Return to home schooling.

So....having thought I was giving my kids a wonderful opportunity by enrolling them at the French school in Florence instead I buggered up their education.

Firstly, we were lied to from start to finish about the education my son would receive. We were promised that in September 2012 the school would have set up an IB course in English. All he had to do was drop down a year in 2011 and learn French that year. September came...No course. He had 5 or 6 hours a week, if that of lessons...I was constantly asking what was happening. By November I was up to confronting the headmaster at the inauguration of the new premises...which I did! More promises were made and the next week my son finally started his English lessons!!!! Two weeks later school finished for Christmas. On his return in January he was called to the director of studies office where he was told his course had been officially cancelled by Paris due to lack of funds.. After many fruitless meetings my son left the school. He is now two years behind his British peers and just starting his A levels online... This is cutting the whole debacle very short...

We decided not to sue because this is a French school in Italy and because our daughter was happy there and we wanted her to stay...how naive of us!!! There were many arguments with the school over what we felt we should pay for our son's aborted education. To make the point we stopped paying for our daughter. They threatened to bar her from school so we made an arrangement with them that would ensure she could stay, or so we thought. I was stopped from re-enrolling her for this September unless I paid what we owed, in full, by the end of August. This wasn't what we'd agreed so this was not going to happen. Again they had lied and the lies didn't stop there. Three days later I was told the class list had been closed by a parent...so even if we had paid in full by August there would have been no place for her anyway! It was their attempt at blackmail! In my daughter's year over 50% had left and gone elsewhere so they had reduced the year to one class from two. She was never going to be allowed to return in the September. We were not the only English speaking family to leave either. The promise of a new international school was all a lie. The only good things to come out of it were a few new, good friends for me and Antonia and that she can speak 3 languages..

So, as of now we are embarking on homeschool...It's been tough as we are starting from scratch in some areas but I'm hoping it will all work out! It will be an experience, that I do know!!!