Boarding schools in France for Y6?

[MrsGuyOfGisbourne]

Ds has a 'gap year' in the sense that he has been offered a place for Year 7, so we are wondering what to do about Year 6, (disillusioned about current state primary school - which is totally focussed on SATS in Y6) and thinking about sending him to France for a year. He is keen to try boarding school, makes friends easily, is very sporty and confident.
Does anyone have any experince of this?
TIA

If you are moving him to an Indie and it has boarders, then why not put him there for Year 6?

Boarding schools are not particularly common in France but you could try EABJM Lille - I'm not sure if they board before 11 though.

In fact I don't think many places board before college.

One issue you might come across is that children will have been expected to cover certain things at the start of year 7 that a French school may not cover as the curriculum is very different.

Second thing, children in France are grouped according to calender year so if your DS is a Sept-Dec baby he'll be expected to jump a year and go into the equivalent of Y7.

There is a scheme where a child lives with a family in France for 6 months and goes to the local school and then the French child comes and does the same in England. May be worth looking in to.

Does it have to be France? Germany has a lot more boarding schools, ranging from Rangsdorf near Berlin to the very posh Hahn school Salem near Stuttgart.

You could try this.

I think it's a bit extreme for my tastes, but if you have a year treading water, why not?

I was also going to suggest Schule Schloss Salem in Germany. Has bilingual scheme and offers the IB. I think they can board from Year 5 (age 10/11).

German cousins of mine apparently went there and enjoyed it. I think it's probably where I would send mine for a few months if I were in the same position, and had the money. They have a special German language induction programme for kids from overseas, I think.

there are definately some available - knew a gilr who spent her last Y8 term at boarding school in france having passed her ce. i'd keep googling

Btw collège in France is the equivalent of y7-10 in the UK, so the intake in September is for those born in the calendar year 1999. Plus if you're going for September entry you might have missed the admission deadlines. Most of the schools I know are March application with decision in June.

Useful google terms are 'internat' and 'pensionnaire'. A demi-pensionnaire is a weekly boarder.

Worth remembering that here boarding school isn't necessarily viewed the same way as in the UK. Some pupils board because they literally can't live at home and come from very deprived backgrounds.

I've found 58 boarding primaries in the whole of France here. The majority are private Catholic schools. When looking be careful of schools which are 'hors contrat' - some are fine, some are not.

My daughter did a 6-month German exchange with En Famille. The exchange starts in August/September, however, so you're too late to start this September (THB, if it is for this September, I'd have thought it is a bit late to start looking for schools as well).

En Famille are always short of British families and I would recommend them. We had two girls to stay (one Swiss, one German) in 2004-5 and 2005-6 and the Swiss girl is visiting next week.

Another option (not in another country, however) is to home educate for a year, giving him an opportunity to pursue other interests.

What calendar year was your DS born in? If he was born in 1999, he would be entering the French equivalent of English Year 7, which is also the first year of secondary school (collège) in France and is called sixième. Ecole des Roches might be an idea or, as frakkit suggested, EABJM Lille (though that is really weekly boarding).

As frakkit said, preparatory/primary boarding is non-existent in France.

Bosoir - thanks - this looks very interesting will look into this
Would LOVE to home ed, but have a job, so can't...

Does your child speak French? If not, don't send him yet. 13/14 is a better age.

Or stick with your local primary. What's so wrong about SATS? You don't have to participate in the hysteria.

What is the point of a ten year old doing a gap year? Can't you just spend the time with your child?

The reason it's non existent in France, boarding that is, is because they have a strong sense of family.,

According to En Famille the best age for an exchange is 9-13. The child does not have teenage hang-ups to deal with (and is not yet at the rebelling stage) and the child is still flexible enough to fit in with a new family and learn a new language by immersion and copying other children.

Not convinced. Spent a year in France aged 13, loved it and became virtually bilingual. But that's only my experience.

Any earlier and I think the child forgets it when they come back. You have to have some understanding of the system of how the language works for it to stick, I think.

If you send your child away from home, in effect to be brought up by someone else, you have to take the consequences. A very different child comes back home to you.

Hi MrsGuyOfGisbourne, did you find a boarding school in the end ? I have been looking for my DS and he is finally starting in September in a French boarding school . He is 13 and he will be there for 3 months. He is quite excited about it but not sure how the experience will be.
He is bilingual English and Spanish as we live in Spain now and speaks a bit of French so we think he will improved his French a lot.
Could you tell me your experience please ?