The Bac de Français (French Bac)

Dear Readers,

The Bac de Français is fast approaching with under two weeks left until the written exam on 20th June 2011. Revision has started for many students and others are soon to join them. But what is the Bac de Français and what does it consist in?

The Bac de Français is an exam that’s split into two parts. The first part is the written exam, which is on Monday 20th June this year. The written exam papers are assembled and printed around January and stored in a secret location, ready to be distributed in June. These papers are based around one of the “Thèmes” (or chapters) that you covered in class through the year. For example, poetry. To get the predictions on what the “Thème” the papers will be based around this year, click here. The written exam itself is also in two parts. You are given a group of four to six texts called a “corpus de textes” or “corpus”. The first part of the exam is the “Question Corpus” noted out of 4 points. This question sometimes consists in comparing the texts of the “corpus”, finding similarities and differences. This question needs to have an introduction where you’ll present the texts of the “corpus”, the main body of your question in two parts and finally, a short conclusion. The second part of the written exam is the “Travail d’Ecriture”. This part is marked out of 16 points and you have to choose one of the three questions given; either the “Commentaire”, the “Dissertation” or the “Ecriture d’invention”. For the “Commentaire”, you have to analyse the text referred to in the “Commentaire” question while answering a question that you will have to formulate yourself. The “Dissertation” requires a good knowledge of literature and you need to have a few good examples in order to get the maximum of points. For the “Dissertation” you have to make a question out of the phrase given to you on the paper and then answer it through an introduction, main body of two parts and a conclusion. The “Ecriture d’invention” is creative writing. Some correctors don’t like to correct the creative writing question and some even think it shows that the student hasn’t worked throughout the year. Nevertheless, some people get really good marks for this one, going up to 18 or even 20 out of 20.

The oral is the next part of the exam. These aren’t held on the same day as the written exam and normally you will have already received your “convocation” (the paper which tells you the date and time at which you will be summoned to the oral exam). The oral is noted out of 20 also, and when combined with the written exam, gives you your overall French exam note out of 40. You can be questioned on any text you’ve done throughout the year in the oral and there is no set “Thème”. Just because you might have had poetry for the written, it doesn’t mean you’ll have it for the oral! Revise everything for this.

Normally you’ll have been told all of the above by your teacher, but I know that not all teachers are very switched on when it comes to preparing students for the Bac!

Article by The Editor

More schools join timetable pilot

Dear Readers,

A new school routine in which children work in the morning and practise sport after lunch will be extended to another 125 secondary schools in September, the education ministry has announced. Some 7,000 pupils have been taking part in the experiment at 125 schools around France since the start of the academic year. This will be doubled to 250 schools and 14,000 pupils after the summer break.

It will be up to schools to decide whether to join the experiment - and whether it should apply to the whole school or a handful of classes. Some headteachers say the scheme is not suited to children in the earlier years of secondary school - 6ème and 5ème (around 11 and 12 years old). However, education minister Luc Chatel said that there were no plans for the new timetable to become the norm at every school in France, not least because there were not enough sports facilities available for all pupils to use at once.

The scheme will be made more flexible this year to allow pupils with no interest in sport to move into a class not taking part in the experiment - or to take up a cultural activity instead, if the whole school has moved to the new timetable. "Last year the experiment was launched a bit late," Chatel told 20 Minutes. "Between now and the rentrée in September, headteachers will have the time to discuss with pupils and parents and ensure that the sport classes are attended by those who want to be there the most."

The experiment, which spreads classes over six days but only in the morning, was introduced following complaints from teachers, parents and doctors that French schoolchildren are left exhausted by long working days following the move to a four-day week. A survey by the education ministry found 85% of parents approved of the new routine, and more than two thirds of headteachers found it boosted motivation and improved relations between staff and pupils.
Chatel also claimed the experiment had led to better results and a decline in absenteeism.

Article by The Connexion

Dates for the BAC 2011

Source : Direction générale de l'Enseignement scolaire - MEN - December 2010

Here are the dates for those passing their Baccalaureate this summer.

BAC ES

 

BAC L

 

BAC S

 

BAC S.T.G.

 

BAC STI

 

BAC S.T.L.

 

BAC Hôtellerie

 

BAC S.T.2.S.

Grandes écoles, grand designs: France told to think global

Clea Caulcutt on elite group chief's contentious plans to attract high-fee-paying foreign students

Credit: Ramon Haazen/Alamy

Pierre Tapie's proposal sounds like a call to arms. The president of the Conférence des Grandes Écoles has urged France's universities to embrace globalisation and tap into the rapidly growing and increasingly mobile student populations of India and China.

In a recent editorial in the daily newspaper Le Monde, Dr Tapie advocates trebling the number of foreign students in French higher education, boosting the proportion from 12 per cent of the total number of students to 30 per cent in the next 10 years.

His plans would see students from outside the European Union charged fees close to £12,000. A system of scholarships would be introduced for outstanding students who could not afford to pay their way.

