To wonder if UK lycees sometimes hinder the integration of French immigrant kids?

It seems you don't approve of expats generally? Do you have the same issue with British International schools in say Japan?

I wouldn't fret, OP. Is the French immigrant community so very large and visibly set apart, that it causes you such worry?
Gawd knows why they'd move en masse to GB in the first place (if we discount any sluggish Huguenots), but once arrived, I’m sure French schoolkids do very well among their peer groups in the wider community, even luring local scruffians to snigger snootily with them outside all those pâtisseries around the capital.

The students are often the children of diplomats or expats on short or medium term postings. This is a great way to ensure the children can slot back into school when tbey return to their home country, or when they move to their next overseas posting. A lot of these kids will not stay long term in the UK and therefore are not 'immigrants' in the usual sense.

There is also at least one German state subsidised German School in the London area. When I lived abroad, there were a high number of European national schools (state subsidised) as well as loads of foreign private schools following non-local curricula and not taught in the local language. Would you move your family to Beijing for a three year posting if your kids could only attend school through the medium of Chinese (which they would first need to learn to speak, read and write)? Unlikely!

A British colleague went to the lycee in London purely because her parents wanted her to speak fluent French

YABU OP. You have no idea how long the families stay in London for.

Other posters are right about the other international lycées in France with multiple language sections (e.g. the one at St-Germain-en-Laye and the one at Sèvres). Similarly, there are many European Schools (and there used to be one in the U.K. too pre-Brexit!) with multiple language sections that closely follow the culture and curriculum of that country. My son attends one and the children in his (FWIW French section!) class do not only come from French backgrounds: they are also British, Lebanese, Canadian, Indian, Japanese, Moldovan, Belgian, Irish, Polish, Dutch, Italian, Greek, Spanish…
Do you also object to those schools?

Me too!

I was also puzzling over the lychee problem.

Would be interested to know which school you picked. I used to work at an international school in Paris (BSP is misleading anyway - it’s not even IN Paris!).

I recently looked at the British School, Paris for my dc. Decided on a different school with more integration but still international/British curriculum. My dc have been to several British schools round the world. One was visited by the late Queen!

They still integrated as I’m sure the French children at the Lycee in London do. The key is to have activities outside of school to integrate and learn language.

Same 😭

Mine went to British Schools when we lived in two other European countries. The idea is, especially for mobile families who can move around a lot, it keeps the education consistent. It can be hard on them moving countries several times.

(Theres an English school on an Army base in Scotland and they pay for English speaking children to attend private school in Wales id there's no English school as well for the same reason... consistency).

This exactly

I was recently in Kensington and having an early evening drink at an outdoor seating area in a square with bars, cafes and ice cream parlours. It was full of 12-16 year olds who I assume were at a French school (no uniform) and had gone for ice cream after school. They were chatting interchangeably in French and fluent English (knew all the recent slang etc) and behaving no different to the English children (in uniform) nearby. On that basis I would say there was no integration issue that I could see.

Oh, and in France we have lots of international 'sections' within French state schools. The Lycée International has sections for German, Italian, Spanish, American and loads more. The kids spend time being educated in their home language and education system, as well as time within the French system.

There is a German school in London. It even has a piece of the Berlin Wall in the courtyard.

My understanding is that there is a mix of bilingual & bicultural families and German families who are only in london for a fixed period and not as interested in integrating and having their children learn English. Given that at the school they are only speaking German I dont expect the kids differentiate.

Given that the lycee is in south ken I imagine a lot of the kids are not living the typicalBritish teen lifestyle anyway, unless they are travelling quite far twice a day.

It's no different to the British School of (substitute Paris/Milan etc). Which is a bubble of Britishness, following the UK curriculum, but has children from all nationalities attending.

The French Lycées exist so that French-educated children can continue their education if their parents move countries, and so that Francophone families can ensure their child is exposed to the French language and culture, especially if they later have to move country.

My DS is at school in France; if we move countries I'll want him to carry on being educated within the French system, as it would prove too confusing to switch him back into the UK system.

Meant to say, I am not an ex-pat. We are immigrants and our kids are in the local system. Most of the international people I know here stay for 2/3/4 years and then either go back home or onto another posting. One friend has been in the UK, France, Thailand, Mexico and Brazil (she's Portuguese, husband is from UK).

They are private schools.

The French Lycee in London costs over £10k a year and goes up as you move through the school years. Its an type of international private school, not a normal school.
American immigrants to the UK don't all send their kids to the American School of London either.

Yes? There are also French speaking people who aren’t French.

Not sure why we’re worrying about children attending quite expensive private schools though.

Just came on to see why lychees were being grown in the UK.

<waves>