Mving to Paris - nursery / maternelle admissions

[blondecat]

Found out we will be moving to Paris / environs next summer. PIL breaking out the champagne. I am more scared than excited but to the point

My question may sound ridiculous but in London, where we currently live, we were told to prepare to get on nursery / prep school list as soon as DD is born in November. One place even expected registration at 12 weeks pregnant.

So in Paris area - we are likely to live in Neuilly, 16, 8 or out towards Versailles - are admissions as crazy as in London?
Do we have to register as soon as she is born?
Or can we wait until next summer or even later?

We are a mixed French DH and - Polish / British family so any bilingual ( probably French English) places are of special interest.

Thank you all in advance

If you're going state then you just rock up at the mairie and hope for the best so no need to put names down 4 years in advance! Legally they have to find you a school place, but not a garderie/crèche. Some crèches are very oversubscribed so it is better safe than sorry.

Identify the schools you're interested in now -EAB, EABJM etc for bilingual schools inside Paris - and familiarise yourself with the admissions process. You do have a while :) I know some places don't even accept dossiers well in advance.

It might be worth looking on angloinfo or joining 'message' (google message paris) for more info as well, angloinfo in particular centralises a lot of links.

Good luck! I'm very envious - would love to go back to Paris and keeping my fingers tightly crossed that we'll be back this summer too.

Places for public schools, no, not so mad. However, for the bilingual ones you need to get in there early (depends what you want really. We both speak English at home so the kids just go to French public school. If the couple is mixed then you might want to go down the bilingual route). For nursery / creche places (I assume you are talking before three?) then state places will be very oversubscribed. You also need proof of address (or at least proof that you are moving there) and proof that you work. If you aren't working and just want to put your child in a halte-garderie then you still need proof of address and the system for the no. of days you get really depends on where you live. For DD I only got two mornings and had to wait about 6 months, for DS I got two full days and only waited 3 months. If you want a private creche (usually creche associative or creche parentale) then you can put your name on a waiting list rather earlier, but you'd still need to have some idea of where you are living.

Sorry, the usual system for admission to public school is to rock up at the mairie of the town in which you live the Feb or March before your kid turns three (again dates depend on where you are living) and you will get a place in your local maternelle. I have heard of places getting filled up in Paris but this is not a problem where I live (although saying that my 3-year-old has just started in a class of 33 )

Thanks guys

I will not worry then.

St Germain-en-Laye is a very nice town in Paris western suburbs. There are lots of expatriates and also private bilingual nurseries/maternal schools as well as the Lycee International which has a Polish and British Sections. Maybe worth a look.