Multilingual children and local schools

[SuiGeneris]

Have you any experience of how local schools help bilingual/multilingual children? We've been round Thomas's and liked it a lot but I cannot stop thinking that the headmistress replied to a question about support for bilingual children in a way that suggested bilingualism was a problem rather than an asset to the child. It might however have been an unfortunate turn of phrase rather than anything serious, so would be interested in your experiences of local state and independent primaries/pre-preps, please

In State schools they'll provide extra tuition for kids who need more help with English

I'd expect the same in the private schools only you'll be paying for it

It's support for the non-English language I am thinking of. Not lessons, just bilingualism being praised and seen as a good thing rather than a handicap.

Which non-English language do your DCs speak? Some of the local state schools offer after-school French for French children (e.g. Honeywell and Belleville). Oliver House seems to have quite a few bilingual children from what I have heard/observed - perhaps the Catholic ethos attracts European families.