L'école en France (la culture)

​Lets talk about how schools work in France...

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​You'll notice a lot of similarities and a lot of differences as well

​French school year starts in early September and ends the first week in July.

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​The have a "fall break", "Christmas break", "February break" and a "Spring break" each is usually about 2 weeks long.

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​The country is divided into 3 different Zones so that everyone isn't off of school at the same time

​When in French high school, you have to choose which "track" you wish to follow:

​1 scientifique (sciences) (S); sciences économiques et sociales

(economics and social sciences) (ES) ; littéraire (literature) (L)

​2. Students choose based on their interests and what direction they wish to pursue. If a student is undecided, they tend to pick the science track as it will look better for university.

​Students are required to take a wide variety of classes from middle & high schools

​* students start with 1 foreign language in middle school and add in a 2nd when in high school

​* Students will take classes in science, math, language, litterature, philosophy, economics etc.

​* in middle school, students have off on Wednesdays (often a time for clubs, sports etc.)

​* as high school progresses, students begin to add in courses on Wednesday mornings & by terminale year they will have school Saturday mornings as well

​The second page of the google doc had a real image of a French high school student's schedule.

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​You should have noticed some BIG differences:

​1. They don't have the same classes every day of the week

​2. Some classes will be 2 - 3 times a week, others 1 or 2

​3. Classes can be 1 - 2 hours long

​4. They can have the class at one time one day of the week and at another time on another day of the week