Here are a few things you might want to know about our French Schooling System:

In France, we begin school with nursery school when we are three years old. It is called “école maternelle”. There we do simple things: we draw, we eat, we sleep in the afternoon ! We learn little things like : the days of the week, numbers, animals, colours. But we draw a lot ! School starts at 9am and finishes at 4:30 pm. We work on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. It's not the most important moment of our school life ! It's not compulsory. After 3 or4 years at nursery school ( 2 years in little section if we start at two, one year in middle section and another in big section ) from the age of 2 at the age of 6.

Then it's primary school. Serious things are on their way ! We begin to learn to read and to write. We again draw but less than at nursery school. We begin to learn a little of English but it's in the last year at Primary school that we really begin to learn English. In primary school, we learn important subjects like : sciences, French, mathematics, English.. It's from the age of 6 to the age of 11. It lasts 5 years and the time-table remains the same. We learn important things that we mustn't forget to be a good student later on. From the age of 11, French children attend middle school for 4 years, in France it is called “college”. This school prepares us for our choice of specialization. We have such subjects as mathematics, French, sciences, physics, European English, English , art, music, Spanish or German , and physical education. There are lots of changes between primary school and middle school. We have many teachers in middle school, we have to move from one classroom to another in between two lessons. We can work from 8am to 5:30 pm, it depends on our time-tables. We work on the same days as in Primary School but we come in on Wednesday mornings too. We are more autonomous and responsible than we were in primary school. At the end of these 4 years, there is an exam we must take : “le Brevet des colleges” . After that we have many possibilities : The Lycée general (high school) or the Lycée professionnel (vocational school). Most students go to a Lycée Général. We go to High School when we are 15. It is very much like Middle School but it is more difficult and students are more independent. At the end of High School we are 18 and there is a big exam called the Baccalauréat which will be our passport for further studies.

We do a general Year 10 or “seconde” and the following year, we have to choose between : a Year 11 in science, in economics or in litterature. The scientific section is the most prestigious and the hardest but with the "baccalauréat" in science, you can choose any school you want to have a really good job. At the lycée we also work Saturday mornings. It depends on our time-tables. The baccalauréat is the BIG THING in our school life ! It's at the end of our 3 years at the “Lycée”.

In all, we have to stay some 16 years at school ! And after school we can have a job but, and it's better, we can go to university ( or " la faculté " ) to do studies and have a better job. We can also go to “Grandes Ecoles” which trains the French elite but you have to do a two-year training to take the exams to get into those schools. A lot of hardwork… At all levels we are up to 30 students per class, a little less in nursery school and a little more at the lycée. Prestigious lycées like Henri IV have up to 39 students in a class at the “lycée”. In our school it is sometimes a problem because some classrooms are too small to have thirty students in. For lunch, whichever level we are at, there is always a school canteen to have lunch but it is not always very good and we don’t have time to eat much. At Françoise Giroud our playground is quite small and the classes are set on four floors so it is very tiring. The school only opened two years ago. There is also a gym where we can practise activities such as boxing, basketball, rockclimbing and table tennis. That’s great!

Here is our time-table:

Now it is your turn, tell us about American schooling please.

What are your time-tables like? Your lessons? How old are you when you attend them? What do you do at school? With who? Do you enjoy what you do ( or are you like us…)? How many of you are there in a class? What is your time-table like? How is your school? Do you take an exam when you are in middle school?