Bilingual track of lycees francais primaries (ecole de fulham, soth ken, wix etc)

[sanam2010]

Anyone here send their DCs to the bilingual classes of the French lycees primary schools? We live very close to l'ecole marie d'orliac so could easily get one of the 28 places through the council. I have a few questions:

1. Fees: the lycee websites states annual fees, but what happens for bilingual places through the council? They must be free?

1. Secondary transfer: Is it true that children doing this schooling have a place guaranteed at the lycee charles de gaules in south ken for secondary school? Does this work for those admitted through the council of British /non-French nationality? Could DC automatically transfer to the British section of the lycee?

The bilingual section of Wix is part of primary state school and is therefore free (admissions via Wandsworth Borough procedures, with a supplementary form). The Lycee Wix is co-located on the same site, and is administratively a separate school (though obviously there's much sharing). AFAIK there is no automatic right of entry from the bilingual part of Wix to the Lycee Charles de Gaulle, though the school does state that their leavers are equipped to move on into either the English or French systems.

14 council places per school are council, 14 lycée.

Children are taken into the secondary section of the lycée according to the usual criteria on the school website so if non-French but bilingually schooled probably a category 5. The British section starts in Y10 so 6e-4e is in the French system unless apying externally.

Wix I know is v oversubscribed, something like 1:10 last year but I don't know the figures for Holy Cross/Marie d'Orliac.

Clearly not fully awake but I'm sure you get the drift re:council places!

Ecole de fulham was ok last year, 70 applications for 28 places, last distance allocated 0.7 miles and i am well within that

70 for 14 surely? If it's like Wix they aim for 14 French mother tongue children taken from the Lycee and 14 EMT children from council places. However if it's like Wix then French parents will try to bag the EMT spots by applying through both systems and submitting a request form for their child's exceptional needs to be taken into account, putting them as a priority entrant just after children in care....

You can see why they do it in a way. The applications via the lycee are done separately and may be at any of the primary schools (Wix, Fulham, South Ken and Ealing). You select your preferred stream (bilingual or French), if there isn't space in the bilingual section they pass you on to the French stream at the same school and if there isn't space in the school they pass you on to a school where there is. The waitlist is over 1000 in primary across the different sites for entry into the French section and entry isn't even assured for French civil servants posted to England which is virtually unheard of for AEFE schools. The only other place I've heard of that being the case is Washington DC.

It might be worth calling Wix and asking what the position is in their view as they've got a bilingual stream going right the way through and should be able to comment whether council pupils were accepted into the lycee. Their website implies that if you request a place at the secondary section of the lycee and you pass the entry exam you'll be taken automatically, which isn't quite an automatic progression but is better than nothing especially given that if you're not in an affiliated school you stand no chance of getting in at 6e (although you can apply to the new CFBL and that might ease the pressure a bit).

You may decide it's not worth the transition to the British section after 3 years!

Oh ok, if you just need to pass the exam then that's still automatic enough, of course I assume dd will sail through :-).

In Fulham they have two bilingual classes of 28, each class with 14 of lycee intake and 14 of council intake in each class. So getting the place for DD won't be a problem.

Am a bit hesitant to call them bc my spoken French is very rusty and I can just imagine what they'll be like!

If you call the school from the perspective of an anglophone parent wanting to know about progession options to the lycee I'm sure they won't expect you to speak French! Or I'll do it for you (although they might wonder what on earth a 00262 number is doing enquiring about council places in London ).

Haha that's okay, i have emailed them but the wix information you've referred to on that link is pretty clear that even the British children have a place reserved at the lycee. That's pretty cool!

That's Wix though - I don't know if Fulham operate the same system.