Moving ds age 6 to a french school- assessment help please!

[Lavenderhoney]

We are abroad and have decided ( finally) we will end up in France so the dc need to be able to slot into a French school in a few years ( 3-5 years maybe)

Dd is going to be 4 and starts without needing an assessment. It's not so easy for ( 6) as he has been in an international English bacc. He is top of his his year in French but having spoken to his French teacher it's not going to be good enough to start cp 1. He has to pass the asseement! My dh is French and hasn't really done enough speaking at home to help. We all speak English and I am english. My French is ok - not brilliant - but I have always spoken English.

Can anyone hep with what the tests will contain and any good ideas for helping ds manage when he starts? We will spend the summer with our relatives in France who only speak French. But his test is June.

Any good apps, maths etc and what level he should be at and capable of? He understands everything but is shy to talk and often just slips into English.

Any help gratefully received!

Children entering CP are expected to be able to understand everything the teacher says and to know the jargon French schools use and to follow instructions. They are also expected to know all their letters and to have done a lot of pre-penmanship practice (drilling of cursive). They should be able to count to thirty, recognizing the figures but not the words. Those are the bare bones of what is covered academically in maternelle. They are also expected to have good self-care skills - French classes are large and no-one helps DC with coats, book bags or the loo.

There are lots of workbooks on the market to help DC with those skills - I would buy some and work steadily through them.

Thanks- I guess it would be useful to look at what is covered on maternalle and work fom there too? I have a meeting with the French teacher and head of year to set objectives for home. I have spent the morning talking only French to dd at the supermarket etc- I think that helps. She is very keen.

I'm going to the bookshop tomorrow for some French books and I'm going to buy 2 kids play computers with maths etc on in French for them. I checked with alliance francais but their course for my ds is full!!

Still, dh can step up now but I guess it will be down to me. He is very independent so I'm not worried about that. Dd - yes, she needs to move on a bit with independance. Thanks.

Keep on pestering the Alliance Française - tbh, the teacher jargon in France is very extensive and DCs who arrive from other systems are often completely floored by it (I have witnessed this a lot in my DD's school), even when they are native speakers of French/bilingual.

It's an international French school, so they seem quite relaxed, apart from the dreaded test. I wish we had put him in earlier, but our situation was different. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The alliance francais isn't answering the phone- think its lunchtime:) I've been on the Bbc webite site which looks quite good.

Just realised you've helped me before bonsoir, so thank you again:)