School recommendation Toulouse

Greetings Regina, I am in a very similar situation and have viewed multiple sources for info on schools. Please let me know if you find out any helpful info.
Ingrid

Dear Ingrid,
Thanks for your reply. We have now sold our house in Sweden and waiting for the paperwork and notaries (taking ages in France) to complet the purchase of our house in Toulouse. I am looking for French school for me (adult). Intense level, so that we both can get into it as quick as we can. I have some French but not fluent. And introduction French for my 12 year old. Starting this summer or automne. My small kids will pick the language up so quickly anyway. Any advice?
Regards,
Regina

Hello Regina,

Your hassles are legitimate. But do not stress yourself, you will be surprised by the speed of adaptation of your children. In a maximum of three months, they will manage virtually without problems.

I have two children (12 years and 2 years). They speak French, Portuguese and English ...

The only real advice to give is to "dive" them as soon as possible into the new language. Do not go there in small steps, it would be the worst thing to do.

And let your children know that even if their points drop at the beginning in school, you will not be angry ...

I was wondering which neighbourhoods are family friendly. My husband is going to find somewhere to rent or buy in a few weeks and I was hoping to narrow it down befor he leaves.
Ingrid

For language acquisition you may wish to see if an older student from the are or school would be willing to work with him. We have a student come over to Canada on an exchange and the kids loved him! (Especially my son, since most of his teacher have been female.) did you find a school as yet? Are you in the city or surrounding suburbs?
Regardless of his learning style, conversation will lead to a quick acquisition and inspires confidence. You should have a period of time where you only communicate in French. We do that at dinner and my kids make fun of my accent-there is a lot of eye rolling, but it helps.

Best of luck in this exciting journey, please keep me informed on your progress.

Hi, we drove around everywhere the first week, looked at real estate magazines and agencies. Then we found an area right outside Toulouse. Balma. I don't know yet from personal experience. But from what we have noticed and learned is that it's calm, residential, perfect for kids, close to everything and walking distance for the kids to schools. And only 10 mins metro to city centre. The schools go right up to college and lycee is in the next door neighborhood. As we have a house where we live now we decided to continue with a house, d be best for the kids and also we got two dogs. So we decided for an area and when to visit the local agencies. We visited many houses and decided for the first one we viewed with (Balma immobilier) which was not totally what we wanted but great nevertheless, it's big and loads of potential (we have been renovating a lot and we're hoping for somethings finished. But nothing was in our style). The house we decided for.. well the location was perfect! So now we are in the middle of the buying process, notaries etc. In July vacation time begins and the moving will begin. Let's keep in touch and pep each other. When are you looking to relocate? For enrolling the kids in schools, for September start, you need a local address before the end of June. Apparently there is a super good French school for expats ( foreigner adults) in town, recommendation from our real estate woman. When I find out the name I will pass it on to you. Good luck with everything.

Hi Regina...we will be in a similar situation come March next year. Difference is that our son speaks fluent French but his native language is English. We therefore are looking at options of a bilingual school as well as a normal public French school and out of school English activities. How have your children adapted so far ? Which school setting have you decided on in the end, if you don't mind me asking ?
We are due to visit Toulouse in 2 weeks and ideally would like to be able and pick a location. We are drawn towards the East, where my husband used to live for 10 years (he's French)
Any other tips and advice you can share would be greatly appreciated.