When we first moved here we lived in a village and we put our daughters in the school. We since moved to the village about 5km away.

Our daughter is going up from maternelle to elementaire.

The Marie in our old village has said we need permission from the marie in our new village to let our daughter go to school over there.

Is this true, because our marie won't write the letter.

Now our daughter is very timid and has only just settled and she has some very good friends at her school. We don't want to unsettle her.

If push comes to shove I'll rent a house in our old village for 3 months.

I have just been reading up. I don't think they can stop her legally as our other daughter goes to school there. My French is rubbish though.

http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affich...Texte=20100225

Loy loy that is the way I read it.
1
Parents professional obligations i.e. I imagine those are the ones on the civil code requiring the support (moral as well as financial) of children).

2 A sibling registered in said commune,

3 medical reasons.

But I am sure Peabrain or Garonne or a host of others will be along to confirm for definite

at a quick glance I think your Maire may be right; he can contest the placement at the end of Maternelle, and at the end of Primaire or at the end of a Cycle

They usually only accept derogations if you are about to move into a village or if the nature of your child's schooling is such that they must attend a school out of area (eg like my daughter, who goes to a school with an english speaking section)

Good luck

thanks for the replies. Doesn't this over rule the rule, as it were.

Notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, a State Council decree specifies the conditions under which, without prejudice to the last paragraph of this section, a municipality is required to contribute financially to the education of children residing in its territory when they register in another municipality is justified on grounds of related constraints:

1 In the professional obligations of the parents when they live in a town that does not directly or indirectly provides catering and child care or if the municipality has not organized a nursery assistants Service approved;

2 On the registration of a brother or sister in a school in the same town;

3 A medical reasons.

Hi, I'm not sure I quite understand, but if you wish to enrol your daughter in a school that is not the one she should be going to, then you have to request une dérogation or dispensation from the Mairie that is responsible for the school you wish your daughter to go to. This is not granted automatically, and may therefore be turned down. Once the enrolment has been accepted, you then have to inform the headmaster of the school she should have gone to but won't be going to.
Good luck with it. One never knows how or why these things pan out; inter-village feuds dating back to Robespierre or Jules Ferry, collaboration with the enemy during the Occupation, the elections in Iran or just plain bloody-mindedness.
Sorry not to be of much help.
PB

basically, we arrived in France and put our daughters in the local school, one in Maternelle and one in Elementaire. We then moved.
Our youngest now needs to go up to elementaire. We think the Maire here is going to say no.
We need to get around this as it will be devastating for our daughter to not go to school with all the friends she has made and her sister. It has taken two years for her to start speaking in class (she's ok at play time).


Edit

My wife just called. She went in to the old Maire's office, practically crying, two people had an arguement and then one of them gave her the stamped certificate to say she could go to the school there. Not sure if we are meant to go back to our Maire now and say it's sorted....

If there is no way around around it, I will rent a house in our old village for a few months and register her like that.

Loy loy, you have been there a while now? Why are you so downhearted? Are your kids happy/unhappy in the school?

What advice would you give to parents considering the same move in the future?

The children are very happy in the school. That's why we want to keep the youngest one there, with her friends and sister.

Just filling in in case anyone is interested.

We went to see our Maire, he gave us a letter saying our daughter could continue school in out old village. But he wouldn't contribute any fee's.

Luckily the Maire in our old village is really nice, they are going to pay. They also said the Maire in our current village was... difficult.

Result:

Youngest stays with sister and friends.
We are going to sell up and move back to our old village.

Well, that sounds like a win. Well done.

Very happy for you and your daughters. We have twice been refused a derogation to have our two children in the same school in Haute Garonne. I used to pick up my son in one school and then hurry to get to the other school, but often passed the bus carrying my daughter since after school they would bus the children to the centre de loisirs ...

It seems like everyone in our old village knew about this lots of people have spoken about it.

This might be helpful to you, our youngests teacher had a meeting with the Maire and she said that our Maire couldn't stop her going to the school because she has a sibling there.

It is nice to know that so many people in our old village wanted to help us out.

General point for people thinking of moving to France:

I think integrating definately goes down to how much effort you make. My wife helps out with the swimming lessons at both the elementaire and the maternelle, she helps on school trips and gives English lessons to some of the College students, all for free. When we are in that village everyone says hello to her. So not only were the school willing to help us, one of the parents of the children she helps with English trotted off to the Maire with her.

We are definately going to try and move back. What a difference 10km makes.

I couldn't agree more, and having kids in France makes making friends with people much easier. I volunteered at my sons school every afternoon for years and gave free English lessons to all ages, but everything I gave I got back in spades...everyone helped me with so much, whenever I had a problem. I made so many fantastic friends through helping out at the school.