Section Française Bilingue

The Section Française Bilingue is a French curriculum taught in a British boarding school. Pupils follow the CNED programme in French, Mathematics, EMC and History-Geography, sit Cambridge English exams, and board and play alongside British pupils. It has run at Northbourne Park since 1991.

The Section Française Bilingue in brief

1991

Founded

95%

CNED pass rate

CM2 – 4ème

Entry points

Northbourne Park has offered a French curriculum inside a British boarding school since 1991. Pupils follow the CNED programme in French, Mathematics and History-Geography, and take Sport, Outdoor Education and other subjects alongside their British and international peers.

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A French education, in England

The Section Française Bilingue allows French-speaking pupils to continue a French education while living and boarding in England.

Pupils follow the official Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance (CNED) programme in French, Mathematics, History-Geography and EMC, taught by French teachers, with assessments every three weeks. Alongside this, they access the broader timetable a British prep school offers, including Sport, Outdoor Education and other subjects, taught in English alongside their British and international peers.

Pupils are entered for the CM2/6ème, 5ème and 4ème CNED examinations, and courses are accredited by the Lycée Français de Londres. On average, 95% of Section Française Bilingue pupils pass to the next stage of their education each year.

Parents receive half-termly and end-of-term written reports from teachers on their child's progress. Section Française Bilingue teachers are also available by telephone and email throughout the term, so parents can discuss how their child is settling in and progressing at any point.

The Section was founded in the imagination of a young Marie-Sygne Claudel, later Lady Northbourne. In the 1940s, the writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote her a bedtime story while staying with family friends in New York. He called it Le Petit Prince. Lady Northbourne later founded the Section Française Bilingue to give French-speaking children the same opportunity she had valued: a British boarding education, without leaving the French curriculum behind.

When pupils join

Pupils enter the Section Française Bilingue at CM2/6ème, 5ème or 4ème. Places are available for a minimum of one month in the summer, for a term (trimestre), or for a full academic year, which the school recommends for pupils to gain the full benefit of the programme.

Northbourne Park is recommended by French schools including Assomption Lübeck in Paris, reflecting the programme's compatibility with the French system. Pupils return to their French school or lycée at the end of their course, whatever its length, to continue their studies.

Course lengths

Learning English alongside CNED

Many families choose Northbourne Park because they want their child to experience life in a British boarding prep school while continuing their French studies. Inside the classroom, the split between French and English teaching is roughly even. CNED subjects, French, Mathematics, History-Geography and EMC, are taught in French. Science is taught as an additional language, combining French and English. Computing and Physical Education are taught in English. Pupils join their British peers for Music, Art, Games, Outdoor Education, PSHE and Design, also taught in English.

Every pupil's English proficiency is assessed on arrival, so that each child is placed at the right level and receives the right support from the start. Pupils take three timetabled hours of English lessons each week and additional support can be put in place if required.

Northbourne Park is an official Cambridge English examination centre. Pupils joining in September for the academic year, or at the start of the Summer Term, sit the Cambridge English examinations (KET, PET and FCE) as part of their course, achieving a 100% pass rate year on year. Pupils joining for one month in June do not sit the examination during that stay.

Outside the classroom, English is the language of school life.

Language Lunches

A weekly lunch where international pupils are paired with English-speaking classmates in a relaxed setting.

Boarding in English

The language of the boarding house, outside of the dormitories, is English, and all activities are conducted in English. Staff are consistent and insistent about English being spoken in the right contexts.

Friendships with local families

The Boarding Pass system allows boarders to invite English-speaking day pupils to stay overnight in the boarding houses. Many of these friendships extend to weekends and holidays with local families, giving pupils further opportunities for immersion.

For a child who arrives with little English, this immersion produces rapid progress, while their French curriculum studies are kept up to date.

Full, weekly and flexi-boarding

Section Française Bilingue pupils can board full-time, weekly, or on a flexi-boarding basis, in the same way as the rest of the school. There are no compulsory exeats for full boarders. Organised, supervised transport runs to London St Pancras Station and London Gatwick Airport, with the option to organise private transfers to suit a family's individual needs.

Weekly boarding suits families based in London particularly well: a child boards during the week, and travels home for the weekend using the school's supervised transport. In return, families gain what a Central London school cannot easily offer: daily sport, an outdoor education programme that runs every week of the year, small class sizes, and staff who know each child individually, alongside the CNED continuity their child needs.

Find out more about full, weekly and flexi-boarding options at Northbourne Park.

Boarding & flexi-boarding

When your child already speaks English

Some Section Française Bilingue pupils are already nearly proficient English speakers; however, they need to continue the CNED curriculum, whether to return to a French school, sit French entrance examinations, or keep options open in both systems.

Bilingual pupils can continue their French studies, while still enjoying the benefits of being part of a British boarding school, with the option to swap the week's English lessons for other subjects in the English curriculum.

A small number of high-ability pupils at 5ème level, already working towards Cambridge FCE, study in both systems simultaneously through the school's Advanced Programme.

Advanced Programme

Where the CNED curriculum is not the priority for a family, the school's English system boarding pathway is the better fit, and pupils join British curriculum classes from Year 3 (age 8) alongside English-speaking classmates.

English system boarding

Make an enquiry

To find out whether the Section Française Bilingue or the English system pathway is the right fit for your child, talk it through with our admissions team.

+44 (0)1304 611215
admissions@northbournepark.com

Make an enquiry

Book a visit

The best way to understand the Section Française Bilingue is to visit. We can also arrange a video call with the Head Teacher for families who cannot visit in person.

Book a visit