France school year

[movingtoparis]

Hello, i've just joined mumsnet and, as you can see, we'll be moving to Paris (or close to it) early next year and although there's loads of excellent advice here already, I've got some questions! Hope someone can help...

ds was born in November 2008 and has just started Y1 in UK. what year would he be on in Paris if we move this school year?

same question for dd: she's a Jan 2011 baby. What maternelle year?

then, for schools, we've been looking at schools with anglo sections (expensive international schools are not covered by dh package). What are my options? We've looked into St Germain en Laye and around...any advice?

it's all been rather last minute so haven't approached any of the schools yet...is it crazy to hope for a place for January 2015?!?!

for the record, dh is learning french and is not too bad; I should be doing the same but with work and family life have less time. kids can say bonjourn and merci! :)...so we need a school that speaks English (at least for the time being).

merci!

Can't help with schools Im afraid (tho there are some posters around with a good knowledge of international schools)

France groups children by calendar year. So all babies born in 2011 start together in Sept 2014 aged 3 or nearly 3.

2011 babies (like my Ds!) have started Petite Section Maternelle this year.

2008 babies have started CP this year - the first obligatory year of schooling.

Oh and Ive seen lots o infos about Paris schools and going into French vs English on MN. If you do an advanced search you should find something

As a bit of an aside, I went to a French school at 4.10, one of the youngest in my year (November birthday). I was gabbling away in French only about 3 months later. I still can nearly 40 years later, I just have tre vocabulary of a 10 year old.

If you are planning to stay in France indefinitely then my advice would be to put them in a french school. If you plan to return to UK it is more complicated. I have a similar dilemma. If you search on Paris schools and my name you will see some of the advice I have had 're school choices, although my DCs are older.

I wouldn't worry about your lack of French too much. At their age the homework will be easy for you to understand and even in a francophone school there will always be at least one teacher who speaks English. I live in the most rural of rural France where there are no expats and 2 of the teachers at my DDs' dinky primaire speak fluent English and most of them do at my son's college.

I wouldn't worry about your lack of French at this stage of schooling as stated above, but I don't think it's true to say that you will definitely have access to a teacher who speaks English. At our (rural Ile de France but not middle of nowhere) maternelle, none of the 4 teachers there spoke English. At primaire we have one whose English is OK, but she only teaches CE1 and therefore is not really much use if your child is not in her class. And at college, not even the English teacher will speak English to us!

We arrived in France just after dd's 9th birthday when she was in year 4. She's 17 next month.

She left school in the UK on the Tuesday, flew to France on the Wednesday and started school in France on the Thursday, in CM1, the equivalent of year 5, so jumping a year.

She went to college just over 18 months later, passed her Brevet with mention bien - despite being threatened with redoublement at the end of 4ième, and is now in her last year of lycée. She got into the only lycée in the region for her preferred bac, and the lycée attracts students from all over France in art and design.

Apparently the head of her primary school spoke some English, but he didn't use it with us. The cleaner at her school and the dinner lady helped her loads with speaking French, and less than 4 months after the move, she was talking in her sleep in French.

So, I wouldn't have any hesitation in putting your dc into a French school, rather than an international one.