About the March 3 Conference on Bilingual Education in Aix Marseille

The conference I posted about here, held in Marseille on March 3, 2010, under the auspices of MAABN and the British Consulate, was a great success.

There were a good 100 of us attending, with an interest in bilingual education in the region: either parents and/or officials from various institutions and companies like the American Consulate, CMA-CGM company, and ITER, the large international research project near Manosque.

The discussion went on for two hours, with each panel member introducing him or herself and his/her activity.

Some of the things I learned:

- There is a high demand, especially on the part of the British in Marseille, for an education offering classes in English for children of these native English speakers who attend French-only schools today.

Why? Because when British or Franco-British or even Korean families relocate to the area, they may not be here to stay indefinitely. Their children need to be able to return to their school systems and therefore receive proper teaching in English. These children are otherwise fluent speakers of English but they are not able to read or write it.

There is no public instituion in Marseille offering a high level of English teaching. The only private option in the primary is EPIM. There are more publicly funded options in Aix but they remain very limited, as mentioned on a previous post here on bilingual schools in the area. Companies wishing to bring in foreign staff, often in their thirties, have trouble persuading some to relocate because of this gap in the educational offering.

- The “Recteur de l’Académie de Marseille”, a very good English speaker himself, explained to us the intricacies of the international options in the French education system today:

Unfortunately, the OIB and European Option of the Baccalauréat are not well known by universities abroad. They remain a French approach to internationalization.

My humble opinion that the issue is not so much how do we offer international sections in public schools in France but how do we open up the French educational system to languages in general, English in particular, given its dominance today?

There is such a demand on the part of purely French parents themselves for their children to acquire the English proficiency they lack that adding more professionally run English teachings from Maternelle onwards until Lycee is an obvious way to help both French nationals and foreign nationals relocating here temporarily.

When native English speakers with strong teaching skills are present in all French schools at all levels, then they ‘ll be able to involve the native English-speaking students in their classrooms to a higher degree, given their natural abilities, and thereby pull all the other students, the native French speakers, up in terms of language proficiency.

The International Parents network in France is there to connect all interested parties in this matter: teachers, school officials, company managers, associations and parents, and help raise awareness of this issue among French officials and politicians. Contact us through the comments feature below to join and be counted!

Conference on Bilingual Education in the Aix- Marseille (Provence) region

Reprinted:

Bilingual Education in Marseille-Provence
(Education Conference Series, Part I Elementary, Middle High School Education)
Conference/debate Wednesday 3 March 2010
(Places limited, RSVP mandatory)

The Anglo-American Community, strongly anchored in Marseille-Provence, represents an extensive network of active professionals and companies, which includes managers, engineers, teachers and creators of all sorts, with businesses in many different areas of activity. It consists of both permanent and temporary residents, often with families and distinct educational needs. American and British companies are the most significant foreign investors in the region, supporting and creating much employment.

The Anglo-American Community shares with the regional economic development agencies and the international companies located here, a concern about the international educational facilities available in the area at both the primary and secondary levels (grade, middle and high schools– higher education will be the subject of another conference later this year).

MAABN is raising the debate around a number of important questions:
Are the public and private international education facilities that exist equitably and efficiently distributed throughout the territory and, do they satisfy the requirements of Anglo-American families and the businesses they work for?
Are non-French-speaking children catered for?
What are the reactions of foreign companies seeking to invest here?
Where does international education lead?
(other questions could be added or substituted………….)

MAABN is delighted to welcome:
Jean Paul de Gaudemar, Rector of the Aix-Marseille Académie
Gail Ellis, Head of the language teaching centre at the British Council Paris
Robert Maury, Managing Director of Provence Promotion
Adelia Hackenheimer, Director of the International Section of High School Georges Duby in Luynes,
Julia Fady, with the International Section of the Middle School Mignet in Aix-en-Provence.
Laurence Mouquet, Assistant Director of the Middle School Jacques Monod in Pennes Mirabeau which has an International Section (Present also, Director Mr Beltran and English Teacher Mrs Bretelle)
Mrs. Sophie Bellot, Director of Epim
Mr Trevor Alan Tricker, Head of International Studies at IBS, Luynes

The round table discussion will feature Simon Taylor, British Consul, Kathleen Riley, US Consul General and other guests in the audience.

Practical information:

Conference……….In English, with Q&A in English or French
Date & time……….3 March 2010 from18:30 to 21:00 (Punctuality appreciated)

Venue…………….La Bo[a]te, 35 rue de la Paix Marcel Paul, 13001 Marseille (parking, Cours Estienne d’Orves)

Entrance fees…..Members & Sponsors: 5 euros / Non-Members: 10 euros (payment at the door, cash or pre-prepared check to MAABN)

RSVP mandatory..

