scrubbedexpat141

Yes.

I didn't when I started but did by the second year there!

Hello.Kitty

the IB is different from the French Baccalaureat. I'd rate anything that keeps a broad range of subjects, investigated to quite a depth for as long as possible. I'll certainly be investigating a baccalaureat option for my two... BUT it's not suited to everyone and there has to be alternative study paths available. In France, they still have active apprenticeships where you start at 14 and bypass the GCSE equivalent, then a set of vocational qualifications you can choose as an alternative to the Baccalaureat. Even the Baccalaureat has sub-divisions with a set of slightly more vocational biased ones and then the traditional academic 3 - scientific (considered the most challenging), literary and economics - and then each of those has a "speciality" where a given subject is given more focus... but that doesn't let you off the others!

Comparing how I studied and what my UK counterparts did, considering the depth was pretty much the same, I wonder what they actually did with all their time! I was in sit-down lessons from 8h until 18h with an hour for lunch, 4 days a week and then 4 hours of lessons on a Saturday morning... and then we had homework on top of that.

Actually, no, I don't wonder at all, because to be brutally honest, I know that my education was far, far superior to pretty much all my counterparts on my degree course... giving a comparison with essay-writing for example, there's me, being able to write short philosophical treatise in French when my peers are writing 10 line sentences and hardly know how to lay out a reasoned argument... in their mother tongue.

Anyhow, I have to chuckle at the pride associated with getting 5 As at A-level. Whoop-dee-doo... if I had all that time to concentrate on it, I should bloomin well hope you'd get As!

Blue Cat

I shall just wait and see what happens I guess, so far I am happy with Brit Curric but rumours abound that all schools will be IB in three years time. Somehow I doubt it.

sross2203 it's a good school, all schools here are fee paying and monitored by the KHDA, which is quite hysterical really as school inspections are taking place at our school this week. The european table and chairs in reception has been placed with a mock bedoiun tent and a collage of images of the region ....

scrubbedexpat141

I certainly agree.

Lot's of the European education systems and theories are on a par but difference comes with how they are presented, enforced and taught.

I was at a school that would not allow anyone to fail and given we were always pressured and pushed, we all achieved. I left and went to a sixth-form college and was allowed such freedom that I subsequently bunked a lot of lessons and didn't perform as well as I should have. If I had my life would be different because I always wanted to do an Economics degree.

Such is life though, I'm still pleased but now realise the difference the environment you are in can make.

scrubbedexpat141

the old sweep under the rug and pull out what's expected...good move.

expect nothing less than it to be a good school to be honest, with the fees I have seen quoted!

I assume companies out there and individuals wouldn't accept anything less to attract the right people who have families. I expect the multicultural experience will probably do her the world of good?

Blue Cat

yup head in the sand I believe in what will be will be etc blah blah, take each day as it comes, I will worry about it when it happens. School fees here though are cheap compared to the UK surely?

Hello.Kitty

sure.

French schools are funny. They are really competitive and will not hesitate to fail people or to let them know they are failures. Some kids do well with that kind of "motivation", but others don't.

I was fortunate to be very good academically, but sucked at sport - I knew it, they knew it, but I couldn't get out of it and couldn't actually improve. Sport was the one lesson I dreaded - being bottom of the class for 7 years takes its toll and even now, I cannot play sports because all the fun was stripped away long ago.

Still, what is good is that the system recognises that not everyone is academic and that they are not failures for not being so. If a non-academic is being pushed through A-level, say, the s/he is in the wrong place, or was advised wrongly about his or her options.

You'd see that especially when it came to resitting a year. The teachers would advise a pupil who could do better to resit the whole year (cue public humiliation too, but it wasn't really an option to refuse!), but if they couldn't do any better, then they would go through to the next year. This could happen at any stage during your education, but in secondary, you'd find academically weak pupils being ushered through the system so that they could get to the apprenticeship or vocational qual. entrance points quicker.

Anyhow... ways and means.

Ethos83

Most of the Brit schools in Dubai are...ok. Bog standard. Only Dubai College and possibly JESS and Jumeirah College can compare with a good grammar or private school in the UK, but there's absolutely nothing comparable to a top tier public school.

Third tier public schools - well, strip away the uniforms, the quads, the chapel and misplaced arrogance, yes, you've got the Dubai equivalent in places like Repton (the one out here).

al dente

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tra...cle4572704.ece

Great article from a few years ago on this very battle. I had never heard of it before and got an A in GCSE History in 1990...

scrubbedexpat141

I wouldn't really know to be honest.

I was privately educated until the folks split when I was 5, then saw out that year of school and went on to a local comprehensive until I took the 11+ and went to the Grammar school which asked for donations but cost nothing.

My boss puts his Daughter through private school because she is head and shoulders above the norm intelligence wise and I think it costs him something like £3-4000 per term?

Millhouse

Good to see that you have wasted your education as much as I have.

scrubbedexpat141

Interesting stuff, never known much about the French education system or mentality.

I was lucky that my school had teachers who would offer to help at lunches if you struggled with something but would soon strip away that privilege if you took the mick. We were drilled to respect teachers at all times and I loved it, standing up when a teacher or guest enters the room, not taking off blazer's until given permission, carrying hymn book and diary at all times etc... All those things meant we had an old fashioned sense of pride and in a small city like it was we were easily recognised as 'Bishop's Boys'.

That mentality made it easy to learn, 99% of the time we were shown enough respect to feel mature and to want to learn.

It was similar to as you say, I stopped playing rugby early on because it took over life and matches were Saturdays when I used to see my Dad...the school don't take kindly to you not wanting to play sport and eventually it pushed me to leave for 6th form when 95%+ stay on. The Head boy and Deputy Head boy are always the 1st XV Captain and Vice Captain. Has been for years, if you didn't play rugby you would never be in the higher status of the school.

scrubbedexpat141

Hang on. Thought there was reference to your job in a previous thread. Investment Banker, long term infrastructure? One or two deals a year sort of thing?

Role's like that don't come to those who aren't educated surely?

Millhouse

Well maybe - but I can assure you no one in my field actually set out to be in it, it's the last chance saloon - think hooker bar at 3am.

scrubbedexpat141

I like that.