Do you live in France?

[ggglimpopo]

Where do you live?
Why did you choose that region?
Why did you come here in the first place?
Do you work?
Do you regret it/love it?

Tell us all!

I live in Bordeaux.

I initially chose Montpellier and had everything (sort of!) set up there, but found it too hectic - and my original holiday accomodation was vile - so came to Bordeaux on holiday and stayed.

I came here post divorce!

I have had an epic time here - a very very rough ride, but life events rather than simply french ones, and am here to stay.

I love the region and will stay put in the south west. I would LOVE a house by the sea - dream on!

I don't regret it and have married a Frenchman to prove the point.....

Et vous?

It's the ergo that causes such puzzlement.

ggg, of course not. Just too much of it around where I live for me to be comfortable. I'm sure there are some great schools too, just not anywhere near enough where we live to make it practical for ds to go there.

What's the ergo? Excuse my ignorance!

School may not be as bad as you think, seen from the outside things often seem different. My DD is about to complete her first year at school (maternelle), and she's loved it, as have we.

The ergo is a backpack type carrier.

I've just googled it. Looks great although I can see that the combination of back pack and baby carrier would surprise. It could look like you'd stuck your baby in your rucksack!
I used to end up with my rucksack slung over my chest when I needed to carry baby in a back carrier and to have a bag of stuff and DH wasn't with me.

ggg - I don't think that all French parents are monsters or that all schools are awful either I'm just pointing out what I have witnessed myself and heard from friends. The prevailing approach to education and upbringing is quite different here.

DD is starting nursery in September and I am at the stories I hear - if their coloring isn't good enough (?!?) they get sad face stickers on it , for example. And these are 3 year olds!

I think I found a nursery that is more fun and less disciplinary than usual, but don't know for sure.

Cote D'Azur, they use happy, straight mouth and sad faces on the work in DD and DS's école maternelle. I don't know about nursery.
So yes, they are 'graded' from an early age which I suppose could shock.
But from what I have seen think the expectations are quite realistic for the age group and also for the child. DD is one of the youngest in her year and what she puts down on paper is inevitably nothing like the 'work' of the older children in her year, but she still manages to get smiley faces.

Cote, my children did maternelle in a french state school, and it was very good. Not at all draconian, and they learned lots of stuff. Actually, I have got french workbooks for dd2(4 years old), who is at a super expensive private german montessori nursery, because I preferred the stuff my other children did in france!

After we came to germany we got the whole thing with the teacher trying to tell us that there was something wrong with ds because his colouring in wasn't up to scratch - it was so boring, he just couldnt be bothered - but I found teh french much more laid back.

Well, DD is actually starting ecole maternelle in September. 'Nursery' was my attempt at translation. Is maternelle 'preschool', then? Sorry for the confusion.

It's only three hours per day (mornings) for the first year. Still, I'm dreading it a little bit.

Parents who go back to work when their children are babies use either 'assistante maternelle' (childminder) or 'crèche' (nursery).

Ecole maternelle is very much preschool in that they are expected in the first years to learn how to follow the basic rules/routines of school ie role call, do what activity the teacher decides when the teacher decides, go to the toilet at breaktime etc

They do lots of different activities and my children really enjoy it. They have lovely teachers.

I was wary of the French system, and so found one which I thought was a gentle, art-based approach suitable to my gentle, sensitive DD. That was the Ecole Maternelle Waldorf Steiner that recently opened near us.

Without going into details (and inviting reprisal from the Steiner nuts), suffice it to say that I was so scared when I looked into it that I put DD's name in the state school in our area right away.

Whatever else French system may be, at least it is fiercely secular, and I will have the piece of mind of knowing that DD will not come home talking about reincarnation and the spirit world etc that she learned about at maternelle.

[mouth zipped emoticon]

My daughter is just coming to the end of her first year at French école maternelle (a bilingual French-English one, here in Paris).

It is... fine. Not really exciting, for sure, but she has learnt all the social skill things Othersideofthechannel wrote about, absolutely masses of nursery rhymes, she has started her letters and counting/adding/subtracting up to 10. The maîtresse is fiercer and more old fashioned in her discipline techniques than I would like (but she has a great, very young American English teacher to relax with).

I agree with what Castille has written about French parenting.

Anna... which billingual school is it???? Would you recommend it??? And what does your daughter learn in English???

My dd starts maternalle not this September but next. The one she would naturally feed into doesn't teach English so she has to get it all from me. Then she would feed into a primary school that would teach her English as a foreign language but not as her mother-tongue. Ideally I want her to learn French and English as her own languages so am toying with the idea of her entering a billingual system... any advice???

It's Ecole Active Bilingue (EaB) on Parc Monceau (so metro Courcelles or Villiers).

