French or English Primary - Pros & Cons and WWYD?

[Ecole]

We are a trilingual family in London. DH is the french speaker and DD (3.9) had always refused to speak French until she started at a Bilingual French English nursery recently.
Since then, she has really flourished and to DH's joy, she has started speaking French and being proud of her nationality.

Our plan has always been to send her to the local community school this September, and that would be that.
However, a new French School is opening in our area and we are really torn about whether we should send DD there or not.

On the one hand we really wanted her to make local friends and go to the local school.
On the other hand, we feel she will lose the French language and culture if she does go to the local school. Moreover, we feel that the French education system (especially at primary level) suits DD - she likes strict parameters.

Our current plan is to to send her to the French School until 11/12, where we hope she will attend our local state secondary (which has an excellent reputation).
However, because she the French School doesn't accept children until Y1 age, DD will have to spend one year at the local primary before changing schools again.

Would all this change be too much for her? She'll have only been at her current nursery for two terms, then she'll go to school for a year, then change again.

Also, there is the fees situation to think about - only £2k a term, but it's all the holidays (half term tends to last for two weeks and Wednesday half days) where I would need to pay for childcare.

WWYD? Are we mad for considering the French School?
Sorry for long post ...

I don't think you are mad at all. We are also a bilingual family and struggling with similar issues. DD is only 2 but we've had a French nanny since I returned to work. Unfortunately there are no French schools in our area. We've settled for an English school that has a strong reputation for teaching French as a a second language from nursery (3 years).

If you have the option of sending her to a French school I would say go for it, provided the education they offer is of the standard you want(i.e. not just on language but across the curriculum). TBH I think I would be more concerned with the fact that that school is new and does not have a track record, than the fact that it is French. Is it part of a larger network/group of schools with an established track record?

I tend to think children are more adaptable than we give them credit for, so I don't think it is a huge issue that your DD would do one year at the local primary and then transfer to the French school, however if this worries you is there any way she could stay at her current nursery for that year?

Good luck whatever you decide. Hopefully someone with actual experience of French schools will come along with advice soon.

Yes, that's my worry about the French school. And as it doesn't open until September, I won't be able to see it until then.
However, as DH and others (in RL) have pointed out - it's backed by the French government, is an extension of an established French school, and will feed into the Lycee.
But, without actually being able to see it for myself, I feel as if we'll be going in blind. And though DH went to school in France, I didn't and have no idea what to expect and how it might differ from a British primary.

In theory, we could keep DD at the nursery for another year, but if we decide against the French school (when we see it in September), we'll have lost her place at our outstanding local primary. The fees for her current bilingual nursery are also an issue, especially as I'm pregnant and won't be working for the next year and a half.

Thanks for your reassuring comment that children are more adaptable than we think. I just hope my DD is of that kind!