Dr Tapie, who heads ESSEC Business School, argues that it is crucial to act quickly.

"The opportunity for growth is now. If we don't grasp it, in 10 years it will be too late and France will have failed to position itself as one of the world's key destinations."

The course of action advocated by Dr Tapie makes him something of an iconoclast in a country that is run by a tightly knit elite of leaders, businessmen and engineers who were all educated in the country's grandes écoles.

But Yves Poilane, director of Telecom ParisTech, another of the grandes ecoles, has argued that the expansion of courses taught in English rather than French is an important step in boosting higher education enrolment.

"In computer sciences and telecommunications, we struggle to recruit the best students available because competition is so very, very intense," he said, adding that the students he would like to recruit do not necessarily speak French.

Dr Tapie goes as far as calling for the Toubon law, which restricts the use of English in France, to be repealed in higher education.

Under the terms of this law, all university courses must be taught in French, with the exception of language courses and those offered by institutions that welcome foreign students or provide "international courses".

The law's vagueness offers the grandes écoles room to manoeuvre. But the elite institutions know they are treading on sensitive ground, and they have felt forced to issue denials that they are turning their back on the French language.

Many insist that their English-speaking foreign students leave university with a better grasp of the French language, and even more importantly, a love of French culture.

"France has nothing to lose, because our lifestyle will not only be more protected than if it were kept in a museum, but it will be more vivid if we share it with others," said Dr Tapie.

"France is exactly like China. We have a very robust culture that is several thousand years old. At ESSEC, foreign students enrich the life of the school. Instead of diluting our culture, they make it more universal."

Scholarly use of French defended

Nevertheless, Dr Tapie admitted that calling for France to embrace globalisation was an extremely unpopular idea.

"When we first presented our ideas at a press conference in March 2010, they were perceived as very embarrassing," he said.

Le Monde waited six months before publishing the editorial it commissioned from Dr Tapie on the issue. Staunch advocates of the French language were quick to criticise his proposals.

In a rebuttal also published in Le Monde, Bernard Sergent, a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), accuses Dr Tapie of giving up on the French language and of playing into the hands of the far-right National Front.

"French is the world's second most important scientific language and Dr Tapie's proposals will destroy it," he wrote.

While such arguments do not hold water with the majority of France's scientists, others have campaigned to defend the scholarly use of French.

In 2008, several thousand researchers signed a petition calling on the AERES, the French equivalent of the UK's Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, to stop snubbing academic work published in French.

Christine Solnon, president of the French Association for Constraint Programming, has denied prioritising the use of French over opportunities for international impact, but said that her efforts are meant to support young researchers who are not yet fluent in English.

"I'm not asking for AERES to rate scientific journals written in French as highly as international journals, but our work should be taken into account," she said.

AERES insists, however, that the language of publication does not figure among the criteria its evaluators use to assess scientific journals.

Dr Tapie has found some allies beyond the elite classrooms of the grandes écoles, but has yet to recruit the full support of the academy.

Jean-Charles Pomerol, president of Pierre and Marie Curie University, France's largest scientific complex, said that while he believes in increasing tuition fees for non- European students, he has held back on introducing any new policies.

"We take our cue from the state, so we are waiting to find out whether we should impose higher tuition fees on foreign students," he said, adding that he believed it was unfair to ask French taxpayers to fund the education of wealthy foreigners.

Professor Pomerol acknowledged that tuition fees are a sensitive question, and said that academic and student unions would battle hard to prevent a fee hike for foreign students.

"They would say that it was just the first step before introducing fees for everybody," he said, adding that it was difficult to tell if their fears were justified.

Meanwhile, the academic union SNESUP (Syndicat National de l'Enseignement Supérieur) argues that offering classes in English is a luxury few universities could afford, even if foreign students paid higher tuition fees.

"Universities are so underfunded today that I can't imagine opening such courses, because we struggle to pay our regular language teachers," said Stephane Tassel, the union's secretary general.

Damaging to research

Mr Tassel claimed the decision of the grandes écoles to target more foreign students would damage research and higher education in France.

"We are going to see four to five ivory towers emerge in an academic desert in which it will be impossible to do any proper research," he said.

Mr Tassel also argued that in the race to woo international students, the grandes écoles have a head start.

"It's interesting to note that these proposals come from the grandes écoles, which receive two to three times the funds allocated to (non-elite) universities," he said.

In a sector known for strikes and demonstrations, it would appear that all the ingredients for unrest are in place. But most observers feel it is unlikely that any will occur before the next presidential elections.

It is more likely that the grandes écoles, some of which are private institutions, will continue to quietly usher in change.

Business school HEC Paris, for example, has long embraced globalisation and high tuition fees. Overall, the institution's enrolment is 24 per cent non-European. And of the students on its prestigious MBA programme, 70 per cent are non-European and an additional 15 per cent come from European countries other than France.

"We're already there," said HEC Paris general director Bernard Ramanantsoa. "For us the change was progressive."

