A Celebration of Home Language
We are delighted to celebrate the incredibly successful Information and Launch Evening for La Petite French School d’Aberdeen, held right here on our campus. The night kicked off with an introduction to ISA and our internationally recognised International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, followed by an inspiring presentation from the French school’s organising team.
The official launch was marked with a ribbon-cutting ceremony by the newly elected MSP for North East Scotland, Yi-Pei Chou Turvey. The evening concluded with a vibrant cheese and wine reception, giving families a wonderful opportunity to ask questions, tour our world-class facilities, and sign up, with 60 students already expressing interest ahead of the official September 2026 opening.
What is La Petite French School d’Aberdeen?
La Petite French School d’Aberdeen is a non-profit, parent-led initiative created to provide a welcoming space where French-speaking children from across the region can truly thrive in their mother tongue. As a registered ‘FLAM’ school (Français Langue Maternelle), the programme is designed specifically for students aged 3–18 who attend local English-speaking schools during the week but want to maintain native-level proficiency in reading, writing, and grammar.
The school is currently the only FLAM school in Scotland operating outside of Edinburgh and Glasgow, making it a major addition to the cultural and educational landscape of the North East. Lessons will run on Saturday mornings, with plans already being considered for future after-school classes. Crucially, these sessions are open to all French-speaking families across the wider community, regardless of which school their children attend full-time.
This school was created from a shared desire among parents to offer children a truly bilingual education. The programme is based on the French national curriculum and aims to provide a structured and supportive learning environment. Particular attention is given to developing children’s confidence in both spoken and written French. From the very beginning, ISA has been extremely supportive of our project. Beyond providing long-term stability, the school offers a warm, welcoming and truly international environment, which feels especially important for a programme that places such strong value on cultural openness and multilingualism. We are also delighted to have brought together a team of experienced native-speaking teachers who share these educational values, and we look forward to welcoming families in September.
Thomas Harms, Parent Founder
Why ISA is the Perfect Fit
As an IB World School, hosting this initiative is a natural extension of ISA’s deep commitment to home languages and plurilingualism. The IB framework explicitly recognises that maintaining a mother tongue is fundamental to increasing intercultural understanding, international-mindedness, and a child’s overall academic confidence.
While ISA already hosts several language groups for our international families, this formal partnership takes our home language support to a new level. It serves as an exciting model for future heritage language schools on our campus, allowing us to provide a structured platform for multilingualism that benefits both our own school community and the wider North East region.
Enhanced Benefits for ISA Students
While La Petite French School welcomes all Francophone families from across Aberdeen and the Shire, the partnership unlocks a uniquely integrated academic pathway for full-time ISA students. To seamlessly bridge the gap between the standard school day and the weekend programme, ISA students enrolled in the project will receive guided supervision during their weekly language periods to complete tailored extension work and online studies.
This continuous linguistic support is designed to lead students toward a First Language IGCSE and ultimately the prestigious IB Bilingual Diploma in Grades 11 and 12. This world-class qualification aligns perfectly with the French Baccalaureate, providing our bilingual students with a significant competitive advantage when applying to top-tier universities in the UK, Europe, and France—such as Sciences Po in Paris, where an ISA student successfully secured a place this year.
Supporting home languages is fundamental to our purpose as an international school and is a core value of the International Baccalaureate (IB) framework. We believe that maintaining a mother tongue is a key pillar of a child’s confidence and academic success. Our partnership with La Petite French School formalises this commitment, and we hope it is the first of many such language schools to thrive on our campus as we provide a structured platform for multilingualism in the wider community.
Nick Little, ISA Head of School
