Little French Homestead

• Sunday 30 April 2006 - School organization

In France, children go to nursery school from 3 to 6 (3 grades). This is not compulsory but concern 99% of young children. Then, we have the public school system "free, compulsory and non-religious", I must add that the nursery schools are a part of the public system, they are also completly free. Primary school goes from 6 to 11 (5 grades), next we have what we call "collège " (Jr high school)) from 11 to 15 (4 grades), next is "lycée" (high school) from 15 to 18 (3 grades). At the end of lycée you have to pass a very important exam, "baccalauréat", to be allowed to go to university.

There is also a private system, similar to the public one, the only differences is religious teaching ( these schools are mostly catholic, for historical reasons), and of course you have to pay for it, some of the private schools are affordable, some are very expensive...

Currently my children attend to a private Catholic school, this school is frequented by middle-class families, with Christian values.

In the past (until the 50'), the teacher were nuns, but it's not the case anymore.

My older daughter is in the last grade of primary school (CM2), she 'll go to "collège" next year.

My son is in 3rd grade of primary school (CE2), and my youngest daughter is in 2nd grade of nursery school (moyenne section).

We have 3 terms in the school year.

- First one from september to december, we have 10 days of vacation for All Saints day, we celebrate All Soul's Day, on this day we use to go to cemetery (we don't celebrate Halloween in France).

At the end of the First term, we have 2 weeks of vacation for Christmas.

- During the Second term, we have 2 weeks of vacations, in february, and next 2 weeks for Easter.

During the Third term, there is no vacation, but several legal holidays, (Labor day and so on...)

Summer break start in the begginings of July, until september...

I know it seems to be a lot, and it's not always easy to organize for busy parents, even if we have both 10 weeks of vacation that's not enough

About the school days now:

In primary school my children go to school on monday, tuesday, thursday and friday 9am-4.30pm, and every other saturday morning, 9am-noon.

In France, most children have school meals (most of the mothers work outside their home).

The schedule is the same for nursery school, except saturday morning.

Voilà ! Of course, I'm interesting in discovering school organization of other countries, please share yours

• Sunday 30 April 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by homesteadinthemaking

We homeschool so there is not a set school organization. We start up about 8:00 a.m. and end when everything is finished. Usually, by 12:00 but sometimes we go to 2:00. I am contemplating doing school year round 6 weeks on with a 2 week vacation. We will see.
Blessings,
Trixi

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• Sunday 30 April 2006 - school

Posted by Ash

In North Carolina you go to preschool at age 4. Typically for about 4 hours a day (usually 8am to noon) Kindergarten starts at age 5- schools around here starts about 7:30 and get out about 2. Elementary schools follow the same hours and takes you through grade 5 (age 10). Middle school is 3 years. High school is the last four- ideally graduating at 18. They usually start at about 8:30 and end about 3:30 Monday through Friday.

There are a lot of different options other than public schools. Including magnet schools- which are publicly funded, non-religious schools that specialize in something (music, dance, art, etc…). Many people homeschool with just their family or several families. We don’t have many Catholics around here; the Christian schools are usually non-denominational. High School can be done online. There are also Spanish immersion schools that teach everything in Spanish. That is where I want my son to go. - Or a magnet one that specializes in science. But the magnet schools can be tough to get in. It is done by lottery. My mom really doesn’t like the Spanish schools because they don’t teach enough English in the earlier years. So I really don’t know what I’ll do.

http://www.ash27282nc.blogspot.com/

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• Monday 1 May 2006 - Hi

Posted by MyThreeDaughters

This might be long.