He added that the internationalisation of higher education had already blurred divisions between grandes écoles and universities. While some universities are entering the fray of international competition, others are stalling.

"It's a question of willpower for some," he said, "but for others it's a question of resources."

Article from The Times Higher Education (www.timeshighereducation.co.uk)

Important tip-off for 1ère students concerning the BAC de Français

Dear Readers,

For those of you in 1ère, as you know, there’s the BAC de Français at the end of the year. But what will be on it? This article will help you guess what is more likely to come up on the day.

Key:

Y Was the paper on this year

N Wasn’t the paper on this year

★ More stars means it’s more likely

Bac L

Thèmes	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	Probable in 2011?
Le roman et ses personnages	N	N	Y	N	Y	★★★★☆
La poésie	Y	N	N	N	N	★★★★☆
Le théâtre : texte et représentation	N	N	N	Y	N	★★★☆☆
L’argumentation : convaincre, persuader et délibérer	N	N	N	N	N	★★★☆☆
Un mouvement littéraire et culturel	N	N	N	N	N	★★☆☆☆
L’autobiographie	N	Y	N	N	N	★★★★☆
Les réécritures	N	N	N	N	Y	★★★☆☆

Bac ES & S

Thèmes	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	Probable in 2011?
Le roman et ses personnages	N	N	Y	N	N	★★★★☆
La poésie	N	N	N	N	N	★★★★☆
Le théâtre : texte et représentation	N	N	N	Y	N	★★★☆☆
L’argumentation : convaincre, persuader et délibérer	Y	Y	N	N	Y	★★★☆☆

How can you predict which ‘Thèmes’ are less likely?

L’Etudiant.fr conducted a survey on some teachers earlier this year. From their results, it’s less likely that a paper treating a literary and cultural movement will appear in the BAC this year. The teachers interviewed said that this type of paper would be “Too difficult”, “Too restricted” and others said “Not all teachers study the same movements with their students”. But in any case, it is highly recommended to revise the authors, examples of their work and what literary movement and period they belong to. This would be important whatever the paper is. “A student must know where to situate authors in history, in a literary movement and of what period”, says Caroline Reys, teacher at Ribeauvillé. Sophie Saulnier, teacher at the Lycée d’Argenteuil stated “It’s fundamental to know the major literary movements, to know where to place the authors within it – this knowledge will help a student to do well in the other papers to do with other ‘Thèmes’ ”.

What’s most likely and why?

Part of the programme since 2007, ‘le roman et ses personnages’ is a classic. Even though it was the paper in 2010 for the S and ES séries, it could well come back. It covers all the fundamentals of French literature, such as the great authors of the 19^th century like Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert and Zola, right up to modern literature, such as Duras, Sarraute and Céline. It also refers to some collège classwork. The student will have to have read at least four classics and have around ten different characters revised.

This year, ‘la poésie’ is highly expected because it hasn’t been on the papers since 2006. For this, you should revise some poetry by Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Apollinaire, Hugo, Eluard, Aragon and Char, for the best possible results. In this ‘Thème’, it’s not essential to write page upon page for the Commentaire. What you need to do, to do your best, is to have all the techniques well-revised. This means, to be able to talk about ‘la versification’, metaphors and what they signify, the way the poet creates an image in your mind, to be able to talk about rhymes and rhythms, etc. For the Commentaire in this paper, it’s all about quality, not quantity!

For the students in 1ère L, ‘l’autobiographie’ seems top of the list of probabilities. The texts that would almost certainly appear would be “Les Essais” by Montaigne, “Les Confessions” by Rousseau and “Les Mémoires d’outre tombe” by Chateaubriand. Sophie Saulnier, teacher at the Lycée d’Argenteuil, said that “This paper won’t exist from next year onwards. Why not finish the old programme with this very literary subject… for those in L, who should be capable of differentiating the different forms of autobiography: memoirs, diaries, auto fiction…”

Despite the fact that last year’s predictions were right, you still need to revise everything! Better safe than sorry!

Article by The Editor

Read more articles like this

• L’étudiant.fr - Lots more tips to succeed in getting a good note: http://www.letudiant.fr/bac/zoom-bac.html (in French)

England or France for university?

The big dilemma in our lives at the moment is helping older daughter decide where to go to university, and so far we’ve not been much use.

The first decision is whether England or France is the ‘best’ option and there doesn’t seem to be an easy answer…each have their own merits, and expats with university level children all have a different story to tell. Whatever the reasons, a great deal of expat children return to the UK to go to university.

I’ve tried to list the advantages of each below, as I understand them. Since these are based as much on gossip and hearsay as factual information, all useful input and guidance is very welcome, especially where what I’ve been told is completely wrong!

Benefits and disadvantages of going to university in England

There is said to be more ‘open discussion’ between lecturers and students in UK universities

Better student environment and more extra-curricular activities  – many students in France go to university close to home and go home at weekends, which means university social life is less exciting.

