....as a possibility for dd when she leaves prep school at 13.
It is a private bilingual school which has a boarding facility.
When we arrived, the school secretary with whom we had made the appointment was absent and we were met by the deputy head who glossed over her absence He showed us round and talked to us at length in his office about the structure of the school, the timetable etc.
We were then introduced to a female member of staff who showed us around the girls' boarding house and when I asked the deputy head if she was the head of boarding he said that teacher (male) was away that day and glossed over his absence
For a private school, the staff seemed to be thin on the ground.
The deputy head (who was English) explained that in France, teachers are employed by the state not the school (even when it is a private school) and are paid by the hour and are entitled to leave as soon as their hours are up.
When we arrived back in the centre of the town where we were staying we came across a major street march which we realised from the banners was a demo complaining about teachers' pay and conditions. When we saw the news in the hotel we realised that a lot of teachers were on strike and that a lot of state schools in France had been closed for the day.
So all teachers in France have the right to strike even those who work in fee-paying schools.
This explained the skeleton staff at the school we had just visited. So because private schools in France are subsidised by the state, they are a strange hybrid of state and private.
Doesn't work for me.