Moving back to the UK

[FlouFlou]

Has anyone here moved back to the UK after a long time in Europe? I’d like to hear how you’ve found it, what’s good, what’s bad. It’s hard to know whether we should move back or not.

We’ve been in France a very long time, my 3 children were born here. Now my girls are in collège (11+ school), I’m not happy with the education system. It’s dry, strict and there are a lot of teacher absences. In the UK we can put them into private school so they’ll get a really good education.

It’s a nice life here though, warm weather, good health service, great produce in the markets and shops, empty roads and we all speak French. I miss our family, British theatre, comedy, cultural events. Retraining and mature study is easier in the UK than here. I just don’t know what the reality of living in the uk is anymore!

Replying to follow with interest. We’ve been in France for 17 years, oldest had just finished Terminale, and the youngest is entering Seconde this year. I cant say that them missing out on a UK education has made me want to move back at all - but then private wouldn’t be an option for us in the UK and they are in a really excellent lycée where we are (albeit it’s very very French).

So much to juggle in the decision making 😱 all the factored you mention and more. Healthcare is a big one - the French system beats the UK hands down. We’ve stayed - but only just. We are in the UK just now, having run away from the heat for a month and it’s so hard to now leave family - especially ageing parents and lovely siblings that we don’t see from one year to the next ☹️.

How have you find the collège system @rickyrickygrimes? I’ve heard a lot of stories about battling to get your child onto the Bacs you think they should do, or lack of choice of Bacs (we’re in the countryside) , British kids being discriminated against with harder questions in oral exams, then more battles at university level to do with recognition of their residency status once they turn 18. And then, for me, it’s the content matter and manner of teaching at collège level. The teaching can be so dull, a lot of learning of minute details by rote, the teachers can be painfully strict and some can anger easily. French discipline is unmoving as I’m sure you know. It’s very dependent on the teacher of course, and the CDI ‘job for life’ thing doesn’t help. I enjoy our life here but I really don’t agree with the teaching methods.

DH teaches at college and lycée level in an international section in a big public school so we were / are well acquainted with the French educational system - even so, collège and more so lycée was a shock. There’s a bit of truth in what you say - teachers can be mean, rude, overly strict and negative - but so can French people. The curriculum is dull, conservative, highly academic - again, it reflects what the French value. And the way of moving through the various educational layers is ruthlessly meritocratic, competitive, aims to identify the elite and elevate them above all others - again, that’s France. The French system is designed to produce French people, and reflects French values.

For what bac they do, if your kids are vaguely academic they should be doing the bac générale. It’s not unusual for lycée students to board in order to attend a really good lycée if they are particularly academic or want to excel in certain fields, or want to do a prépa. We live literally next door to an excellent lycée (city centre) but rural areas in France aren’t necessarily so well served.

What do you think they would do for uni? If they want to go to the UK, the Brexit WA ‘home fees’ exemption will have expired, and they’ll be paying international fees.

Would be interested to know if you made a decision, @FlouFlou ?
I've been in Germany 15 years, have two children who are 5 and 2.5. I want to move back home now (Scotland). It's just incredibly difficult as my husband is German.

I think if we stayed in France they would go to uni in France, their connection to France is/will be much stronger than the uk having lived there all of their lives.

We decided to trial the uk for 6-12 months, so we’re renting in the uk and have the kids in school. The uk school knocks the socks off the French ones, but I still prefer life where we were. It hasn’t been long though so I’m
reserving judgement, or trying to!

Hello!
I’ve been reading this thread with great interest. We want to move back to France but are finding the mentality of some people and how this affects schooling (as you say, ‘teachers can be mean, rude, overly strict and negative’) the main thing preventing making the choice. Our kids are in MS and CP currently, in London.
We lived in France before having children. We are francophone with EU passports but not French.
But we are flexible on location and it’s a huge country.
There must be a school, somewhere, that is more lovely, even within the confines of the curriculum (which both of us support, actually). But the attitude and the teacher absenteeism are what we seek to avoid.

Ohh following with interest as planning to move back to Germany this year (where my parents live) but everything is very uncertain and my daughter might stay in the UK to board for A-levels as she doesn't want to change school systems and is currently doing her GCSEs (all international schools near us do the IB). I'd love for her to go to uni in Germany given that it's free and I want to move back to be near my parents and best friend (we have a little flat 5 minute walk from my parents' house that's currently sitting empty and we're stuck in limbo deciding whether to move back or not. It's so difficult to evict tenants in Germany that I can't rent it out short-term).

@XelaM that does indeed sound like a tricky time to move back, but I can really understand wanting to