It will ensure that her level of written and spoke English is comparable with any other UK based student

Benefits and disadvantages of going to university in France

Universities in France are much cheaper, and students don’t leave university with a large debt. Bourses are also sometimes available (but means-tested). Undoubtedly it will be much cheaper for us as well as her if she stays in France, but I’m trying to ignore that for the moment!

Learning tends to be by rote in French universities, more like an extension of school, with lecturers less open to discussion and criticism. Although this sounds like a disadvantage, getting down to actual ‘learning’ isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s a question of degree!

Large class sizes – in France universities tend to use success in courses as selection criteria rather than interviews etc., so it’s generally easier to get in – but there is a higher dropout rate, especially in the first year.

It will ensure complete fluency in French at all levels

Overall

I’m guessing that a degree from a respectable French university carries the same weight for future career prospects as a degree from a similar quality university in Britain, and the subjects will be taught to a reasonably similar level…

…but it is also often said that because the UK school system is quite poor, despite A grade exams being awarded to a high percentage of students, universities need to spend the first year ‘catching up’ to the level that schools used to reach. Presumably if true this means that the degree also ends up being lower quality.

…and I also suspect it will be easier to get a job in an English company with a degree from France than vice-versa – the French are quite protective about their job market and I have a feeling they will often tend to opt for someone with a degree from France, whereas English companies will just choose the best candidate, regardless of which country the degree comes from. So might a degree from England be ruling out future job prospects in France?

In recent discussions about university choices in her class at lycée, our daughter was startled by how many people said they were going to a nearby university so they didn’t have to be away from home too much. (Sounds a bit unimaginative perhaps, but also shows how important family is in French society, much more so than in the UK, which is no bad thing.)

Of course, the real answer is perhaps for a student to just go where they like, according to the course on offer. Things usually turn out OK anyway, but it would be interesting to hear any experiences that might help me sound like a more useful and knowledgeable parent!

Article from www.francethisway.com

Starting school in France

Dear Readers,

Deciding to move to France with children can be a hard decision to make. Will they find it too hard? Will they be able to keep up in school? Will they struggle to make friends? In this article, we’ll try help you make that decision wisely.

1. Getting into a French school

To get into a collège or lycée in France, you can do it through an exam. This exam tests your abilities in maths and French. You can easily pass this exam and get into the class you want to get into. The aim of it is to be able to give your future school an idea of what kind of student you are, and how you are in maths and French. The French test might be a few lines of translation or some questions on a document. This exam determines what class you’ll go into. Not all schools will want this done, so it’s better to arrange an appointment with the school and meet the principle to talk about it. The exam option isn’t worth doing unless the school require it. In any case, the school will arrange the exam for you, so you could find it hard to organise it when you have no official papers from the school to say they’re interested.

If your school doesn’t want you to pass an exam, they’ll probably still want to see your results from the previous school. In any case, make sure that from the first meeting onwards, you have your latest school report from your current school, some form of ID could be useful (passport, driving licence…), you may want to ask your current school’s principal for your records etc. as this may be asked for. With this paperwork, you should be ready for your first meeting with the French school’s principal.

2. Which is best? ‘Privé’, ‘public’ or international school?

If you are unsure whether public or privé is better, click here to read our article which explains the two and compares one to the other.

For the list of more common, everyday schools, funded by the government, click here.

Here is a directory of private international schools in France: link on www.frenchentree.com.

In addition to the International Schools listed in the directory you may also be interested to learn about the international sections within certain French lycées. There are 12 British sections and 7 American. In addition to teaching the French curriculum students are also taught to A level standard in English. This allows successful students to go on to study for the ‘Option Internationale Baccalaureate’ (not the same thing as the International Baccalaureate). A full list of these lycées can be found on the official government CIEP site (Centre International d'Etudes Pédagogiques). Here are the direct links to lists of the international schools in France: Primaire (Primary); Collège (Secondary); Lycée (College).

3. How will my children get on in a French school?

The answer to this question varies quite a lot and it really depends on how willing they are to integrate. New foreign students have to make big efforts (especially in their first year), to be accepted by the native students as ‘willing’ and also to learn the language. It’s all too easy to just stay in a group of English-speaking students and if you do this, you’ll be at a massive disadvantage later down the line, moving on to lycée or university with a level of French that could have been better had you spoken to more French students.

Some schools participate in the FLE (Français Langue Etrangère) program. This is basically French classes for English-speaking students during school hours, in the school. However, if you have GCSE level French, you may not benefit from it a lot, but it’s definitely worth going to. The more French you can listen to and speak, the better you’ll get on.

You’ll have to bear in mind that there’s always that minority that will reject a foreigner at first sight, no matter what your level of French is. This is experienced by anyone, of any age, moving to any foreign country (Britain included). It’s an unavoidable situation and you’ll have to learn to cope with it. Showing you’re willing to learn the language and try to speak it can help you to be accepted by the majority of these people. You just need to prove their prejudices wrong.

