We lived in France for ten years and our children were schooled near Paris in a State school.

A couple of years ago we decided to come back to live in the UK and upon telling our friends in France, eyebrows were raised and faces turned white at the thought of our children having to endure the notorious English education system.

Besides which, although both our children were raised in a bilingual environment, changing school is not easy for a child and adapting to a new country can seem even more daunting.

In this case, however, everyone was completely wrong...

When moving back to Brighton, we decided to put our children in a local school and Hertford Infant and Junior seemed like a good choice; the teachers showed a lot of enthusiasm and they seemed very open-minded, friendly and close to the pupils.

Our son has a buddy who helped him get to know the school, make friends and solve potential problems: As a rule, this does not happen in France.

He also received special English lessons to help him catch up with his reading.

After six months at Hertford, much to our surprise, both children have settled in and are perfectly happy.

A couple of weeks ago, we were given the results of the Ofsted report which evaluates the school's performance.

We were delighted it confirmed what we already felt; that the school is good, the teachers care and are committed to their work and the pupils enjoy learning.

As parents, we feel we made the right choice with a small school like Hertford.

When we ask our son whether he likes his new school, his answer is unconditional: "It is the best school I've ever been to".

-Caroline Andrieu, Brighton