Interest for this event is high, Reserve Early, places and seating will be limited : contact@maabn.fr, standing room only for late comers

About MAABN: Mediterranean Anglo-American Business Network

MAABN (Mediterranean Anglo-American Business Network) was founded in Marseille by company directors, consultants and economic development agencies and has developed an international platform promoting corporate exchanges and business networking in the Marseille-Provence region.

MAABN has the support of both the US and British Consulates in Marseille and is the Marseille-Provence region’s representative of the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce and Industry and AmCham (American Chamber of Commerce in France). MAABN organises a monthly English speaking business networking event, the “Language Apero”, as well as numerous conferences throughout the year.

MAABN also supports and promotes a number of its Sponsors’ and Partners’ corporate and cultural events across the region.

— > For more information: www.maabn.fr / contact@maabn.fr

Urgent: Help your kids set their privacy settings on FaceBook

If you have teenagers ( or yikes, even younger kids!) who use FaceBook, you must know faceBook has recently changed the default values for privacy of all the information we as users post on its site. And its gone for the worst rather than for the best. In fact most default options for our text and pictures is ” visible by friends of friends”, ie, by people you don’t KNOW.

Check out this great post by Common Sense media to help you and your children decide who sees what, not FaceBook!

International Parents Coffee Mornings in Aix and Paris

The International parents Club is organizing Coffee mornings on themes you have an interest in, as internationally minded parents.  Right now ( as of January 2010) they’re happenning in Aix en provence and Paris.  As soon as we can , we’ll organize some everywhere else, whether it be  New York, Moscow, Shangai or Dubai.

Upcoming dates:

• Aix en provence:
  >Jan 22, 2010
  > March 5, 2010

• Paris :
  > Jan 26th, 2010
  > Week of february 15th, day to be confirmed

You can contact Caroline via the Aix Marseille region of the networking space or post a comment on this blog to ask to sign up and attend.

CIPEC: an ambitious bilingual school in Aix en Provence

To follow up on my analysis of international schools in the Aix Marseille region, I ‘d like to give kudos to the oldest one: CIPEC ( Centre International pour l’Education et la Culture) .

As of 2009, 25 years after its founding, it is still run by the same couple, Mr and Mme Pecnard, both French teachers by training, and teachers at CIPEC itself for the last two primary school years ( CM1 and CM2 in the French system, Grades 4 and 5 in the North American systems). They bring a strong commitment to quality education, both in French and in English and a cozy yet structured environment for the children.

Do not look for the Montessori approach here. While the children are truly evaluated and taken into account as individuals, they are to follow the teachings of their teachers and abide by group rules.

The outside play area gives the children a wonderful playground, especially for the older ones, where they can roam the foresty grounds behind the school. The younger ones have a smaller, enclosed play area, providing for a safe environment where they are not mixed in with older, potentially roudy children.

The school offers a true bilingual curriculum and manages the various English and French levels of its students by creating two to three language levels per grade. The advanced English speakers for a given grade will be in one level, the intermediate levels in another, and the beginners, finally in a third English section. French students who enter CIPEC in pre-Kindergarden become completely fluent in English within a few years.

Conversely, English speakers get a demanding teaching in French. My first impression is the school is stronger in the English language skills, despite the efforts by Mr and Mme Pecnard to instill the best teaching practices the French school system has to offer for the last two years.

The children get a well rounded education, with academic teachings in Math, History, Geography, Science and French and English Languages, along with Theater, Music, Arts and Sports two whole afternoons a week. This is exceptional compared to a French school, where non academic teachings, and sports in particular, get at most a couple hours a week, and are considered minor disciplines.

Tuition is that of an independent private school in France, at about 7 500 Euros a year ( with a discount for sibblings), and includes hot meals served daily from a local organic kitchen.

Children can add optional sports activities like horseback riding and additional languages as well. I know my kids love to go to school there. I can see the work they do and am generally impressed by both its quantity and quality.

On a practical level, the school has a bus service for children between Aix en Provence and Luynes, 5 minutes south of Aix where the school in located. The additional fee (in 2009) for this is 800 euros year. Otherwise, parking is a little complicated, but this is France after all! One must be ready, when relocating here, for the little daily life disconforts that come from the land of Haute Couture and Haute Cuisine … As a dedicated Canadian mom says, quite wisely: ” Ask not what the parking can do for you, but what YOU can do for the parking!”.

The parents at CIPEC form a close knit community, and as much as possible is done on their initiative to welcome new families to the school and the region, where settling can be nerve wracking… See my other posts on this blog.

Beautiful and spectacular Xmas Celebration and Choir Concert in Aix

Today, Sunday December 6th, 2009,
the International Christian Congregation of Provence organized a wonderful Christmas Celebration with its own choir in Aix’s own impressive Saint Sauveur Cathedral.

