Good question…
But first…wondering how schools are set up in France? Well, this is what I learned so far:
Formal education in France is divided into three main stages: primary education, secondary education, and higher education. Within this you have preschools, or pre-maternelles and maternelles, which are not obligatory, and the mandatory école (elementary), collèges (middle), and lycée (high). Usually, children start mandatory education when they turn 6.
The école (elementary) is divided into five grades, counting backwards: 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th, and 7th. Middle school, or collège, has four: 6th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd. Finally, the lycée, or High School, has the 2nd, 1st, and what they call Terminale, or final grade. After the lycée, the student can try for higher education by taking a test, the baccalauréat , which can give the student acceptance into a university or a technical school, depending on the type of baccalauréat chosen.
Back to the école, s’il vous plait.
A typical school day starts at 8:30am and ends at 4:30pm (or 16:30). Oh, except Wednesdays! Generally, on Wednesdays students are dismissed before lunch break.
Speaking about breaks, and this is what got my kids hooked, they have two recess breaks, AND a 2 hour lunch break.
Let me repeat that so you understand how this small piece of information got my children psyched for school.
Two whole hours out of their school day designated for eating and leisure activities.
So, school is in session from 8:30 to 11:30, pausing for lunch (as pretty much most of the country- you can’t get anything done during lunch. nada. zip.) until 1:30. During this time students will play freely and also participate in games organized by “entertainers” or helpers. Well, at least this is what happens at my kids’ school.
Now, lunch became a HUGE thing for my kids. If a child isn’t going home for lunch (which they can do by themselves) they eat lunch at school at the cantine.
The actual meal consists of a starter dish, a salad or soup, a main dish, cheese, fruit, and dessert…AND from what I’ve heard at home
IT IS DELICIOUS.
Oh, AND they serve it on
“real plates with real glasses and real knives and real forks and even real napkins!” (quoting my child, verbatim).
This is, perhaps, the favorite part of our day when school is out and I watch my kids excitedly tell me about the different things they tasted at lunch, “even the smelly cheese, mom!” and how they’re stuffed and how nobody talks, everyone is proper and a server walks around asking if they want seconds or – GASP – even third helpings!
Sorry if I’m too excited about this, but I have a child who eats very little and is rarely hungry. Watching him change under the stimulus of a carefully planned meal is amazing. Sure, I cook at home and we sit at the table together, but there is something magical about being in a school environment with your peers and observing how they relate to food and to that moment.
That, my friends, the French do very, very well. Saving it for a future post on French eating.
Classes start again after lunch break, except on Mondays, when instead of having regular lessons they are broken into groups and taken around town to different centers for special activities, including pottery, horse riding, archery, cool sword fighting (aka fencing), map making, and your run of the mill painting, theater etc. Super cool, and another favorite thing for my kids.
On average, when you discount the long lunch break, an elementary student in France will spend from 24-28 hours a week in school, (compare it to Americans averaging 28 hours a week, and Brazilians at 20 hours a week (generally speaking, of course).
Finally, for international students who don’t speak French bigger schools usually offer français langue étrangère, or FLS (their version of ESL) but teachers treat and expect their non-French speaking students to excel and perform as their native speakers (it seems that there is very little wiggle room for exceptions when it comes to school regulations).
So there you have it, the run down of the French education system and a little bit on the daily structure of elementary school life.
Disclaimer: I am in no way, shape, or form an expert on any school system, be it French, American, or Brazilian. I am simply sharing what I learn as I learn it.
