Mid morning Wednesday, I'd realised that I'd forgotten to turn off the do not disturb mode. As I picked up my phone, I realised I'd missed a phone call. Dang - a French number which probably related to the school enrolment. I noticed a voicemail had been left and on accessing it realised it was in French!! Turning to my computer and best friend google translate, I tried to use the listen mode but was unsuccessful as it would only grab small parts of the message.
It was when I was doing this that I also realised that my email wasn't working so I restarted that one to discover an email containing le certificat d'inscription scolaire (School registration certificate) for Katy!
Next I texted Andy and we arranged via a Skype link for one of his colleagues to listen to the message. We had that sinking feeling that there was an issue with Ella's enrolment. Andy's work colleague translating the message indicated that there was an issue with age she needed to go to college (rather than primary school) and that we need to contact someone else.
Andy met the girls and I at the flying fox. We needed to discuss how we were going to approach this situation. Our first port of call was back to the Mairie. It was a different lady than previously. We'd written a message via google translate stating our preference for Ella to attend primary school rather than high school and also let her listen to the voicemail. She indicated that we needed to call a different department. She also reinforced that we needed to call the principal of Jardin de Ville to book an appointment.
We tried both numbers without any success. Our next move was to send an email back to the person who had issued the school registration certificate and explain our situation - we were only in Grenoble till April, Ella can't really speak French and is still in primary school back home. On our way home we dropped by the school to try to organise the interview without any luck - the school was closed (the children don't go to school on Wednesday afternoons!) We weren't having much luck!
Thursday morning arrived. We called the school, scheduling a meeting at 11am where we met with the principal, filled out various forms and agreed that Katy would start the following morning! We briefly raised the issue with Ella - and the principal stated that according to Ella's birthday that she would need to go to college (middle school). It seems that Ella is on the wrong side of the cut off! Just like in Australia, a year level can contain different ages - in France some children in CM2 (or the last year of primary school) are 10 or 11 years old.The rest of the day we shopped for the required items on the school stationary list only after translating them at the coffee shop!
Despite the excitement of shopping for new things, Katy was extremely nervous for the rest of the day and had difficulty falling asleep. Friday dawned. Andy and I took her to school together discussing her fears and strategies to cope. We met the principal again who introduced us to Katy's teacher. He seemed lovely and spoke English (phew!) There was no tour of the school or classroom as we'd expected rather we left Katy who's chin was down, fighting back tears with her teacher at the front door of the school. Oh how my heart was breaking for her.
Returning back to the apartment, Ella and I had a few errands to complete in time to pick Katy up for lunch at 11.45am! We arrived back at the school 10 mins early and shivered in the cold breeze. Katy eventually emerged with a big grin from ear to ear. We were all so relieved that her morning had gone fantastically! We wandered back home and over lunch talked about her morning's experience.
Meanwhile an email arrived regarding Ella's predicament - the lady had referred the matter to her manager who then had referred it on to the next level! More waiting for her...
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