Between 3:30 and 5 :15 PM the fully packed cathedral audience enjoyed English Christmas carrols, whether British, French ( like the Gloria) or American. The songs were intermixed with short readings by parishioners from the Bible in English.

The audience, where many were French speakers, was asked to participate on several occasions. When singing ” The twelve days of Christmas”, they were invited to stand up when their birthday fell on the first month and the song was on ” The first day of Christmas”, and so on for the twelve months and twelve days. It was fun seeing people pop up and down among the churchgoers!

At the end the cathedral went dark and a beautiful general candle lighting happened, where attendees were all given a candle, which was lit by neighbouring attendees, after the “co leaders” (ministers) started ‘ spreading the light’, which was the message behind the action.

For more information on future events by the ICCP, see their web site here:
International Christian ( Protestants) Congregation of Provence -

Le Monde announces launch of UWC Lycee in les Milles, Aix en provence

Le Monde of this July 22, 2009 announces a project to create an international ( English or Spanish track) Lycée ( or High School) in Les Milles, just West of Aix en provence, where a micro Silicon Valley has developped.

Its to be developped by an international organization (part non profit, part company) , UWC ( United World Colleges), founded in the 1950’s by a German educationalist, Kurt Hahn, and which has gained the support of royals and UN top brass like Lord Mountbatten, Queen Noor of Jordan, and Nelson Mandela over the years.

About UWC:

UWC has 12 Colleges located on five continents, 11 schools are pre-university and teach the IB Diploma and one is a tertiary agriculture school. It claims it selects students based on merit versus the parents’ ability to pay for tuition.

UWC seeks additional funding for the secondary intitution to open, however. It accepts donations and seeks out volunteers to staff its National Committees.

UWC National Committees

UWC depends on the dedication and expertise of a network of volunteers to find and select the majority of our future students.
These volunteer groups are called National Committees and they operate in over 120 countries worldwide.

UWC National Committees promote UWC to prospective students in their country, encourage and support applications and select students based on merit to represent their country at the Colleges.

– > UWC site

– > UWC France

In France, UWC organizes summer camps for youth in Megève, in the French Alps. There the fee is 1800 euros for 2 weeks.

English language Summer Camps near Aix and Marseille

There are a few English language camps available for kids and youth in the Aix en provence area during the summer.

* ICCP Kids Camp and Youth Camp :
The international christian (protestant) community of Provence organizes an amazing kids camp in July, for kids 7 to 11. This year it was the week July 7 to 11, 2009. It is set at the wonderful home of one of the parishioners in St Marc Jaumegarde, staffed with councelors, a majority from the US , and junior councelors ( from age 11) who are often alumni of the Camp.

Activities run from Arts and Crafts to sports to participating in singing and music, always with a cooperative, respectuful mindset, rather than a competitive one. This year’s theme was ‘ The Aixplorers’, in a play on the Adventurers of the Lost Ark movie.

The Youth Camp, for age 12 to 17, takes place near Grenoble, in August.

* Private International Schools Summer Camps:

CIPEC, EPIM, and IBS, all in Luynes (as well as in Marseille for EPIM) organize summer camps with lots of fun activities for children and teenagers.

– > CIPEC: Domaine de Fontvieille – Luynes 13080 AIX EN PROVENCE – FRANCE Tél: +33 (0)4 42 60 84 25 – Fax: + 33 (0)4 42 60 84 26 Email: info@c-i-p-e-c.com

– > EPIM: International Private School of Provence
Marseille school phone : 04 91 530 000 – Aix-en-Provence school phone : 04 42 600 300

– > IBS: Summer camp info page: http://www.ibsofprovence.com/spip.php?article16
Domaine des Pins – 500 Petite Route de Bouc-Bel-Air
Aix-en-Provence 13080 LUYNES – France
Tél : (33)(0)4 42 24 03 40 Fax : (33)(0)4 42 24 09 81

Online networking tool launched, in Beta version

While this blog contains my ramblings on about living in the Aix Marseille region with children, our newly launched online networking tool, in French and in Beta ( i.e ‘test) mode at this point, is designed to help you all get in touch and exchange the joys, fears and experiences of internationally minded parents! This site is visible here, but one needs to be a member ( and logged in) to access anything significant. This is by invitation only.
If necessary, use the Comments feature here to ask for your sign up link!

UK National Cyclist Organization offers Tour maps of Provence

I discovered the CTC, the UK National Cyclist Organization’s web site recently and am impressed!
The site is chock full of information and includes cycling routes (complete with Google maps) for the UK, but also for quite a few countries and regions, including France and Provence.

One must be a member to access the detailed cycling tour information, logically. The normal membership is 36 pounds a year. The ‘ unwaged ‘, or, as we say in the US, the unemployed fee is 22 pounds a year.
I also like to ability for cyclists to post comments for any given tour.

— > CTC web site

– > CTC designated cycling tours by country