2010 drawn to an end

Dear Readers,

This year has had it all, heavy snow, an announcement of a Lycée reform and something every French school year has, strikes! And yes, due to these many factors, some teachers are expecting students of 2nde to come in until the 2nd July 2010 so that they can complete teaching the program. The program that will not be there next year (see article on the Lycée reform). I hope all the students among my readers got what they wanted for next year like I did, however, I know that some new-comers (that is to say those who have been in France for less than three years) find it hard and often it’s a good decision to repeat the year. But here’s a quick re-cap on this years conseils. And the results have been a bit Greek this year…

Firstly, it seems that in my Lycée, S is quite popular and also seems quite easy to gain access to! With 51 students going into 1ère S for the school year 2010-2011 compared to a mere 36 going through to L and only enough students going through to STG to make up one class. Eleven will repeat 2nde. This however brought a question to mind, how is it possible? With 1ère S apparently “the hardest year to get into”, how is it that some 50% of the students in 2nde could have made it through to S without much of a struggle? So I did some research and unveiled a surprising and remarkable story. One of the 2nde students made it through to 1ère S with an average of only 6 in Chemistry! This must make a mockery of the entire “only the good students make it through to S” theory which, to start with, I didn’t for one minute believe. Don’t be fooled. No BAC is better than another. They all just specialise in different domains. L is for those who are good at languages and literature, S for those good at science and maths. Normally ES and STG are chosen if you’re looking to work for the social services, council etc. Generally speaking, you don’t pick a job in a laboratory if you like literature. The aim of the BAC’s is just to get you through Lycée and out the other side with the best result as possible. That’s why if you’re not good at maths, you pick L.


In the collège things have been equally strange and normal at the same time. With the brevets coming up, some collègiens will be taking the last few weeks off (not the 3èmes of course!). The 6èmes are on their days out for some schools and primary schools normally have a school trip around this time. Some teachers seem to be changing schools next year due to moving house. This could be as a result of the credit crunch and their downsizing… or the opposite!

And last but not least, to close the year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the readers for your great, outstanding support (and sometimes criticism, however I encourage the latter to take place through email and not on forums as some of you have been practising it). According to the blog’s visitor statistics, the number of readers in the last 30 days alone has shot up by 2500%! And you’re actually reading which means so much! With some people spending 30 minutes of their time reading the articles from our archives. This year is drawing to a close and since March, the number of readers rose from 0 to some 500 some of which are returning! In addition, it’s not just France that’s logging on, readers from all over the world have been using The Lycée Times, from countries such as Germany, Italy, The UK, Ireland and recently Russia! This blog would be nothing without you so thank you so much and remember to come back after the rentrée 2010!
 
The blog will not be updated during the summer holidays, but it will remain online and the next post will be at the rentrée. Happy holidays to all and I wish you all the best for the rentrée 2010. See you in September!

Best Wishes,
The Editor

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