In Australia children aged 3-6 can stay home if they wish. Mostly though, they have a private kindergarten or preschool depending on which State you live in as to what you call it, for 3 year olds. Some people prefer to do that inside of the daycare system, but this is new. At four or five they can go to preschool, which my daughter does. It is usually 10 hours per week. Then at 5 or 6 you can go to school in the preparatory grade or Prep. Then they go to Grade 6 in Primary or State School they used to call it in the past. So there are 7 grades in their first school. Then High School until 18, then University. We also have the Catholic System. We share kindergarten or preschool I think, then choose which school to go to after that. We used to have three terms, but now have 4. Always we have had 10 weeks of holiday. Our large holiday is only 5 weeks, it used to be six. In our small town we have a Catholic Primary School, some people have chosen to go on the bus to a large Catholic High School, however, it takes 1 1/2 hours to get there, so they are keen.

We do not celebrate Halloween, although some choose to to be "American". Not in the towns I have lived in though. It is hard to buy Halloween candy, but I notice similar candy or lollies are sold in a chain store now called the Warehouse.

I am sure my cousins had Nuns teach them. They went to a Catholic High School, but public Primary school because they lived in the country. My cousins are half Scottish like me, and their Dad was Italian. My other cousins that lived on our farm where half German, my Mother English descent.

Tell us about your tradition for April Fools Day or April 1.

We have Labour Day in March in Australia.

We do not have school meals really. This I heard of through Jamie Oliver, in Jamie's School Dinners in England. I heard they also have this in Minnesota.

We go to school on M,T,W,TH,F. It is mostly 9am to 3:30pm. If the teachers think the kids aren't eating right at home, they may set up a breakfast club.

To get into university you have to get a good Enter score in our State.

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• Monday 1 May 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Ilona

Hi!

This is a very interesting topic : )

We have kindergarten from babies to 6 years (not compulsory) and the 6-year-olds have preschool for part of the time. Elementary school is from 7 to 12 (in the first grade the days are usually four or five hours long and then they gradually get longer). There are after school clubs or day care for the younger students. Secondry school is ffrom 13 to 15 and after that you can choose between a vocational school and an upper secondary school. Most people choose the latter one. These last for three years and to graduate from the upper secondary school you have to take the matriculation examination (like your baccalauréat).

For higher education you can choose between a polytechnic which has more "practical" things and a university which is more theoretical. As far as I know all universities and polytechnics are owned by the state and they are all free too .

There are some private elementary and secondary schools and some of them are Christian. The state schools which are a great majority are free and so are some private schools because they get support from the state. All schools have free lunch (uni and polytechnic don't have this).

Elementary and secondary schools have 10 weeks of summer holidays, a bit less than a week of autumn holiday, two weeks of Christmas holiday and a "skiing holiday" for one week in February plus the days that are holidays for everyone.

We don't really celebrate Halloween either but we have All Saints' Day when we visit the graves of our relatives.

Ilona

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• Thursday 25 May 2006 - This is kinda late... :)

Posted by jenna

I'm kind of late commenting on this, but I thought it was an interesting subject! :) In Washington state where I live, the compulsory age for children is 8 years old, however I've never ever heard of anyone waiting that long. Kids usually start kindergarten at age 5, although occasionally parents will sometimes wait until 6 if they really feel that their child is not ready for school. 1st - 5th grade is elementary, 6th - 8th middle school, and 9th - 12th is high school.

I haven't heard of public preschool yet (it seems like I've heard of them talking about it in California though), so at least for now, it's just private. There are alot of preschool/daycare combinations. That's actually where my kids go for now. The preschool is for any age between 1 - 5, but most of the preschool kids are 3 & 4 years old. Preschool class runs from 9 am - noon and some of the kids are only there for that time. The other kids, that are there for daycare also (including mine), are there before and after that time... before preschool starts it's play time and after preschool they have lunch, nap, play time, and more activities.

I would rather have my kids home with me, but the daycare/preschool that they go to is Christian so I at least feel good about that. I am really hoping to figure out something for work soon because I would really like to homeschool them. if I'm not able to do that, I would really want them in a private Christian school and not our public school system.

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About Me

I'm a french lady, I live in a little town in the Paris area. With this blog I hope to improve my english and to meet new oversea's friends. I'm a wife and a mother of 3 (2 girls and a boy) I'm interesting in a lot of things from baking and cooking to sewing and knitting

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