Education Schools Profile
Paula Reed’s daughter thrived in the French education system, but her two sons found it hard to get ahead
No French Connection
them into the French education system was an experiment as neither my husband, nor I, is French. When my husband was a child, he spent three years in Switzerland when his family moved there for his father’s job; and I did French at university. Tat’s the extent of our French connection. But there were some important reasons behind our choice. My husband saw how easy it was for his siblings to
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absorb a second language. He decided to speak French to our daughter, from the word go, and she picked it up easily. We had no real connection to the education system here as neither of us is English (I’m Irish and my husband is American) so we felt open to choose from whatever was available. We also felt that the Baccalauréat seemed to fit a child better for a changing world than a system that led to specialising at 16.
‘I cried when the teachers at Bedales congratulated our son on his academic performance for the year, it seemed to me that he was on the right track’ We were both educated by the State and felt strongly
that schools should reflect the community the children were living in. Te choice of state schools in our area was limited and the private schools seemed to us to be little ghettoes of the privileged few. Te Lycée Français Charles De Gaulle is a state
school, albeit a French state school, but the playground is a mixture of all income groups and at least seven nationalities – all linked by the French language – from Europe, America, Africa and Asia. I have to come clean and admit that the subsidised fees of £800 a term were also a huge attraction. Te French education system is standardised
throughout the world. At any one time, in any school, a teacher will be on the same page of the same text book. Tis enabled us to move as a family to New York for a year when my husband’s job required it. So far, so perfect. But of course the smugness that I felt when I had managed to get all three children into the school started to crumble as soon as we got back from the US. Our
26 FirstEleven Autumn 2011
ver the last 12 years, my three children have been enrolled at the French Lycée in London and in New York. At the time, I admit that putting
daughter was thriving in the system but her younger brothers at age 9 and 7 were faring less well. Tings didn’t get easier and while individual teachers were helpful, the system seemed to be hardening against them. Support was minimal for those who failed to deliver. Te Lycée is vast: a community of 3,000 children.
In a group that size, it’s easy to lose your way. I also struggled with parent teacher meetings – which were in French. If your foreign language skills are below par, it’s one thing missing the nuance of a dinner party conversation, it’s an entirely more intimidating prospect missing the nuance of a teacher’s feedback when your child is struggling at school. Whenever the boys failed to make the grade, we
were dismissed to the psychologue. But when our 11 year-old failed to graduate to the senior school and faced the dreaded, redoublement, a miserable experience where a child’s peers move across the courtyard to the senior school and he/she must repeat a year with the juniors – we decided to call it a day. When my son left the Lycée, he was demoralised. He
sat hunched with his hoodie pulled up over his head and didn’t make eye contact with anyone easily. He is not a model pupil, often lost in his own thoughts, but he’s highly enthusiastic about the subjects he loves (maths and physics) and, according to the school, apparently uninterested in anything else. We moved our sons to Te Academy in Hampstead,
a school of 70 pupils, where it is believed every child has something to offer. Most importantly, individual attention is given to every child. Both boys flourished: one will take GCSEs next year at Bedales and our youngest is about to go to Millfield. I cried when the teachers at Bedales congratulated our son on his academic performance for the year. It seemed to me he was on the right track in the right place and was thriving. Our daughter has just graduated from the Lycée and is off to Edinburgh to study architecture. In contrast to our sons, she was brilliantly suited to the school and it never let her down. She is a bright self starter who is organised and hard working. Her friends are among the best adjusted teenagers I know. Tere’s no doubt that the
The Lycée’s campus in South
Kensington, London
Lycée is a fantastic school for the right pupil. However, it’s no place to struggle, to fit in or to try to keep up. And do not expect an easy ride, as a parent, if you are not completely on top of your French.
Paula Reed is the style director of Grazia.
www.firstelevenmagazine.co.uk
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