She learns loads in English - at the moment all the children are together, but later they will be streamed for English and she will be in the "mother-tongue English" section with other English and American (or half-English etc) children.

It's a good school, undoubtedly, in the maternelle/primary. The very best bilingual school is Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel in the 15th (but it has no petite section) - harder to get into and much more competitive once you are in, though.

How old is your DD TFT?

teafortwo - there are also English classes at the British Council on Les Invalides for English mother-tongue children who are in French schools - they start at age 5 and teach the British NC, on Wednesday afternoons or Saturdays.

Anna - We intend to move to Paris in 7-8 years, because we don't want DD (& any future babies) to grow up in Monaco beyond their childhood. It's nice but it's not the real world, and people who have grown up here have a very warped sense of life, money, friendships, relationships, etc.

I don't know anything about the schools in Paris, though. I found the website for that school you mentioned and it looks good. How far in advance of our move to Paris do you think I need to apply? Is there a catchment area requirement?

CoteDAzur - I mentioned two schools so I'm not sure which one's web site you looked at.

Ecole Active Bilingue EaB is my daughter's school and is on the Right Bank.

Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel Jeannine Manuel is on the Left Bank. I hope we will be able to send my daughter there in due course - for secondary, at the latest.

Neither school has a catchment area, though you would always do well to live nearby since the school run in Paris is a nightmare (unless you have a chauffeur...) (on foot or on public transport). Both schools give info on dates for application on their websites; Jeannine Manuel is much harder to get into and requires a substantial dossier of past reports, letter of recommendation for the family, interviews, speech therapist's report etc. EaB is easier-going.

I went to the presentation at Jeannine Manuel last year. I would highly recommend that you do this (they have loads throughout the year, you could arrange a trip to Paris around one) as you get a good feel for the school and whether it would suit your family. Jeannine Manuel's main intakes are in Moyenne Section, Grande Section and CP; in 6ème; and in Seconde. It is very hard to get a place otherwise, though it does have places reserved for people moving to Paris which I suppose would be your case.

The other great school is the Lycée International de Saint-Germain en Laye Lycée International. That's an excellent school if you want to live in the western suburbs - in fact, a Franco-American couple I know have just moved from central Paris to Saint-Germain en Laye in order to send their daughter (4) to that school, which has both British and American bilingual sections.

There you go - those are the three schools that you ought to consider: EaB is fine, and good for the less academic child in secondary; EABJM and Lycée International are highly academic/selective.

Hi Anna, Thanks! This sounds really interesting... dd is only just two, Castille, so we have a little while to continue pondering!

By the way, when my dp was a teenager they moved out of Monaco and to Brittany as his Mum didn't didn't think the atmosphere of Momaco was good for teenagers either!

Nice to chat. BFN

Momaco - ha ha ha Monaco is what this busy Mummy meant!!!!

Anna - I looked at JM's website.

I'm rather clueless with the French school system (and the UK one, really), so what ages do 'Moyenne Section, Grande Section and CP; in 6ème; and in Seconde' start?

If 'Moyenne Section' what we called "middle school' and 'Grande Section' "high school", I would guess ages 12 and 15.

Thanks for the tip on presentations. I will definitely do that.

TFT - your DD is couple of months older than my youngest then

Cote - Moyenne Section is 2nd year of maternelle, so age 4. Grande section is age 5. After that children go into CP (cours preparatoire) which is the first year of primary, at age 6.

Then it's cours elementaires - CE1 and CE2

Then cours moyens - CM1 and CM2

Then it's college (junior high) where there is 6eme, 5eme, 4eme and 3eme.

Then lycee - seconde, premiere et terminale.

My boys are just finishing in Petite Section and Grande Section. It's true that they are both awarded with smiley faces etc for work done and I have been quite shocked this year how much academic work they've done in Grande Section as I was always under the impression that Maternelle is just playing. However, I will say that DS1 has done very well in GS, he loves school and the smiley face system works well for him. I was a bit shocked when he told me that La Maitresse had a system of notching up bad behaviour on a board for the whole class to see and no system of reward for good behaviour because that is just expected. DS1 is fine with that and he actually works hard because he doesn't want a cross on the board! He's also in the last couple of weeks been given lines for naughty behaviour but again, took this all in his stride. He's dyspraxic and has had trouble holding a pencil when writing, but together the teachers and I have worked on this and he's much improved.

DS2 is 31/2 and is completing PS this year, he had no French whatsoever when he started. The skills he's had to learn are putting on his own coat, washing his hands, following instructions etc, They do lots of singing, he learns sequences etc and has learned to recognise and write his own name and also recognises the names of the other children in his class.

So far it's working really for my DS' although I suppose next year is when it all starts to happen for DS1, but I think with the groundwork they've laid down in GS he should be OK.