Studying your second language at school?

[car0line123]

The background: I speak French to my children, my husband speaks English, (and I speak English to him), so they should be bilingual.

I don't know what to do about schools:
It seems a complete waste of time for them to start French as beginners at school, however a shame not to take French for their GCSE/ A'Levels later on.

(I am considering the CNED to study French at home, but that would not necessarily prepare them for English exams)

How did other parents organise that?

Thanks in advance!

Secondary schools are usually happy to enter students into language exams in their native languages as extras, particularly if these are languages already taught in the school. (If not a native speaker needs to be provided for the exams.) Many parents hence bring their children's writing up to scratch at home, often with the aid of a tutor, and then enter for GCSEs in year 9 or 10. Such GCSEs are typically not taken with the main bunch of GCSEs but a year or two earlier.

At secondary students also usually have a choice of languages so your children could take German or Spanish instead of beginners' French.

Note that GCSEs and A levels in native languages are often not viewed in the same way by universities as other MFL languages. In your case however I guess it would be hard for university admissions to tell it is a native language (unlike Arabic, Russian etc which are not taught in schools so it's fairly obvious).

Many thanks, this is very interesting.
I will explore the subject further, it sounds unfair if the exams have somehow less value if they don't follow the normal route at school. It might be worth studying alongside non-native speakers then! (they won't get bonus points for their English exams despite not speaking it at home, will they?)

Very interesting, thank you again for your help.

I'm about to embark on this route for my second son, who is starting school in sept in a local school. I picked it because they do French as a foreign language from reception, and will see how it goes! I'm also looking at saturday schools in French as well as CNED and home-made games/reading , and probably french "homework" books ( from France ).
Daunting adventure ... ( our first son has done all his schooling at the Lycee )
Also exploring setting up tuition with a native french teacher if I find other french parents at the school.... apparently this is happening a lot among families who can't get their kids into a french school here. They get organised and set up private group classes, sometimes with the help of a school who lend a room.

posted too early sorry
so yes, planning to have him study French ( his second language ) as a foreign language and play it by ear..... interesting post Spinoa, thank you

My sister and I are native English speakers with a French DH/DP. My DD has been educated in a bilingual school and is perfectly bilingual and biliterate (to the standards of a 10 year old). My sister's DCs have been educated in English with French as a foreign language and their French is fairly dreadful.

FWIW my sister and I are both linguists with 4 MFL each.