Are we letting DD down by not considering this school?

[castille]

DD started secondary in September - a state school with a bilingual section (we live in France and DH is French). The school is in a disadvantaged area of the city and we had reservations but so far so good. She seems quite happy and settled there and doing fine.

However, a private school in the city also has a bilingual section and I'm wondering if we're letting her down academically by not sending her there. It gets excellent results, and friends whose children are there are impressed with the bilingual section in particular. We ruled it out mainly because it's very catholic, very bourgeois (we are neither of these) and with a high snob factor. But it offers opportunities she doesn't have in her current school...

Would you consider it? It couldn't be more different from her current school!

bossykate - if you aren't Jewish, then I would sincerely hope that is how you would feel about educating your children - or would you feel neutral about sending them to a Jewish religious school?

Not much annoys me more on MN than being attacked for quotations taken out of context of their discussion.

It's not out of context Anna, it is offensive

yes but you didn't say you were anti-catholic education - you said you were anti-catholic.

It's about Catholic schools here in France and if you read the thread you will see that I have said both positive and negative things about them. It is not about "Catholics"

This is conversation about SCHOOLS IN FRANCE. If we have to repeat in every post exactly what the thread is about, we will be here all day and all night.

Duchesse - at GEs not taking students from poor areas! I can't see her going to a GE, I'd rather she went to a UK University, but still, that's awful!

Anna - I'd be very interested to compare notes when you've visited.

Sure, I will let you know.

DSS1 and DP (and possibly DP's exW, though we are not holding our breath) are going to the presentation at Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel (www.eabjm.com) on 3 February to check their lycée out for DSS1 as well. I have already been to the presentation and it is very impressive. The very good thing from our POV is that EABJM is in central Paris; the less good thing is that it does OIB option américaine and not britannique. EaB where DD is does option britannique but with crap results (unlike EABJM and Lycée International which are both super academic).

Your DD is in sixième, right? What do you think about waiting out collège and making a decision on lycée (state or private) in three years' time, based on the results in the OIB in both schools at that point?

Yes she is. I'm not so worried about lycee, as the state one here seems to get good results in their bilingual section, and it offers the option britannique whereas the private one is American.

It's more her college I'm concerned about. Two friends of mine have moved their sons (both in 4eme) to the private school recently as they weren't happy with the standard. It does seem a bit silly to move her into private only to put her in the state lycee afterwards, but if it means she does better in the international brevet she'd start lycee on a better footing...?

What year is DSS1 in?

DSS1 is in 4ème and DSS2 is in 6ème. They are both in state collège in Neuilly-sur-Seine and we are pleasantly surprised by how good it is - we were not really expecting it to be so.

Having said that, at the end of DSS1's first term in 6ème his report wasn't very good (right it the middle of the class) and we had a few wobbles about it. But it really was all about the support and encouragement we were giving DSS1 at home and not about the quality of the environment at the collège. Once we had sorted out the messages and encouragement we were giving DSS1, all was fine and he is right up at the top of his class (and is now in section européenne so quite selective).

DSS2 got off to a much better footing - we were forewarned and gave him lots of preparation, support and encouragement right from the outset.

Thinking back, it was exactly at this point two years ago that we started looking at the Catholic school options for DSS1 because we were worried about the collège. After quite a bit of research and soul-searching we abandoned that idea and, with hindsight, that was exactly the right thing to have done.

Maybe mine is a kneejerk reaction, particularly as she's doing fine so far. But as there are so few native English speakers in her year (and diminishing), some of her classes are pitched to the French speakers and she gets bored which can't be a good thing in a section that is supposed to lead to quite a demanding exam. We have the first parents' evening next week which is good as we have lots of questions!

Part of me is thinking how odd it would be to have DD1 at a "deprived" college and DD2 at a more privileged one in the ciy (which is possible as she wants to pursue her dancing in horaires amenagees). But I suppose we must choose the school that best suits the child and not her sibling. They would both go to the state lycee and take the OIB anyway, at least that's the plan.

It's so hard to get it right. From my DD's educational perspective, the Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye would be absolutely the right school for her from collège onwards (her current school is certainly the best bet for maternelle and almost certainly for primary). But do we want to go and live out in Saint-Germain? Should we push for the DSSs to go to EABJM or Saint-Germain for lycée in the "Seconde Accueil" format (ie for children who haven't previously been in bilingual education) or should we just leave them be in the French system but run the risk that they turn around when they are 25 seeing their younger sister with more international opportunities and tell us we didn't give them as many opportunities? Grrrrrr. I feel for you - we all have our own family context, our children have their own talents/skills, and there are only so many schools that any family can realistically choose between.

I do think, however, that there is something to be said for staying in the same school for collège and lycée when that is a possibility (my DSSs' collège is standalone, so not an issue for us) as I think the move to a school with new classmates at 15 when the bac is looming is potentially quite demanding.