WITH school children set to head back to the classroom in the next couple of weeks, here is a reminder of the important school holiday dates for the coming academic year.
The Calendrier Scolaire points out the different dates for holidays amongst the different educational zones in France.
The three distinct zones when it comes to the dates of when classes break up are:
More on: Holiday dates for French schools
FROM her home near Montpellier, Sarah Hague, has written a foodie book for children that is sure to make them smile this Christmas.
Slim the Vegetarian Ogre tells the tale of a young ogre who has turned his nose up at eating humans, to the dismay of his parents.
So they take him to the doctor's surgery, again, and still nothing helps so instead the idea of a cook-off between humans and ogres takes shape.
THE French education department has launched a new website to promote discussion around school timetables, as well as holidays and leisure time for children.
Rythmes-Scolaires.fr has been set up to enable discussion and to let parents, students, teachers and others to learn more and feed in ideas about how children spend their time in class.
It offers up questions on subjects like the length of holidays, how many breaks are necessary and the difficulties of travelling to school.
Education ministers also aim to arrange local meetings in schools towards the end of the year.
IT is interesting to see that while UK school children are turning their backs on modern languages, including French, there is a push from the education department in France for students to learn English.
Education minister, Luc Chatel, was visiting a school in Paris recently where students were undertaking intensive English lessons during the summer holiday.
And while this option has been available for a few years, he announced that more schools would offer the courses and that all secondary school students would be able to take additional English lessons during the winter and spring holidays.
A far cry from the UK where French is no longer in the top 10 of most popular subjects studied at GCSE level.
THE French government has withdrawn plans which would have reduced the amount of money that families could claim or save for children at university.
The initial plans would have meant parents had to decide whether to claim for aide personnalisée au logement (APL), which is money that goes towards the cost of renting accommodation.
Or whether their child would count as part of their 'tax household' and so reduce their income tax bill.
HERE is a reminder of the important dates over the coming academic year as school children head back to the classroom at the beginning of next month.
The Calendrier Scolaire points out the different dates for holidays amongst the three distinct educational zones in France.
Also you'll find just to the right of the page there is a link to a printable version of the calendar, as well as the opportunity to download the dates in the iCalendar format.
THE French Ministry of Education has published its list of recommended items ahead of la rentrée and the return to school.
Les essentiels de la rentrée is a collection of everything from books to pens through to sticky tape and school bags.
Many of the prices for the products have been agreed upon between the government and suppliers with the majority of them the same as last year.
The list features items for the three different school ages, école élémentaire, collège et lycée, and look out for the words 'essentiels de la rentrée' and the logo above when stocking up in the shops.
FOR the second year running the French education department is promoting an online stop that aims to help school children over the summer holiday period.
Academie-en-Ligne provides .pdf guides, audiovisual tools and links to other resources that will prove helpful to students, but may also help improve your own French language skills.
The French section provides worksheets for different school years which you can print off, and there are a number of other subjects that you might want to cast an eye over.
GENEALOGICAL research in France is a delight, for there is so much documentation, so very logically organised, writes Anne Morddel.
What is lacking, however, is a central index available to genealogists that would enable a nation-wide, department-wide, or even municipality-wide search for a person.
Many North American researchers use Ancestry.com to search US federal censuses and expect to find a similar resource available for French records. It does not yet exist.
To begin research in France, one must have three crucial pieces of information: a name, a place and a date, preferably for a birth, a death or a marriage.
ALTHOUGH many families when moving to France may look into the possibility of enrolling their children into an international school, there is also a long established private education sector.
And despite the republican values of there being a strong dividing line between church and state, many of the schools will have a religious background but also receive money from the authorities.
However, many of these schools, especially those in rural areas rely upon the fund raising efforts of parents, and Jon Doust writes a very interesting article about his involvement with his local school.