Article by The Editor

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

Related articles

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1F9Ha8Ymfw

Choosing a Lycée or Collège

Dear Readers,

We are approaching the New Year and so I thought that it would be a good idea to help those who are about to start school late. You would be surprised by the number of ex-pats who actually start school in January. So here are some helpful tips on how to choose a Lycée or Collège.

In France, there are two types of schools:

• The Private schools (Lycées Privés)
• The Public schools

There is a difference between the two, however it is an on-going debate as to which is better.

Public schools	Private schools
The public schools are government funded establishments	Private schools don’t rely on the state for funding, however the curriculum has to be the same as the public school’s
These are more common in France and they’re not the same as what you would call a public school in the UK (Eton etc.)	Private schools are rarer than public schools. These schools are the equivalent of public schools in the UK (Eton etc.)… welcome to France! Everything is the other way round!
These schools have no fees, although there are still books to be bought and canteen bills and so on	These private schools can cost hundreds even thousands of euros a term, not counting books, canteen bills etc.
The public schools sometimes have the possibility of boarding	Private schools almost always have the possibility of boarding. That is the case 99% of the time.
In public schools, the intellectual abilities of each student is respected. When you calculate the year average results for a Lycée and a Collège combined, you’ll usually find an average of around 10. This is normal. It doesn’t mean that it’s worse teaching, it’s just more realistic – Some students are better in science than others, and others in literature. Public schools sometimes have a SEGPA section – a learning difficulties class, for those who find learning a struggle.	Students in private schools are expected to be the next Einstein or Steven Fry. Year average results are expected to exceed 16. There is a student in my class who moved to our Lycée (public) last year because her average of 16 wasn’t enough to get her through to 1ère. I would not recommend a private school to any expat who has little or no knowledge of French.
Public schools only took 7 of the top 20 places for “Best schools in France” for the school year of 2009.	According to a government report, private Lycées dominated the results in 2009 for the best Lycées in France, taking 13 out of the top 20 places, and 62 places out of the top 100 Lycées.
The UNA pointed out in 2009 that 43% of state lycées professionnels have class sizes of at least 100 pupils. While UNA clearly have a point, pupils attending the lycées professionnels sit for a different type of baccalaureate examination than those in the general lycées, so their comparison is a slightly false one. Most general lycées do have larger class sizes than most private schools, but average around 35 pupils per class.	The UNA pointed out that 15% of private lycées have less than 15 pupils per class and 30% less than 19 pupils. However, school results are expected to be much higher than Public Lycées’.

Around 65% of school pupils sat for the baccalaureate in the school year 2009. Over 300,000 pupils passed a “baccalauréat général” examination, 163,085 the “baccalauréat technologique” and 127,662 the “baccalauréat professionnel”.

The pass rate was 88.8% for the “baccalauréat général”, 79% for the “baccalauréat technologique” and 87% for the “baccalauréat professionnel”. These pass rates are increasing each year.

Despite the shortcomings of the figures, as Marie Duru-Bellat, a university professor of sociology at Sciences Po Paris commented to Le Monde: ‘The notion of value added is incontestably progress, to which other factors could be added… but to refuse to examine the differences between schools is ostrich politics.’

Article by The Editor

“Please sir, can I have some more… sleep?”

Dear Readers,

    Only one in five teenagers gets the optimal 9 hours of sleep on school nights.
    Lycée students who report earning C’s or lower, get less sleep than those reporting higher marks.
    Teenagers naturally get sleepy later at night and wake up later, putting them at odds with early school hours.

And it’s for these reasons, that there has been talk about changing school times for Lycée and Collège over the last few months because it has been scientifically proven that students have difficulty going to sleep and waking up at prescribed times.

This is how the plans are working in America. But many students in France agree with this decision.

Audrey Brissaud is a sixteen year old lycée student, studying for her BAC this year. The workload, combined with the incompatible school hours, mean that she finds it hard to pass a day without yawning. For Audrey, like many students, it’s an early start to the day. The day starts with her alarm going off at precisely 5:30 a.m. She then takes an hour to get ready before taking the bus at 7 a.m. It’s a half hour journey to her Lycée. When she gets home at 6 p.m, she has time to start her homework before having tea and getting back to work. In Premier, with the BAC de Français, Maths and Physique-Chimie et SVT, looming on the horizon, the increased workload means she’ll still be working come 10 p.m. She normally can’t sleep until 10:30 or 11 p.m which is natural for anyone of her age. However, if you do the math, it won’t take long to see she’s not getting enough sleep. She’ll usually get around 7 or 8 hours a night on school nights, just like the vast majority of Lycéens in France. But it’s not just France that has this problem. The UK, Ireland, Belgium, Italy, the USA and most other countries, face the same problem.

“Some of our epidemic of insomnia (or sleeplessness) is probably just due to our refusal to pay attention to our biology” says D.T. Max, sleep expert and author (pictured right), “The natural sleep rhythms of teenagers would call for a late wake-up – but there they are, starting school at 8 a.m”. The lack of sleep radically reduces productivity in the classroom and in the workplace. Charles Czeisler of Harvard University, notes that going without sleep for 24 hours or getting only five hours of sleep a night (in the case of some Lycéens) for a week, is the equivalent of a blood alcohol level of 0.1%. You wouldn’t send your kids to school drunk. Would you?

