The effects of la rentrée

AFTER two months of holidays parents and children are now ready for la rentrée this week.

The cartables, or school bags, and school equipment listed by the teachers have been bought. I weighed my seven year old granddaughter's school bag, full of equipment, and it was 5.2 kgs.

She has a school bag on wheels as the weight is too much for her.

The bus passes have been issued so the children can take the bus scolaire and everyone can relax as school reopens for another year.

According to the government all children should have school insurance, assurance scolaire, not for obligatory activities but for the acitivitiés périscolaires or extra-curricular activities.

It is advisable to discuss with your insurance provider cover for risk of harm to your child, décès-invalidité and individuelle accident and harm they might do another child, résponsabilité civille just to check all is up to date and covered.

Insurance covers things like school trips, foreign trips, dental braces, glasses, theft of school equipment and home tutoring during periods of illness.

Children who will be starting school for the first time, moving up the school or changing school are best having their insurance cover checked.

But, for everyone in maternelle and primaire the adjustment to the compulsory service minimum, four day school week, along with a 'back to basics' curriculum will take some getting used to.

We haven't received anything definitive from either of our grandchildren's schools but according to the French education site from September 2008 children in maternelles et élémentaires will have 24 hours of teaching per week, that is six hours per day Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Some schools have opted to change the Saturday morning school for a Wednesday morning; but it seems most schools will be sticking to the four day week.

Wednesdays have traditionally been kept free for extra-curricular activities.

The compulsory service minimum puts the emphasis on oral language in maternelle where it is an important factor for children to learn to express themselves by sounds, sentence structure and writing, preparing themselves for the transition to primaire.

As part of the new 'back to basics' approach to education in the first two years of primaire, CP and CE1, when children traditionally start to read there will be 10 hours of French per week; five hours of maths, while the rest of the hours will be split between other subjects of modern languages, sport, art and world discovery.

From CE2 to the end of primaire, eight hours will be devoted to French and five hours to maths. Modern languages, sport, experimental sciences, technology, history, geography, civic education, art and art history will be split between the remaining hours.

Children in CE1 and CE2 will be facing new tests, with extra support of two hours per week and holiday courses on offer for those who are considered to be falling behind. The new approach is to cut the levels of children who leave primaire without the basic 3Rs.

However, it appears that la rentrée will be accompanied by disruption as strikes against the new reforms and job cuts are likely.

It has been announced that more than 11,000 staff will not to be replaced at la rentrée and over the next year another 13,500 cut backs are expected.

Strikes can be expected at the end of September and early October. The CGT union are particularly concerned by the cut backs, who have said, "if we don't keep up recruitment how are the children to succeed?"

They are also expecting reactions to the service minimum, as well as the need for 48 hours notice of strikes and the new curriculum.

There is also a relaxation in rules covering catchment areas, the carte scolaire, which the unions also have concerns about, the CGT said "this could be unpopular as some schools could receive high demand while others not enough and face closure".

Parents especially wait to hear of further outcomes.

Comments

[Ian Walthew]

There was a great article about the rentree in the International Herald Tribune which I posted on my blog: http://aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com/2008/09/place-in-auvergne-monday-1st-september.html

Actually, at www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com , I generally post articles from the IHT about France under the fourth picture of each day.

[Ian Walthew]

Craig, I read your piece on the rentree with interest.

Having 2 kids at French schools, my understanding is that Saturday morning school is being scrapped nationally and that ALL French schools will have Wednesdays off, rather than the option they had before which was EITHER Wednesday mornings OR Saturday mornings 3 Saturdays out of 4. But I could be wrong!
www.aplaceintheauvergne.blogspot.com

[Coral]

It was me who wrote the article and it was really from the perspective of our experience.

This morning we took our granddaughter to primaire and the directrice (who is also her class teacher) gave her usual rules and regulation speech, explained the books to be used and also explained about the new cirriculum. This has a great emphasis on French; oral, reading, grammar, vocabulary, poetry etc which will take up much of the teaching time followed by maths. Anything else will fit into the remaining time allowed.

She also told us that a meeting is being held on 15 September to explain about the 4 day school week and what other plans have been decided now there is no longer Saturday morning school.

Our grandson's maternelle has a similar meeting on 17 September.

There is the chance for children who fall behind to have remedial teaching and perhaps holiday school but this depends on where people live in France.

Some time ago in the West of France Saturday school stopped and pupils attended on a Wednesday morning but whether this has continued in light of changes made by the government I don't know.

As for Paris, they are usually a law unto themselves and do things to suit themselves.

Wednesday has usually been kept for sports and other activities, so perhaps Wednesdays school would not be an option. Historically it was for catechism (preparation for confirmation in church) but with less worshipers this has more or less fallen by the wayside; unless someone can say differently.

There is to be union involvement, especially regarding the new curriculum and the 'back to basics' approach which I remember from England. However, strangely I haven't seen anything about the cut in hours for teachers. I reckon they will be working roughly 9 hours less a month (as usually the school was closed one Saturday in four) so how does that pan out financially for them? There will be strikes (again) this time over the cut in staff but usually the French get hot under the collar if it affects their pockets, so perhaps over time we will learn more.

The information I receive comes from the French education site and other sites I subscribe to.

Coral

[Clare]

What does Ian mean by "all" French schools? Alexandra has started back today (Wednesday). She is in 4° so I assume that "all" does not apply to collége and lycee.

Funnily enough, the 6° started yesterday (had the place to themseves) and aren't going in today as "their teachers aren't in school"!!!!

So. We send them off for rentrée only to find that for the next 2 months they'll hardly there anyway and there is the Toussaint break at the end of October!!!!

Are they going to be educated this year or not!

BYW when Alex was in maternelle and primaire she only had Wednesday school if time had to be made up (Bank Holidays, etc) and that was usually in May. In Aquitaine the maternelles and primaires have shorter holidays than the colléges and lycees. They break up later, go back earlier and the Autumn and Spring breaks are for 10 days rather than 2 weeks.

[Craig McGinty]

Hi Clare, chatting with Coral yesterday and it was clear that different parts of France look set to be working to different timetables.
Not being a parent myself I can only imagine the difficulty people must have in arranging child care at such short notice.
All the best, Craig

[Richard]

Hi Craig,
Here in the Vendee our kids at college have been attending on a wednesday morning certainly for the last 2 years that we know about. In 6eme they go every other wednesday morning, and in the higher years they go every wednesday morning. Saturdays are, thankfully, free :)
Richard