American moving to Paris - bilingual school advice

[USinParis]

Greetings,

I was just informed that our family will be moving to Paris in July. We've got a lot of planning in a very short time. As you can imagine, we Americans have little opportunity to experience different cultures, so we're very excited and nervous. We are considering taking full advantage of the opportunity with our children and are considering a bilingual school. We have 10 year old twins. One is very academic (top of her class) and my son is consistently above average, but gets frustrated easily. We will be in Paris for 3 to 4 years.

We have no experience with bilingual education. At their age, is it too late to attempt a bilingual immersion school like EIB? Will they lose a full year of education during the immersion year? Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. If EIB isn't an option, we plan to look at Marymount and ASP.

Regards!

Ooooo lucky you!

No advice but you could try pm ing Bonsoir.

Try posting on Living Overseas board - there are lots of Paris parents so you will get more relevant traffic. I was told this time 3 years ago that we were too late for EIB, but got into EABJM (deadline for applicants from overseas is usually 31 March). So you need to act quickly for bilingual schools.

At EABJM though, kids joining adaptation classes (immersion) do NOT lose a year, they join their normal class the following year. Definitely worth going bilingual if you are thinking of 3-4 years - bilingualism is a great gift!

Hi US in Paris!

My DD is at EIB and I know a lot about it. If you want to put your DC in the immersion programme for CM2/7ème this coming September, they will need to have been born in 2004 - is that the case?

Your DC won't lose a full year of school during the immersion year but I highly recommend you get them a tutor for English language/literature as the English teaching in the immersion programme is notoriously weak.

You can always do a year of EIB immersion and then move them to Marymount - your DC will learn much more French that way.

If you are willing to go outside of Paris look at St germain en laye; lots of bilingual schools which will take students just starting out in French: Lycée International is the obvious but difficult to get into choice.

Lycée International can be quite a shock to outsiders - not saying that EIB and EABJM do not always live up to Anglo expectations (they definitely don't) but Lycée International is not for the faint hearted.

Thank you all for your thoughts and recommendations. I hope it isn't too late to apply. I'll have to check their site to see when the cutoff dates are.

Our DC were born in Oct 2003. Does this mean they cannot attend imlmersion classes this year at EIB? I've seen comments that the post-primary schools at EIB are problematic. Is this why you suggest transferring to Marymount? Thank you again Bonsoir!