Foreign language schools in London?

[wtfih]

Do you know any foreign language schools in central London, that would accept kids who do not actually speak the language? I mean, that's the point of giving my daughter to such a school, so she could get to know another language.

It doesn't really matter whether they're Italian, Spanish, French.

Do you mean full time schools? Like the French lycee? I think there is a German international school as well in Richmond or somewhere.

This would be a bit cruel to be honest, those kind of schools aren't so people can learn a language, it's so they can be educated in their language. Lot's of Chinese children get sent to my kids school for 6th form, their parents seem to think they will instantly learn English and achieve, they of course will not and will fall behind.

It's important to pick a second language for the right reason as well, and they are still schools after all, it's about learning not just the linguistic aspect. All very well speaking a language but if you have terrible grades it will mean nothing.

There are lots of schools like this in London but I would advise extreme caution.

The majority will be speaking the foreign language as their mother tongue (and may not even speak English). Your dd would struggle to keep up. I say this having had a similar education.

If your daughter is any older than 3 then forget it, you have missed the boat.

These schools also tend to be very hard to get into.

Sorry, I never got back to this thread, I've been going through a lot lately.

Thanks everyone for your advice, it kind of made me reconsider this!

How old is your child and where in central London?

Does it have to be central London? There are a couple of bi-lingual schools opened recently in London Suburbs? A German-English one in Herne Hill (Judith Kerr I think) and a French-English one in Bromley (La Fontaine). As far as I know neither require a child to have any experience of the non-English language - we looked at La Fontaine and they were clear about that, but also that they would hope that the parents would try to learn some French in order to help support their child.

I don't know about the admissions policy for Judith Kerr but la Fontaine's admissions policy is half distance, half lottery, as far as I know, so living in Central London might not prevent your child getting in (although it might be unworkable for travel reasons obviously).

International School London:

www.islschools.org/london/languages/index.php?id=21#/Introduction

Maybe this might be of interest:

www.lajolieronde.co.uk/

Thank you all for your replies. I'll have a look at all of them.
My dd is 2 months old so have some time to decide.
Ideally we would like her to be fluent in 2 languages (that matter).
We thought this would be the best way to achieve that.

Wix primary in Battersea is a bilingual French school, and Judith Kerr near Dulwich is English / German bilingual I think. Both state primaries, but I don't know much about them.

There's this one in Barnes.

www.swedishschool.org.uk/in-english/

However, you could do what my friend did and hire a French or Spanish speaking nanny and get them to only speak to her in that language. My friend's daughter is now bilingual.

I'm quite surprised at how many schools there are.

www.dslondon.org.uk/default-english

www.lapetiteecolefrancaise.co.uk

www.cfbl.org.uk/en