Education in France

Sending your child to school in France
If you plan to enrol your child at a school in your commune, initial enquiries should be made at your mairie (town hall), where you will be advised on who to contact and how to complete the various formalities. Children should be enrolled before June to start school in September.

Home-schooling is legal, but you must speak to the mairie if you intend to take this route. France also has also private schools and some international schools.

The following information applies to state schooling in France.

Maternelle
Ecoles maternelles (nursery schools) accept children from the age of 2. Sending your child to maternelle, although not compulsory, is the norm, and is free of charge. Maternelle has three sections. Ages 2 and 3 go into Petite (Little) section, 3-5s into Moyenne (Middle), and ages 5 and 6 into Grande (Big).

The ‘stages’
Compulsory schooling begins at the age of 6. Children enter primary school (école élémentaire) in ‘year 11’ (also known as Cours Préparatoire 1/CP1), and reach ‘year 7’ by the age of 10-11. They then move up to collège (secondary school) to enter ‘year 6’. In ‘year 3’ (troisième), by which time they will be 15 or 16, they sit an examination known as the brevet des colleges, or simply the brevet. Each child then decides, together with parents and teachers, whether to continue in education and if so, which subjects to specialise in and which qualification to aim for. If continuing, they study for a further 3 years (Seconde, Premier and Terminale) at the appropriate lycée before sitting their chosen Baccalauréat, or ‘Bac’.

Redoublement
It’s not uncommon for the school to ask a child to repeat (redoubler) a year. In the UK this might be considered a stigma, but not so in France. The rationale is that since children develop at different rates, some of the class will have inevitably fallen behind their peers at the end of each year. It’s seen as preferable to give those children a chance to catch up and start the next year on a level footing, rather than move them up when they are already struggling, and risk causing them to fall further behind.

La Rentrée des Classes
The French school year is broadly similar to that in the UK, beginning in early September; exact dates vary slightly from place to place. A means-tested grant to help parents buy books and equipment, the allocation de rentrée scholaire (ARS), is paid to the parents of children in primaire and above.

After the Bac
Fees at most universities are low, and all students who pass their Bac are entitled to a university place. The fall-out rate amongst students is, however, very high.

For complete information on schooling (in French), visit the French government website