Bonjour! You might try to contact the school board before arriving. Won’t be super easy bc of the time difference & the fact that agencies & businesses in France don’t always reply to emails with the speed & efficiency we expect in the U.S., sometimes not replying after 4 or 5 consecutive emails have been sent, sometimes never! Sometimes you don’t know you’re repeatedly emailing a dead email address! But try. And pour on some extra persistence. Phone calls too if possible. Because they’ll be able to assess your child’s French level (or understand that it is 0) and set up FLE instruction, hopefully right from day one, to ease that transition. (An additional strategy: hire a bilingual nanny who speaks ONLY French with them.) I didn’t know how FLE works here & assumed the teachers & admin would take the lead in testing my English-only son & getting him extra help. They did not. I had to call more than one meeting until it was set up, thus he missed about 2 months of super valuable instruction time at the start of the school year. They may advise for your youngest to go straight into the immersion environment bc kids at 3 or 4 are at a point of brain development that allows them to absorb language skills at a rate we can only envy as adults. All this addresses building their French skills, but not your concerns about English-speaking teachers & peers. But remember that they have you & your family to continue developing their English skills; that’s not going to disappear, ever. For socializing with their new peers & success at school they’re going to need French! Bon chance!

 

PS Just bc all the teachers at the private school speak English does not mean they’re going to use it in the classroom. We went that route too and only 20 to 50% of the instruction language was English n any given day. And the private school was not required to provide separate FLE support, so it turned into a nightmare actually.

 

your children will probably join the maternelle (pre-school) except the oldest will be in the first year of primary school.
Normally kids at that age will need a couple of months before they end up ok... (of course each case can be different, but you can tell whether your kids are dynamic and fast learners, social and love to play with others ... if this is the case then it will be just few weeks to adapt)
The question for me is, do you plan to return anytime soon (say in the next 4-5 years?) if this is the case then you should seek something that will keep them ready for the UK educational system ... either fully private school that teaches the british curriculum or something with an english section... check this page:
Les sections internationales à l'école primaire | Ministère de l'Education Nationale et de la Jeunesse

If not and no solid plans to return, then just let them go to the french system ... however search for good schools as schools are affected by the quality of the neighborhood ... so you have to get some info about good schools then look for accommodation where you can go there.
good luck !

 

Oh sorry, I didn’t look carefully & thought you were coming from US.

 

Hello both,
Thank you very much for your replies.
Yesterday I phoned and spoke to two Maries and Schools in the villages we are looking to move to, just east of Toulouse / Balma.
They were very welcoming and when I told them my children speak only english, I did not sense any negativity - the responses were 'what an adventure for them'.
My wife and I have planned to go to France next week to visit both the two schools, and I'm trying to arrange for us to view the two properties in each village.
Mohsel, we are going with an open mind on if we will return to the UK. We are renting our house out rather than selling for now. I really think we will love it out there and I would have no job to return to. We have agreed to make a longer term decision after we have been there for 12 months. At that point we will look to buy a place there I think.
Agatha'sHuman, thank you for your advice. I have persisted with phone calls in the last 48 hours and have made significant ground in our visiting the school. I do however need to try say more than 'Bonjour, tu parle anglais?' when I make a phone call!
Lets see how next week goes. Thanks again.

 

this is a good plan and I wish you luck.. I was in your shoes almost 9 years ago, but it was a bit more stressful as the kids were 10, 8 and 3 .. you can imagine for the youngest it was easy.. but for the other 2 it didn't pass without some frictions but it was not as painful as I expected.

 

'Bonjour, tu parle anglais?' when I make a phone call!

Oh gosh .. using 'tu' with M le Maire when you don't know him is rude and insulting.
You were lucky that he talked to you at all and didn't slam the phone down. He must have a good sense of humour

 

So we returned last night from our 24 hour trip to the area. We had 5 appointments - 3 schools and 2 houses.
we were very welcomed by the schools and they really made an effort with my basic French.
It has certainly put our minds at rest. One of the public schools in particular just felt right.
We have started the process to rent a house in the village with the school that felt.
Thanks again for your advice. Bring on August!

 

Hi MJJ, Could you please share the name of the school/ village. We are planning the same move for Aug 2025 with our 3 children. Thank you, Irina

 

A bit late in this discussion, but yes, good plan, and great that you've already had a positive feeling from your visit. Going back a couple of decades, we moved back to France from the UK with kids of 3 and 6 who had been respectively in kindergarten and state primary school for a year in UK. Big difference was that they were used to hearing both French and English at home. Even so, the 3 yr old was pretty silent for about 3 months in maternelle sch in France, almost to the point of parental and teacher concern ... but then suddenly he came out with spoken French normal for a 3 yr old. He had just been absorbing it all until he felt comfortable. So be prepared. But it is an adventure for them and the parents (you may well want to stay) and it's ideal at their age as a grounding for becoming bilingual. Bon courage !