The ABCs of French Education

Here is a very basic introduction to the structure of French primary and secondary education. School is free, secular, and mandatory (gratuite, laïque, obligatoire- merci Jules Ferry) from age 6. There are, however, private schools, mostly Catholic.

Premier degré:

École maternelle (Kindergarten)

Petite Section (PS), 3-4 years old

Moyenne Section (MS), 4-5 years old

Grande Section (GS), 5-6 years old

École élémentaire (Elementary School, my area of expertise)

Cours préparatoire (CP), 6-7 years old

Cours élémentaire première année (CE1), 7-8 years old

Cours élémentaire deuxième année (CE2), 8-9 years old

Cours moyen première année (CM1), 9-10 years old

Cours moyen deuxième année (CM2), 10-11 years old

CP = 1st grade; CM2 = 5th grade

Second degré:

Collège (Middle School)

Sixième (6e), 11-12 years old

Cinquième (5e), 12-13 years old

Quatrième (4e), 13-14 years old

Troisième (3e), 14-15 years old

6e = 6th grade, but starting here they count down so 5e = 7th grade. There are 4 years of middle school in France and 3 years of high school, opposite to most American schools.

Lycée (High School)

Seconde (2nde), 15-16 years old

Première (1ère), 16-17 years old

Terminale (T), 17-18 years old

See, still counting down. 2nde = 10th grade/sophomore year; 1ère = 11th grade/junior year; T = 12th grade/senior year. Although it's confusing for me, I kind of like the counting down method. Terminale (the end!) definitely gives the sense of finishing 12 years of education.

School Day

For my schools, the day starts at 8:30am, and ends at 4:30pm. The lunch break is from 11:30am-1:30pm. There is a school cafeteria, but many children go home for lunch. There are two breaks for recess (supposed to be 20 minutes, but seems to be about 30) at 10am and 3pm. Oh yeah, and there's no school on Wednesdays! There used to be school on Saturday mornings, but not anymore, at least not for my schools and not that I know of for others.

Vacation

French primary and secondary students get about 7 weeks of vacation during the school year, and 2 months off for summer. School begins at the beginning of September, and goes through the end of June/beginning of July. There is a week and a half vacation for Toussaint (All Saint's) in October/November, 2 weeks for Christmas, 2 weeks for Winter break, and 2 weeks for Spring break.

Well, that is definitely very basic info that you can find many other places too, but it's a starting point and I plan to share more, especially about learning languages in schools in France.