Sophie and Mark arrived in Bordeaux on the 3rd of November. Their daughter Ella, eight years old, had been in school in Singapore since she was four. She spoke English and a little Mandarin. Zero French. Their son Tom, eleven, was mid-way through his British curriculum, doing brilliantly.

The first question Sophie asked us wasn’t about the flat. It was about school. Specifically: “Can we even enrol them in November? Is there a waiting list? What happens if they don’t speak a word of French?”

These are exactly the right questions. And the honest answers are more reassuring than most expat forums suggest — but only if you know how the system actually works.

The good news: mid-year enrolment is a legal right, not a favour

France has a legal obligation to provide schooling for every child residing on its territory, regardless of when they arrive during the school year. This applies to children aged 3 to 16. There is no “closed period” for enrolment. If your child is of school age and you have a French address, the local authority (the mairie for primary school, the académie for secondary) must find a place.

In practice, this means that arriving in Bordeaux in January or March does not put you at a disadvantage relative to families who arrived in September in terms of your right to a school place. Where it does create a difference is in school choice and, for secondary school, in section or class options that may already be full.

That distinction matters. The right to a place is guaranteed. The right to a specific school, a specific class or a bilingual section is not. This is where preparation and timing change everything.

How the enrolment process actually works in Bordeaux

For primary school (école élémentaire, ages 6 to 11), enrolment starts at the mairie of your arrondissement. Bordeaux is divided into sectors — your home address determines which school you are assigned to. The process requires: proof of address, birth certificate (with an official French translation if not in French), vaccination record, and your child’s most recent school report if available.

The mairie issues a certificate of enrolment (certificat d’inscription), which you then take to the school director, who handles the actual admission. From first contact to first day of school: allow ten to fifteen working days in a standard case.

For secondary school (collège, ages 11 to 15), the process goes through the Direction des Services Départementaux de l’Éducation Nationale de la Gironde (DSDEN 33). Unlike primary, you don’t start at the mairie — you contact the DSDEN directly, who will assign your child to the appropriate collège based on your address and, importantly, on available capacity. This step can take longer, particularly mid-year.

One practical detail most families miss: if your child has no French, the DSDEN may assign them to a UPE2A class (Unité Pédagogique pour Élèves Allophones Arrivants) — a specialist integration class for non-French-speaking children that runs alongside, not instead of, regular classes. In Bordeaux, there are UPE2A classes at several primary schools and collèges. The Collège Anatole France (Bordeaux) and the Collège Jean Moulin (Bordeaux-Bastide) both have established UPE2A programmes as of 2025. Placement in a UPE2A is not a setback. For most children, it’s what makes the first months manageable.

International school: when it’s the right answer and when it isn’t

Bordeaux has a small but real offer of international schooling. The Lycée Français International Victor-Louis (Talence, just south of Bordeaux) offers French curriculum with international sections for English and Spanish speakers and is the most established option for expat families. Waiting lists are real: for the English international section, families who contact the school in October for a February start are sometimes told the earliest availability is September.

There is also the International School of Bordeaux (ISB) in Mérignac, which follows the International Baccalaureate curriculum in English. It is the default choice for families on short-term assignments (two to three years), for children who are firmly embedded in an anglophone education system and for whom a French curriculum transition would be genuinely disruptive. Fees in 2025 range from approximately €12,000 to €17,000 per year depending on age group.

The question we ask families is not “which school is best” but “what is the duration and nature of your assignment?” A three-year assignment with children aged 8 and 11 warrants a different answer than a two-year assignment with a child of 15 who is preparing for international exams. Both exist. Neither answer is automatically right.

What changes if your children don’t speak French

Less than you think — particularly at primary level. French schools have seen a significant increase in non-French-speaking new arrivals over the past decade. Teachers in schools with UPE2A programmes are accustomed to welcoming children with no French. At 8, children acquire the language with a speed that is consistently surprising to their parents. Ella, the eight-year-old from Singapore mentioned at the start, was holding basic conversations with classmates within six weeks. Reading and writing took longer. The social integration, which is what matters most at that age, happened faster than the parents had hoped.

At secondary level, the gap is larger and the stakes feel higher. An eleven or twelve-year-old arriving in a French collège with no French will have a harder first term than an eight-year-old in primary. The UPE2A structure helps, but it doesn’t eliminate the difficulty. For families with secondary-age children, we generally recommend making the school decision before confirming the flat — because the school’s location should influence where you live, not the reverse.

The one mistake that costs families a month

Waiting for a permanent address before starting the school process.

Technically, the mairie requires proof of address to issue the enrolment certificate. In practice, a rental agreement (even unsigned, if it has a start date) or a letter from an employer confirming a French address is often accepted as a provisional document. We have helped families start the school process while still in temporary accommodation — and in several cases, the child started school within two weeks of arriving in Bordeaux.

The families who wait until the flat is confirmed, then wait until the mairie appointment is available, then wait for the school director — these families often lose four to six weeks. In a 30-month assignment, four weeks of unnecessary delay at the start is not nothing. It’s the difference between your child starting school in the same week as you start work, or spending a month at home while you try to establish yourself professionally.

If you’re relocating to Bordeaux with school-age children, get in touch with our Bordeaux team before you have a confirmed address. We know which schools have UPE2A capacity right now, which ones have waiting lists, and how to start the process in parallel with your housing search — not after it.

Expat Services France has been supporting families relocating to Bordeaux since 2009. School enrolment is part of every family assignment we manage — because in our experience, it’s the piece that matters most to the people who matter most.