Class equivalents in French Lycée and Collège

Dear Readers,

Many ex-pats move over to France every year with their families. Getting their children into the right school year is one very important thing every family has to do. So, in this article, we’ll be taking a look at how the French education system is organised.

Click image to see in better quality

As you can see in the diagram, students go into 6ème at the age of 11, straight after primary school. They are now in collège (also known as the ‘premier cycle’). They will go through 5ème and 4ème before going into 3ème where they’ll pass the brevet at the end of the year. Their year average in 3ème will decide whether or not they’ll go through to lycée. The brevet doesn’t decide whether a student passes through to lycée, the decision is already made around 3 weeks before the student even enters the exam hall. To read more about collège and its subjects, click here.

After collège, lycée is reached and the student will have to decide whether they’ll take a lycée professionel course or go for the lycée général et technologique which is chosen by the vast majority of students. After the first year of lycée, 2nde, the student passes into 1ère. Some BAC exams are done in this school year but it depends on what the student has picked (S, ES, L, STG…). It is recommended to keep an eye on Onisep.fr for further changes to the lycée curriculum and exams. You can read more about lycée if you click here and learn about the lycée reform and its consequences by clicking here.

Article by The Editor

La réforme des classes préparatoires - After Lycée

Dear Readers,

If you’re thinking of going onto further education after the BAC, you may be considering doing journalism, being an interpreter or translator, or even being a librarian. If any of those careers interest you, you may want to know about the changes in the system of the “Classes préparatoires littéraires”. Although these specialised courses aren’t the only way to access a university of journalism, for example, they do give you a head-start and also priority to a place there. However, only a select few make it through to these every year. Normally around 100 students from all of France. It’s a lot of work but it would pay off if you were willing to go for it. These schools don’t just look for good results, they want to be able to see that you were a good student who worked hard and paid attention in Lycée.

First of all, let’s take a look at the system and steps to take to get to where you want to be. After your BAC, providing you have done L, ES or S, you can go on to do what’s called a “Classe préparatoire littéraire”, also called “classe prépa” for short. In these classes, you do your first year of “Hypokhâgne indifférenciée”. The students of this year are called the “hypokhâgneux”. All “hypokhâgneux” must attend 5 hours of French literature, 5 hours of history, 4 hours of philosophy, 4 hours of the first modern language, 3 hours of ancient language and cultures (2 hours of Latin or Ancient Greek and 2 hours of antique culture), 2 hours of geography and 2 hours of a second modern language a week. Then comes a chosen subject which can be art, ancient languages, geography or another modern language. In khâgne, which is the second year which comes after “hypokhâgne indifférenciée”, the compulsory subjects and their respective tuition hours depend on the kind of speciality chosen:

• in literature, in philosophy, in history/geography or in geography (explicit curriculum)
• in classical literature (Latin and ancient Greek, ancient history)
• in modern languages (two modern languages are to be studied)
• in musicology, in art history, in cinematography or in theatre studies

Here is a diagram to resume the system:

Line Carpentier of Lycée Guez de Balzac talks about their classe prépa options 

Useful:

• Here is this years programme for the concours A/L de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) for 2011. Click here to download. (In French).
• Here is the site for the ENS: www.ens.fr
• The inscriptions open for the ENS in April.

Article by The Editor

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• www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1F9Ha8Ymfw

Parents call for boycott of tests

Dear Readers,

The largest parents’ federation is calling for a boycott on tests to be held in the last year of primary school (CM2) next week.

The FCPE says the start-of-year tests for the CM2 classes, launched three years ago, are a “profound mistake”. A spokesman said: “It is not acceptable for children to be evaluated on things they have not been taught yet.” They are asking their members to write to schools saying they refuse to have their children’s results passed to the government.
The tests are to evaluate children’s level in French grammar, spelling and basic maths such as decimals or mental arithmetic. However FCPE believes it is inappropriate for the children to be tested at this early date before they have properly understood the new topics they have started this school year.

The leader of teachers’ union SE-Unsa, Christian Chevalier, said that the government held a consultation on the issue several months ago, but had not taken the union’s views into account. He said: “There should either be a test in September to work out where the gaps are in the children’s knowledge, or one in June, which would be a real evaluation of what they have learnt.”

Education Minister Luc Chatel said there was no question of not holding the tests. “Our system needs evaluations so as to allow each teacher to check on the progress made and pick up on weaknesses of certain children. It is also a performance indicator for our educational system, and over the long term shows us how things are evolving, so we can make adjustments.” He insisted the January date is suitable because it allows teachers to see how things are progressing, while leaving enough time to arrange extra support for children who need a boost before they move on to secondary school. He had listened to the teachers’ views, he said, and, for example, had made changes to the grading of the tests. “They are a more subtle tool now,” he said.

Article from The Connexion

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• Almost a thousand primary schools failing to hit targets (independent.co.uk)

School hours in French Lycée

Dear Readers,

Many wonder about school in France and school hours. The times aren’t the same as the UK, so I hope to be able to clear up some of the questions you may have, in this article. However, school hours vary slightly around France, but the example I'll be showing in this article is the norm.

In France, Lycée students start the day at 8:00. Then, students normally have two hours of class before a 20 minute break, followed by two hours of class before lunch (to read about school dinners, click here). The afternoon follows the same model except that break is usually shorter. You can see an example of a timetable, below, for a French 1èreL student who’s taking Spanish and Advanced English as options, with English as LV1 and Spanish as LV2 (LV: Langue Vivante / Living Language).

KEY	*** VDC: Vie de Classe (class tutor meeting)
* SVT: Biology (Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre)	‘ TPE: Travaux Personnels Encadrés (a project that goes towards your BAC done in groups of 2 or 3)
** ECJS: Civic Education	² H/G: History and Geography

As you can see, the timetable is packed full some days, like Friday, and almost empty other days, such as Monday. But school starts at 8:00 and ends at 17:20. Many students, teachers and parents aren’t happy with the starting time. Some students have to get up at 5:30 to be able to get their bus in time. You can read more about insomnia in students and the effect on the wider population, by clicking here.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to email The Lycée Times at thelyceetimes@gmail.com to get a reply to your question in under 24 hours.

Article by The Editor