Non french speaker starting secondary school.

Hello Yom2023,

Welcome to Expat.com

Since you commented on an old thread, I have moved your post to start a new thread on the France forum.

Where exactly are you located in France?

Is it a public/private school? Or a fully French-speaking school?

Hopefully, someone on the forum can give you some advice on this.

Cheers,

Cheryl

Expat.com team

Hey there, I'll jump in second. What is the age of the child? Secondary school or “college” as it is known starts at age 11.

I will not go into detail about what the child is expected to have studied by this age as much of that info can be found on line for curriculums.

What will be important in my opinion and experience are:

Private or public? A well accredited private school will be more attentive and accommodating to a non native speaker. Depending on which part of France you are moving to, the public schools will vary. Some will be excellent and others not so much. Bottom line though is it will be difficult if they cannot speak the language because they will not understand anything.

Depending on the child, integration culturally and to make friends can be really difficult. All the common school yard traits exist, bullying, teasing and harsh language. I have shared horror stories with parents about this. If the child is confident, likable and resilient then they will overcome all of that. If not it can be traumatic for the child and parents as well.

I would say the thing to realize is that the child will be entering an environment where nothing makes sense. That would be hard for anyone.

My advice is if there is an International school that would be my first option. 2nd would be a school that offers English as part of their curriculum. Not all of them do. 3rd would be to hire a tutor to help with language and homework.

Last I would just say to be prepared to pay extra attention to the child. It's a beautiful country with great people but it will be take time to adjust.

Hello
Please any advice in schools for non french speaker starting secondary school, coming from the UK
Thank you
-@Yom2023

Hi,

I would also suggest an international school, provided that there is one nearby.   A "collège" child not knowing the local language would be completely lost, frustrated and unhappy.

I have a lot of examples of little kids moving abroad, without knowledge of local language and attending local schools but they were at "maternelle" level. Kids I am referring to did not know any word of the local language in September and by June could feel comfortable and were operational.

For older kids, it's another story!

it depends on the level in high school

perhais eventually negotiate doing cm2 in a school woth special teachers part of the school day to allow child to lear french basics before going to high school?

yes a bilingual school bit done are quite expensive

@Yom2023

My 2 granddaughters ages 13 and 15 moved to France some years ago with no French whatsoever!

They started at a French School and after 2 weeks decided that they wanted to stay with their new French school friends at the weekend instead of coming home to their mother and grandparents!

They both had French boyfriends before long and were very unhappy when their mother decided to return to UK after a year because SHE could not settle!

Don't worry about your children going to live in France, they will love it!

Barry Crofford