I was excited to find your website, with lots of sensible information, and a great network of people. I know I’ll be pouring over the site more in the future. My husband, 11-yr old son, and I are researching spending a sabbatical year in the Dijon area. If we get the logistics worked out (Visas, University CIEF applications, etc.), we’d like to live there during the 2012-13 school year.
My son, who will be 12-13 years when we visit, goes to French immersion school here in Canada, but we’d like to find a good fit, school-wise. I have been looking at the websites of the various Colleges in Dijon, and it looks like the College Clos de Pouilly has a classe d’accueil, which seems to be for newcomers and international students. I haven’t yet found information about other schools or programs at the College level for international students.
Although his teacher assures me that my son’s level of French is good, we live in the English part of Canada, and my husband and I speak very little French. We realize that living and going to school completely in French will be a huge adjustment, let alone getting used to a larger, "middle school" type approach, and the French style of education. He currently attends a smaller school, e.g. class size of 22, with perhaps 200 students from Kindergarten to Grade 8.
I was wondering if anyone had any tips on finding a College that may have experience with students from other places? Is the classe d’accueil at the College Clos de Pouilly typical of other Colleges in Dijon, or is this the college where newcomers seem to be placed?
Thanks in advance for your tips,
Lisa
p.s. We visited Dijon in November 2011, and we loved the area, despite being constantly lost and on detours because of all the road works ☺. Our son ended up doing a lot of translation (DH & I are Anglo-Canadians with only basic French), and I think he’ll settle in OK, but this can be a difficult age, and we want to make it as easy as possible.
