Schooling dilemma
Apr 5, 2017 9:10:36 GMT 9
Post by Nellie on Apr 5, 2017 9:10:36 GMT 9
It is looking ever more likely that we will be moving back to France (from Chile) in a few months, and we need to make a decision fairly soon on what to do about schooling for my daughter, who will turn three just in time for the start of the school year. School starts at 3 in France, so this will be an important decision - yet I can't actually visit any of the schools to see them for mysefl! It will be full-time.
Our options are basically a public school, which would be 100% in the ML (which is currently one of our mls), a bilingual school (English/French) or a trilingual school (French/English/Spanish).
For the moment, my daughter is strongest in Spanish. She understands everything in the mls but doesn't speak much (a bit more in French than English).
The big advantage of the public school would be its cost (free) and the fact that it would be close to home. Having the rest of the class being ML would no doubt help her skills in French to develop quickly. However, I would have to organise special sessions/activities for her for English - and it would be hard for me to do something like that in Spanish, too, just given the number of hours in the day.
A bilingual school would be very very expensive. It would however allow me to relax a bit about the English side of things and know that she is having good exposure to English. If I can do so financially, I might be able to pay for her to do an activity every week in Spanish, to keep up that language. It may create some difficulty with integration in the local community, and also the schools are "hors contrat", which means that it may be difficult for her to reintegrate into a public school later.
A trilingual school sounds nice, however from what I understand the French teacher is there every day, and the English and Spanish ones on alternating days. I'm not sure this is enough exposure to really solidify language skills. In addition, it is a Montessori school, and while I love the Montessori philosophy, I have heard that it doesn't work so well in developing language skills in bilingual schools because the pedagogy involves children playing individually etc (would be interested in hearing your take on this!).
What are your thoughts? I should add that my main aim is for her to be very strong in French and English. Academically-speaking, given that the French system is less 'forgiving' than the English-speaking ones, it is really important that her French be perfect (with English not too far behind, I hope!). I don't expect or 'need' her to speak Spanish at native level, but given how good she is at it now it seems a shame to have her lose it totally (although it drives me crazy now, I suspect I will miss her constant Spanish chatter!).
Our options are basically a public school, which would be 100% in the ML (which is currently one of our mls), a bilingual school (English/French) or a trilingual school (French/English/Spanish).
For the moment, my daughter is strongest in Spanish. She understands everything in the mls but doesn't speak much (a bit more in French than English).
The big advantage of the public school would be its cost (free) and the fact that it would be close to home. Having the rest of the class being ML would no doubt help her skills in French to develop quickly. However, I would have to organise special sessions/activities for her for English - and it would be hard for me to do something like that in Spanish, too, just given the number of hours in the day.
A bilingual school would be very very expensive. It would however allow me to relax a bit about the English side of things and know that she is having good exposure to English. If I can do so financially, I might be able to pay for her to do an activity every week in Spanish, to keep up that language. It may create some difficulty with integration in the local community, and also the schools are "hors contrat", which means that it may be difficult for her to reintegrate into a public school later.
A trilingual school sounds nice, however from what I understand the French teacher is there every day, and the English and Spanish ones on alternating days. I'm not sure this is enough exposure to really solidify language skills. In addition, it is a Montessori school, and while I love the Montessori philosophy, I have heard that it doesn't work so well in developing language skills in bilingual schools because the pedagogy involves children playing individually etc (would be interested in hearing your take on this!).
What are your thoughts? I should add that my main aim is for her to be very strong in French and English. Academically-speaking, given that the French system is less 'forgiving' than the English-speaking ones, it is really important that her French be perfect (with English not too far behind, I hope!). I don't expect or 'need' her to speak Spanish at native level, but given how good she is at it now it seems a shame to have her lose it totally (although it drives me crazy now, I suspect I will miss her constant Spanish chatter!).