any French Canadians? French schools?

laann · Post by **laann** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 4:40 pm

Hi, We will be moving to Helsinki at the end of the summer and I'm just trying to investigate French schools for our 2 kids. They are currently enrolled in French immersion here in Canada and we want them to continue their education in French.

I've found a school online called the L'école française Jules Verne. Their website leads me to believe that the school is for French children only. My son is only going into grade 1, so his French is still at the beginner level. My worry is that they won't accept him because of this. I also have the impression that schools completely shut down in July, so I've been unable to contact them!

If we are unable to get them into French school, we will most likely turn down the assignment. I don't want them to get behind here in Canada.

As for the opportunity to put them into a Finnish school, I think it's a great idea!! BUT, the kids already speak 2 languages and French is the 3rd!! So while I think learning Finnish would be great, it's not really practical for us at this point. We will only be in Finland for 1 year.

I would love to find out if anyone has experience with L'ecole francaise Jules Verne and if there are any French Canadians reading this, where do you send your kids?? Are there any French groups for kids?? also, are there lots of activities for kids? (in English or French or even in Finnish if they are open to non-Finnish speaking kids) art classes? gymnastics?? drama?? that kind of thing.

thanks!!

**Sponsor:**

NanaM · Post by **NanaM** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 4:56 pm

Salut,

From the registration template on Ecole Jules Verne's website it reads :

Les enfants français sont acceptés en priorité. Les enfants d’autres nationalités sont acceptés dans la limite des places disponibles.

French kids are accepted in priority, kids from other nationalities depending on availability.

So the door is not closed to non-french kids, but it all depends on the number of applicants. July is quite calm in Finland, many people are on holidays - perhaps you can reach them in beginning of August.

Good luck.

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 5:27 pm

http://kala.edu.hel.fi/

Amandine.K · Post by **Amandine.K** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 8:06 pm

Hi,

I can tell you about Jules Verne as my daughters are going there.

It is not reserved for French speakers. We had last year kids from Spain for example. So kids are Finnish-speakers with no French at all when they start.

How old is your child? What grade would he go to?

The other option is the Lycée Franco-Finlandais but they already had the entrance tests, plus you have to speak Finnish and French to go there...

Right now the school is closed til mid-August. But if you're interested, send me a pm. I have been in the management team this year so I know how it works

We had a few families from Canada. They moved back to Canada though (and no problem to get back to the level they should be). As for activities in French, the school has a range of afternoon clubs (circus, danse, science to name a few).

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 9:24 pm

I taught (very briefly) at l*ecole Jules Verne and I can confirm that they definitely take non-French children. When I was there I had Russian children in my class and several Finnish children as well as the Francophone kids (French, Belgians etc). Since your children are quite young I really don't think there will be a problem getting them enrolled.

The school is definitely aimed at teaching younger children; in the upper grades it only offers "Cned" (distance learning courses) as it does not have the teachers available for teaching subjects at an advanced level. However this should not be a problem for you!

The school is in a nice location (Lehtisaari) and the facilities are OK (maybe not as good as in a Finnish school).

The other option is the European School which opened in Helsinki only last year. During the first year enrolments were reserved for the personnel working in ECHA (the European Chemical Agency) but I believe they were intending to extend enrolments to non-ECHA families. So that might be worth investigating too. The European School has French as one of its teaching languages. But I don't have much more info, sorry.

Amandine.K · Post by **Amandine.K** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 11:15 pm

European school will only open to the general public in 2010

The CNED (distance learning) is for secondary school and high school levels so from 6ème (age 10 to 11?).

Lisa 15 · Post by **Lisa 15** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 11:11 am

The euopean scholl will effectively open to general public only next year (2010) and the fee will be quite high for people that are not from ECHA. In Jules Vernes, it is the French system and program that is taught as the dea at first was to have a school for the French people living in Finland for while without having their kids loosing grap to their education. But it does accept kids that are not French and usually there are enough places. The teacher for primary classes are French teachers coming from France, now for other activities, it can be young people teacing, not necesseraly teachers with degrees. The French Finnish school is not easy to get in as it is very popular and quoted as one of the best school in town, therefore you need to pass some tests. I'm not sure that Finnish is required for the kindergarten there, check their web page.
Now if you're kids are smaller, you cvan find some French/finnish kindergarten like "les galopins" for exemple. It takes kids from 2 till 6 years old. It is based on the Finnish system, but the people working there do it in French.
Good luck!

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