Today we will talk about how the educational process works in France and how it differs from what we are used to. September 15, 2022 0 3 min

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There is no school uniform in France – children come to school in their usual comfortable clothes. It is not customary to give gifts to teachers from parents, there are no fees for curtains/wallpaper/flowerpots either. There may be small fees for gifts for children for the holidays, and sometimes for additional excursions. Everything is free except lunches and extracurricular activities. The school provides textbooks free of charge, and in elementary school also notebooks.

The composition of classes and class teachers change every year for better socialization of children. On the one hand, this contributes to the expansion of the children's social circle, prevents the appearance of favorites among teachers and especially “sung companies”. On September 1, children with their parents will find out with whom they will study this year. The teacher gets acquainted with the parents of his students, discusses organizational issues, and after that the parents disperse, and the school territory is closed to the public.

Classes usually have up to 25-35 students. The children do not have diaries, instead of them carnet de correspondance is a notebook, which indicates the schedule and mode when the child can leave school, notes on absences and messages to parents.

Education in France is compulsory, and is divided into the following stages:

• Junior School (Ecole maternelle) – an analogue of kindergarten (from 3 to 6 years). Here, children learn to speak, interact with each other and the world around them, play, sculpt, draw, etc.
• Primary School (Ecole élémentaire)– here they study for a total of 5 years from the age of 6-7. There are almost no grades here and no big homework assignments. During breaks, children can play outdoors and run around as much as they like. During the long lunch break, children play football, volleyball, hide-and-seek, etc., and can also spend time in a special room with books and board games. The extended day group is identical to the breaks – the children play and have fun together. New for elementary school from September 2022 is 30 minutes of daily exercise. This can be any physical activity at the discretion of the school – jump rope, ball game, relay races, etc.
• Middle School – College (College)– lasts 4 years. In this school, children, in addition to the class teacher, have teachers in various subjects, homework and grades, as well as individual lockers with locks for personal belongings and their teenage secrets. As a rule, college has 4.5-5 school days a week.

In the very first days, it is important to have time to sign up for various circles that take place during a long lunch or on Wednesday after school for a symbolic fee. The last year in college is career guidance: parents or students themselves find an internship at an enterprise where they are shown different professions.

At the end of high school in France, graduates take exams and receive a document – Diplôme National du Brevet – an established form of basic secondary education, which already allows you to work. At this stage, compulsory secondary education ends.

• High school or lyceum (Lycée) – lasts 3 years (from 15 to 18 years old) and allows you to get either a specialized education for working professions (lycee professionnel), or is a preparatory stage for admission to universities. There are two types of lyceums:
  
  • technological (technologique) – adapted more for technological universities;
  • general education (general) – adapted for universities of any orientation.

In them, children are actively preparing for final exams and, if successful, their passing (from 10 points), they receive a bachelor's degree (baccalauréat or bac). Otherwise, a Certificate of Completion of Complete Secondary Education is issued. New from September 2022 – 1.5 hours of additional math classes are now optional.

According to FranceUkraineNews.

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