There are major health risks involved with the way we are educating our future generations. This is why the French government are “taking a look” at changing the hours. But we have a feeling it’s not going to be taken seriously and I hope we’re wrong.

The problem spreads further than Lycée. Primary school students who get less sleep are at greater risk of becoming overweight. But it goes outside the school system. The problem exists in the government sector as well. According to a Harvard-conducted study on 2,700 first-year medical residents, “one in 20 admits to making a fatigue-related mistake that resulted in the death of a patient”. Despite all these problems, it is possible to resolve the situation. The Spanish government have taken the matter seriously, and in 2006, a commission formed by businessman Ignacio Buqueras y Bach, who spearheaded the attempt to get Spaniards to bed earlier, became part of their government.

But for the moment, we just have to hope and pray that the French government will take it seriously and change the hours. After all, how can a student pass their exams if their drunk?

Article by The Editor

 

Related articles:

• A Closer Look at Teenage Sleep Patterns: How Tired is too Tired? (prweb.com)
• Knox area teens say they're not getting enough sleep (knoxnews.com)
• School day starts too early for sleepy students (and teachers), researchers say (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Survey: Teenagers Are Sleep Deprived (npr.org)
• Sleep Tips for Teens Who Struggle with Lack of Sleep (generalmedicine.suite101.com)

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

_______________________________

Just a reminder that you can now find The Lycée Times on Google. Just search for The Lycée Times and it’s the third or fourth one down, with the title being simply, “The Lycée Times”.
Or, bookmark us by pressing Ctrl+D on your keyboard!

Study hours in Lycée and Collège

Dear Readers,

This week I’ll be talking about study hours in Lycée and Collège. There is quite a difference between the two and the do’s and don’ts of study hours can be important.
Firstly, study hours in collège are just like any other class except you don’t have to go to them if you have them first thing in the morning or last thing in the afternoon providing that your parents have picked you up and notified the vie scolaire. In collège, your vie scolaire note at the end of the year can be quite important as well as in lycée. Your vie scolaire note is easily obtainable as 20/20 and you get it every term just like an average for any subject like French or maths. For more info see the Vie Scolaire article coming next week. If you’re well behaved during study hours in collège then your note should be very high. Study hours are much more tedious in collège, due to the fact that you’re sitting in a room for at least an hour. So if you haven’t got anything to do (I’ll use the parents favourite line) “bring a book”!

In Lycée however, study hours are much, much less boring. During study hours you’re allowed to either stay outside, hang out in the main hall with your friends, do your homework or go downtown. However, any trouble caused during study hours will be severely dealt with by the CPE’s and teachers who’s classes you may be late for after a study hour don’t appreciate it! An hour of Aide Individaulisée is a study hour if you don’t attend it.

Article by The Editor
                                                                           

Have you got a question about the French school system? Ask us and we’ll reply to you next week in a post on our blog! thelycéetimes@gmail.com The Lycée Times, first for first-hand information

The conseil de classe. Find out what the teachers DON’T tell you!

Dear Readers,

If this is your first year of experience of the French schooling system and you’re not brain-dead yet, I would personally like to congratulate you. Well done, you’ve done it! It’s the end of the year!
Yes, the end of the year is forever nearing closer as we move into June and this means that the teachers will be having a meeting called the “Conseil de classe” (Class council) which is made up of your year head, class tutor and principle. All of these, plus your other teachers from all of the subjects will have an input into the verdict at the end of the term on whether you’ll be going into next year or not. There are, however, some things worth knowing that the teachers don’t tell you!

1. They might try to make you repeat
This is something to be wary of. The teachers can have the tendency just to go ahead with this things, regardless of your results “because you’re a foreign student”. Cruel, but so very unfortunately true! You mustn’t fall for this straight away. There are a couple of things to take into account first. Firstly, you should not repeat the year if your moyenne generale is higher than 10. Especially in collège. There are (and this is a fact) French students who go through to the following year with moyennes of 10 and foreign students who get kept back even if they have the same result. They’ll try to make it sound as if it will be “hell on earth the next year” and “that you must repeat because you won’t be capable” but really, if your moyenne generale is higher than 10, get out the cotton-wool!

2. Retiring teachers can help!
Ok, ok, I know this sounds silly but you’ll need all the help you can get. All of your teachers get a form in the shape of a table. What they must do is tick the “Yes” or “No” box as to whether you go through to the following year. If they want you to go through then they’ll tick “Yes” and vice versa. Retiring teachers, if they’re nice, can help you out by giving you a “Yes”. This was my case a couple of years ago. The week before the conseil de classe, my teacher who was retiring that year, approached me after class and asked would I like to go through to the following year. I said yes and she said that she would support that decision and try to make it like her “final act” in her schooling life, to get me what I wanted. But you have to have been well behaved during the year… That could help more!

