primaire, Collège, Lycée, Uni. Apart from a few details - the flowery writing which they had to learn, the "odd" way of doing arithmetic, and a few French-biassed historical facts which I had to "correct" at home - I found their general education first-class. Any shortcomings on the sports and artistic fronts were made up for out of school.
Start your children off in a French environment and see how THEY feel when it's time to go up to Primaire at 6. TP has it spot on - they will thank you in years to come if you decide on continuing with State Education!

You have an 18 month child and you already know his/her personality, abilities and inclinations well enough to know what type of education is going to suit him/her best - wow, don't they grow up fast these days! Has he/she decided on a career, too?

Seriously, I think you have to accept the fact that if your kids are allowed to grow up leading a full life � la française from an early age, they will turn out differently from how they would have turned out had they grown up in the UK. And if you try to keep them in an English bubble in France so they don't pick up foreign ways from the local hoi palloi, they will turn out different again, neither a typical French kid nor a typical British kid. If subconsciously what you're really worried about is them growing away from you if you give them free rein, having experiences that you never had and can't advise them on and "speaking a different language" both literally and figuratively, don't. There are many expat families where the kids have grown up in territory their parents never put a foot in, and it doesn't affect family life, in fact as a rule it's enriching all round. Don't take this the wrong way but to me, it doesn't seem fair to clip their wings because of your own fears and preconceptions.

OK you didn't answer my question about childhood injections.
These injections are obligatory in France and you have to prove that they are up-to-date to the school.

Again just my opinion, but is giving a sensitive child the kid glove treatment and risking turning them into over-sensitive adults best for them in the long run? I am not going to go as far as to say spare the rod and spoil the child, but sooner or later they're going to be out there on their own in the big cruel world, and they do need to learn to take the occasional knock. I think maybe this is understood better in France, where "education" is regarded more as a preparation for life, than in the UK where, again in my opinion, kids still all too often leave school and college with quite unrealistic expectations of life.

I disagree with schools here being "Authoritative" yes kids have to learn and are expected to be well behaved in the process. Imho a UK school is more authoritative by making a child wear a uniform not to mention schools having guidelines on things like haircuts sitting children away from other pupils when canteen bill's are outstanding etc etc.

Again imho unless your on a short term working secondment I think international schools are a waste of time if you move to France is a long term move then full immersion is the way forwards.

There is a Steiner school in Ariege which may be more to your liking the surroundings are very nice but it's closer to Toulouse not Bordeaux but children are encouraged to develop at their pace not the systems again it's not for everyone.

The thought has just occurred to me that you can't just turn up at a school in a town which you take a fancy to, and expect to be shown around. You'd need to make an appointment with the Directeur/trice out of school hours. If you manage this, you wouldn't be able to look in on a class anyway.
When the time comes, you enrol at the Mairie of the Commune where you are domiciled and it's the Mairie which allocates which Maternelle and/or Primaire if there are more than one in the Commune.
As mentioned by Cyrian, when you enrol at a Maternelle (or Halte-Garderie), you must produce the children's Vaccination Certificates, as well as proof of domicile (Property Deed, rental receipts, utility bills....). Likewise for crêches, but places are limited and priority is given to low-income families where the parent(s) work(s).
I was slightly staggered to see what the BIS fees are. Add to that the time and energy taken to taxi the child twice a day if you want to live in a semi-rural area up to 40 mins. away....

Bordeaux rush hour nice.......

I have always found it busier than Toulouse as all the southern France Spanish and northern France traffic collides in Bordeaux lots of tired drivers meeting wanting to bypass it quickly.