Looking for a primary School for 2 French boys in Canterbury

[Gwen29]

We are thinking of moving from France to Canterbury in September 2014 with our two sons, who'll be aged 6 and 9 (and wouldn't speak much English).
I've been told it might be tricky to find a school for them.
Does anyone know of a good primary school that takes in international pupils?
Thanks for your help!

do you mean a private school ? If state it will be wherever there are age relevant spaces and no "international" influence or even choice may come into play . Use the next year to develop their English skills, especially your elder son.

Thanks. I'd go for a state school if possible.
I can teach my elder son some English, but I'm mostly worried wbout my younger son who would have to learn to read in a new language with differents phonetics. That's why I was asking about a possible special attention to pupils from different language backgrounds.

www.multilingualfamily.org.uk or www.lapee.co.uk might be able to help you.

If you find a school which is used to lots of new people (maybe near the University), then there should be no problem. I help in a school where there are children arriving every 2 weeks or so, often with little or no English and from a large number of different mother tongues.

What normally happens there is: their English is assessed - if it is good then they may get some support in class, or in other cases just become another new person in class. If they have very little English, they get specialist help on a daily basis; but also the teaching assistant often looks after them. They tend to make bilingual labels for the class room (door, table, window, white board, etc.) and may use pictures to help communication.
They tend to settle with the other children quite quickly, and often the other children seem to understand them more readily than adults.

If you are asking schools then the key phrase is usually EAL (English as an Additional Language), if the school doesn't have a specialist they should get help from the local authority.

You should probably go for a really good village school (there are some excellent ones in Kent) which will have plenty of resources - French isn't a difficult language from which to learn English and your DC shouldn't have particular difficulties if you are supportive. A bit of private tutoring wouldn't go amiss.

I would advise the opposite to Bonsoir. I would avoid little village schools unless you know they regularly have students arriving with limited English.

Village schools are often over subscribed and have very limited resources in some cases due to low funding.

I would suggest speaking to the Local Authority to see what they advise.

Are you in Kent, Littlefish? The situation is quite different to the one that you describe - the town schools are mostly quite impoverished, and the village schools are often quite rich (village inhabitants are on average much richer in Kent than town dwellers).

The wealth of the inhabitants of a town or village has absolutely no impact on the funding received by a school. Funding is given per child in a school at a level set per county. Small schools do not have the same economies of scale as larger schools. Additionally, many small schools have class sizes smaller than the break even point of 28-29 children in a class meaning that the percentage of school budget which has to be spent on staff salaries is much higher than that in larger schools with classes of 30. This means that there is less money available for all other school resources.

I'm a school governor in a small school, and a teacher in a big school.

Oh you are so wrong! Villages raise LOADS of money for their schools! And pay for equipment, buildings, libraries, outings.

There are very strict rules governing what money raised by parents can be used for. It cannot be used for buildings or stuffing and cannot be entered into the budget of a school.

What is your experience in this matter Bonsoir? If it is solely as a parent, then I am concerned that your advice to the OP, whilst given in the best of faith, may not be helpful.

The money isn't raised by parents but by the whole parish. Some villages are really rich with endowments etc.

Hi Gwen

Come on over to the Mumsnet Local Kent site here

We have a local discussions board so more people from Canterbury will be able to help!

I'm in Canterbury so can offer you advice about areas and schools - although my little one is only 2 so it won't be from personal experience yet!