3. Things to bear in mind before you go running off to repeat
Bear in mind that if you are in 2nde this year and you’re thinking about repeating, that there is the réforme du lycée next year. This means that you won’t be doing exactly the same things you did this year and you may not even have the same books! No-one knows! Even the teachers!

4. What the teachers never mention
The teachers will try to make you repeat and they will say that it will be too hard. Don't fall for it! In an interview with a French teacher, she said casually, that "we repeat all foreign students once they get to 3ème before going onto 2nde". So it's a cycle that they have in place and you should know by now what the French are like with their Administration departments etc.

I hope this advice has been helpful. I understand some of this may seem a little racist towards the French on my part, but I’m not. My best friend is French. It’s just the truth! Please leave your questions (and/or criticism!)  in the comments box below. You don’t need an account and you don’t need to log in. Just click on the text saying the number of comments, write your comment and press “Post Comment”.

Article by The Editor

Lycée General - Module and Aide Individualisée

Dear Readers,

It's been a while since the last post due to some computer problems but should be near to normal this week and back to normal soon.

This week I'll be talking about the "heures de module" in Lycée General. In Lycée General you may have module hours in your timetable. Some lycées don't have this and some lycées have them for different subjects. The normal subjects are things that you do experiments in, such as SVT (biology) and Physics and Chemistry, and others can include French, History and Geography etc. The "heures de module" are classes composed of half the class, usually around 14 students (depends on the location of the school), and these class hours concentrate on things that you are doing in class but sometimes from a different aspect or deeper into the subject. These classes are useful for both student and teacher as the student can get more help from the less-occupied-than-usual teacher and the teacher can get to know the weaknesses of the class and individual students so that they can focus more on those points once with the full class. Typically, during module you work in groups of three or four or sometimes just with the person next to you. Module hours shouldn't be wasted as they are useful to catch up if you've missed out on something or if you don't understand something. Should you have that problem there might be an hour or "Aide Individualisée" on your timetable. This class is optional and the students who go to it are those who are stuck on something or aren't sure about a topic treated in class etc. It would be a very good idea to go to your hours of French Aide Individualisée if you aren't receiving extra help from the school in learning the language. These hours go back over the things covered in class and are very useful so use them wisely as you only have them in Seconde. Aide Inividualisée hours are typically for French and Maths and you have one hour of each during the week. If Aide Individaulisée is not attended, the student does étude libre (free study) instead.

Article by The Editor

Brevet des Collèges - What's it actually for?

Dear Readers,

I have been asked this question so many times, having been through the process myself, everyone asks the one same question: "Is it important?". Well the answer is, not really! The Brevet is an exam you do when you are in 3ème. It's the French equivalent of GCSE's but it doesn't even need to be on your CV when you're looking for a job after school! Some people believe that this exam decides whether you get through to Lycée after 3ème. A woman who has a son in 3ème asked me earlier this week, "does the Brevet decide to let you though to Lycée?". After having been through the mangle of the Brevet and having spoken with my principal on the matter last year, our school principal claimed that your moyenne generale in 3ème decides whether you go through and not your result in the Brevet. In fact, this decision is already made a month before you even enter the exam hall. Our principal continued in saying that "the brevet is irrelevant". Your conseil de classe decides whether your moyenne generale is good enough to let you through in May. The Brevet is held normally during the second last week of school before the summer holidays in July. So don't get nervous going into your Brevet. The decision is already made and has been discussed between you, your parents and your teachers before you even pick up your pen in that exam hall.

It is, however a good idea to get a good a result as you can get just to prove to your teachers that a foreign student can pass the exam. It's also to allow you to have bragging rights for the next year... if you get a good note.

The Brevet Blancs are held throughout the year. Usually in January and another at some other point before the real thing. These are mock exams and usually much, much harder than the actual Brevet itself. Bear this in mind when talking to your principal if he brings up the matter in a meeting. It will prove to him that you aren't a fool and you're making a sensible decision after having done research.

I hope this has cleared up the brevet issue for all of you.

Article by The Editor

Coefficients on tests

Dear Readers,

This week I will be explaining to you about coefficients on tests and exams because it can be quite confusing. It took me a while to get my head around it, but here it is.

In France, teachers have a habit of having coefficients on tests and exams. What this means, is that whatever note you get in a test, your result is put into your moyenne general depending the number of the coefficient of the test. 

For example, if you get 12/20 in a French test, with a coefficient of 2, then when your teacher goes to add that test to your moyenne generale, they will put it in twice:

(the brackets {} represent 1 test)

{14/20 (coeff.1)}, {9/20 (coeff.1)}, {17/20 (coeff.1)}, {12/20, 12/20 (coeff. 2)} 

After adding it up:

Moyenne: 12,8

Even though you've had one test where your note was 12, it gets put in twice because it was coefficient 2.

