Any personal experience or views on these schools in Paris: Ecole Alsacienne...Stanislas...Massillon...Cours Moliere?

[Greythorne]

Thx

Greythorne - I didn't think Institut de La Tour started until 6ème? They have a Wednesday programme in maternelle/primary. I know of it from friends who have children there in collège and it looks at all sorts of English, AFAIK - British, American, Australian. Which is more or less what you get in any of the Paris schools that offer Anglophone/bilingual classes.

Duchesse6 - yes, EABJM has a reputation for arrogance and unpleasantness! Not surprised you didn't like it.

EaB Monceau (maternelle and primary) is the main EaB school and the best of the bunch. I only hear good things about the immersion programme but you do have to continue to manage the children's progress through French school once they are out of immersion and in normal French school as no slack is cut for them (even at EaB). EaB collège is OK academically (but dreadful, rudimentary premises and somewhat disorganised) and the lycée is definitely dodgy in all respects.

EABVH is an entirely separate establishment - the only thing the schools have in common are their shareholders. EABVH has recruited a lot of pupils by undercutting the fees at ISP, ASP etc but it won't be able to maintain that low fee structure forever and I wonder how it will fair when its prices creep up nearer those of its rivals.

I know little of ISP, but I have good feelings about ASP from everyone I have ever know who has been there (and they include friends my own age as well as the children of my contemporaries).

Bonsoir

Thanks for all your input and valuable information.
I'll call ASP tmrw.

It's indeed my big worry that my one of my DS's grades will be affected by having had only one year in French immersion classes before being channelled into an entirely French College even though they claim it to be bilingual.
Maybe we'll have to hire a tutor for him for his first year in College.

I took a look at Institut de la Tour - it looks lovely. But then again will he be able to get in with only one year of French teaching. Time will tell.

Duchesse6 - if I were in your position, I would get the ball rolling on applying to lots of different collèges the minute you get here, in September (and I am very happy to help you with a shortlist of good ones - you can PM me and we can meet up). There are some good private Parisian collèges that are willing to take pupils who don't speak perfect French, because they have been educated abroad, providing they like the look of the family (!) and the child's academic record is promising.

Extra support at home from a tutor is always a good idea in cases such as yours (and even in more standard cases - French classes are BIG and it is nice for DCs to have some individual attention in order to make sure they don't accumulate gaps in their knowledge).

Bonsoir

Sounds like a plan :) Couldn't agree more - thank you!

I'll come back to you and would love to meet up.
I'll keep you posted :)

Looking forward to meeting you!

Bonsoir

Yes, I was talking about the Wednesday Primary programme.

But it's not true that all Wednesday programmes are a mixed bag of Anglos. SIS is very strongly skewed British (British headteacher, many British teachers, follows British curriculum, teaches British English spelling.)

From my limied knowledge, IdlT seems much more US-focussed. All the parents I know there are American / Canadian, the teachers are and they have school trips to Baltimore, I think.

But no reason to assume this is a bad thing!

I wasn't talking about the Wednesday programmes, nor, for that matter, any of the banlieue schools. In Paris intra-muros all the integrated schools are a pretty mixed bag of Anglo language and literature. There aren't any schools that follow the English NC, for example.

Hi
thank you for informing us about La Tour, came back from the States in September, have 2 children in EABJM but one did not make it and I was thinking of EA for her in 6eme but as it is so difficult to get in I'm looking for other options. How would you place La Tour Anglophone section in term of style: boring and rigorous French academic or lively and creative or somewhere in between?
I know about EaB, Sevre, and Balzac do you know any other middle school catering to English bilingual with budget withing 6 000 Euro/year? In Paris or immediate surrounding. If possible some creative place for a budding writer.

Massillon

EA is the only school that really does "creative" IMVHO.