French family to be relocated in Glasgow needs HELP !

[pierreyves]

Hello,

My name is Pierre, I am a dad of 2 boys (9 and 11 years old). In France, my wife is teacher at primary school. My company is involved in the renewal of the Glasgow Subway and offers me the possibility to be relocated for a couple of years. We wouldn't miss this opportunity !

Of course the question "where to live?" will come sooner or later. However, my first concern is about school for children. That will drive the place to live... As you could imagine they don't speak English. I found on the Internet that programms exist for foreign pupils for whom English is not the mother tongue : Additional Support for Learning, and English as an Additional Language. But it is not easy to identify schools (primary and secondary as I understood we will need both respect our boys'ages...) which are used to well perform this kind of support.

That would be so nice from you and helpful for us if any of you could give me some clues and advices on the topic.

Thank you for getting back to me
Pierre

That sounds like an exciting adventure for you all. There are lots of French people in Glasgow and I'm sure you'll settle in nicely. If I was you, I would look to settle in the west end as there is lots to do and plenty of foreigners due to the university. Hillhead school has got lots of different nationalities but you would need to look up the catchment area. The Alliance Francaise is also based in the West End and they may be able to give you help with suggestions for locations.

Good luck with the move.

Bonjour Pierre!

I'd second getting in touch with the Alliance Francaise, hopefully they can put you in touch with people in similar circumstances.

Your budget when you move may also dictate whereabouts you will be staying, this can affect your school catchment as in Scotland you go to the most local school.

I'm not sure whether language provision might change the catchment issues-yet again the Alliance Francaise will be able to advice.

Glasgow is a lovely friendly city. If you have any questions about certain areas please feel free to ask.

Thanks for your message, I appreciate the positive point of view you have of the city.

For sure I'll get in touch with Alliance Française.

And you are right, I must check what is the budget I could allocated for the flat as I guess some area are most expensive than others...

I'll come back to the forum as soon as I'll have other questions.

Thanks again
Pierre

Hillhead primary has loads of kids who are bilingual. And in every year a few start who have no English - often their parents are academics who are only here for a couple of years. They also have a nomimated child "ambassador" for most languages. Check out the catchment area and also get in touch directly with the headteacher. It's also a good school!