This can drag your notes down, so when the teacher says there'll be a test coming up, always remember to ask what coefficent it will be. Coefficient is the same word in French, so remember! If it's a high coefficient test, revise hard to get a good note, otherwise it may lower your moyenne at the end of the term!

Article by The Editor

BACs and Lycée

Dear readers,

This week I will be talking breifly about Lycée and BACs.

I will start with the differences between Lycée and Collège. To start off with, in lycée you have a lot more freedom. During study hours, you are not made to sit in a room. Instead, you are free to spend time with your friends either around the school campus or around the town. This freedom is to be respected though. The CPE's (heads of the vie scolaire) will take it away from you if you go even slightly out of line when around the town. It's precious so take care of it!

Lycée does however require a lot more work and a lot of important choices. When moving into lycée, you have two choices. You can do a lycée générale course, which will bring you onto a BAC L, BAC S, BAC STG, BAC ES etc. Your BAC is the last exam you will do in lycée before going onto university if you choose to do so, so your BAC goes on your CV when applying for a job. On the other hand, you can opt for the lycée professionelle course which is basically business studies or training to go into catering etc. If you are planning on going onto university, it is not advised to choose this route, and also, when you come to apply for a job that requires a BAC other than the BAC Professionelle, you stand a much lower chance of getting that job. However, this is an advised BAC if you plan on entering the field of catering; on the other hand, it is not advised if you think you might change your mind later on, as it is virtually impossible to pass from lycée professionelle into lycée général once you have passed into 1ère. BACs are confusing, do not worry. It can take a while to get your head around them. For more information, go to www.onisep.fr.


Article by The Editor

The French Education System - Collège

Dear readers,

The French education system, like so many others, has unique names for different school years and exams. In this, our first article, I will explain to you, in the easiest way I can, about the different years and I will tell you a bit about the subjects and exams to expect as you work your way through.

To start off, in France, they have 6ème, 5ème, 4ème and 3ème in collège, and 2nde, 1ère and Terminale in lycée. Collège is basically secondary school all the way up to your GCSEs (Britain) or Junior Cert (Ireland), of which the French equivalent is the Brevet des Collèges. After your Brevet, you move onto lycée and into 2nde.

After CM 2 (the last year of primary school), you go into 6ème which is also known as the "cycle d'adaptation". In this year, you will have many hours of your timetable taken up with subjects that you will not have the following year. These are called "les heures d'adaptation" which helps you to adapt to life in collège. Other subjects include music, art, technology (woodwork, metalwork, technical drawing), choir (optional) SVT (biology), and the Projet Personnalisé de Réussite Educative (PPRE) which helps students in difficulty with things such as reading and writing etc. This is advisable for any students who have recently moved over from a foreign country, but it's for all students in 6ème.

After 6ème, you move into the "cycle central" which is 5ème and then 4ème. In these years, you will no longer have the PPRE, but will keep art, choir etc. New subjects will include Latin (optional but can count towards your BAC) and Physics and Chemistry (one subject). In 5ème, you could be doing different workshops and group projects chosen between you and your teacher. Then when you move into 4ème, you'll need to start thinking about lycée and what job you would like to do when you leave school. Part of the 4ème curriculum includes a week of "work experience" where you'll get to see how enterprises work. This includes day trips etc.

After 4ème, you'll be moving onto your last year at collège. This is the year where, if in Britain, all the girls would cry come June... That's not the case in France! 3ème is known as the "cycle d'orientation" where you have to decide what BAC you want to go on to do, in order to decide whether lycée générale or professionelle is best for you. The best way to do this is to pick a job or a field that you'd be happy working in, see what BAC you would need, then see which course you have to do to get access to that BAC. 3ème is not worth repeating if your averages are higher than 10. The teachers will try to make you repeat and they will say that it will be too hard. Don't fall for it! In an interview with a french teacher, she said casually, that "we repeat all foreign students once they get to 3ème before going onto 2nde". So it's a cycle that they have in place. If your averages are under 10, then a repeat of 3ème is advised. If not, ignore the teachers, tell them you want to pass onto lycée straight away, and if they still persist in saying that a repeat of the year is what they want you to do, you can appeal to the school's "conseil de classe" (class council) which is made up of your year head, class tutor and principal. Making an appeal could force them to put you through. Remember, the teachers are not your friends, they don't want you to do your best in France, and they just want to get you through the system and out the other side with a BAC. It might not even be a BAC that allows you to do what you want to do, so do what you want to do and don't listen to them unless your average is under 10.

Another thing that comes up in 3ème is the Brevet. This cannot determine whether you go onto lycée or not because you do the Brevet after that decision has been made. Throughout the year, you'll do two or three Brevet Blancs. A Brevet Blanc is a mock exam which prepares you for the real thing in June. Brevet Blancs are also notoriously harder than the real Brevet, however, the Brevet Blancs are easily noted and they won't go too hard on you. If your notes are bad for the Brevet Blancs, a lot of work needs to be put in in order to prepare yourself for the real thing.

Article by The Editor