Richardbk

to the OP there are plenty of previous threads on the subject of french education e.g http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1/1523981/ShowPost.aspx http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/2369097/ShowPost.aspx In my view, little has changed since these earlier postings. If anything it is now a lot worse with the various budget cuts and staff reductions, although at least the government appears to have woken up to the fact that secondary school (college) is in a dire state.

AXA, GMF and the other big companies should be able to insure it for up to 1 year (at least they used to), but you will need to go in to an agent and see somebody in person. The main issue for insurance companies is that as it doesn't have a french vehicle type it is not on their systems, so you need to be able to show the equivalent car in France. regs Richard

Unfortunately this is very common. One of our kids was down marked for using a British day/date format, rather an an American one and there have been other grammar errors. Needless to say we responded in all cases and put the teacher right. They also are quite good at trying to correct regional accents ! The Scots in my daughter's English class used to have a terrible time. It really depends on the teacher. In our experience some teachers will use the anglophones to assist the class, in others they see them as a threat. In my son's first years in a tiny one teacher primary village school in the Tarn he would help the teacher set the lesson, and assist with the pronunciation - age 6 ! When we moved, he was constantly being punished in his English class due to boredom and correcting the teacher. This changed when we reminded the teacher that she should perhaps see him as an asset rather than a competitor. After that we had no problems.

"Tresor Public" regs Richard

I've just started pumbing an extension with multi-couche . I'm sold on it.. Very very malleable, but keeps it shape when bent as opposed to PER(does not need angle formers) . Can bend any angle by hand (have tried up to 90deg so far. Its easy to cut (using standard PER cutters) . It can be fitted external or hidden(without gaine), and can also be covered in concrete directly. (it is also used for underfloor heating circuits). Apparently another advantage over PER is that it does not expand under pressure. Long runs of PER can create a rush of pressure when a tap is opened and the pipe contracts. Of course the downside is that Its more expensive than PER.

Maybe we need to question the basic premise . Why does the governement have no money ? , because as the "financial director" of UK Plc it messed up big time. I have always found the Uk to be rather short sighted ,lacking macro economic management. An educated work force is a vital asset for the country as a whole - even for those that were not educated to the same level. In addition graduate will in any case pay higher taxes later in life through higher earnings. The problem here is not black or white. I beleive the state should pay, but perhaps there needs to be more focus on the courses that employers and the country needs.

From my previous posting, many of you will know that I am no fan of the French system. We have 3 kids born here. 2 are still here, one in primary and one in college. The third hated the system and left after her brevet. She is now in boarding school in the UK and absolutely loves it. We are lucky in that this is an option for us, although its been tough for the family. We have lived in 2 diffferent regions of France and experienced a total of 5 primary schools and 3 colleges - some private some state. We have found the the education system narrow and prescriptive and the teaching atmosphere aggressive and demotivating, particularly from college upwards. I find teachers lazy, absent and rude, with few appearing to actually like their job (or the children). They are well know for picking on individual kids in class infront of their peers, calling them imbeciles, dimwits and in many cases a lot worse. Of course few kids will report this back to their parents as they are scared to death and traumatised. French teachers are generally incapable of dealing with able and less able students in the same class. Remember that French teachers are not managed by the school head but from a central academy and that promotion is based on age, rather than ability. We have seen a class moyen of 8 , but it is never the teachers fault. Its because they have a class of dimwits. We have one child that is always top of the class and the other is somewhere in the middle, but in no way is this a balanced system that will prepare them for later life. Rote learning is the norm. Team working is non-existent (also between teachers) , as is self-expression. Modern techniques that take into account the different speeds of pedagogical development are non existent. If a student is slow in one area, they will be quickly left behind, and you will be requested to take on extra private lessons to cover the poor performance of the school. For more info on the French system based on more empirical data just read the latest book by Peter Gumbel On achève bien les écoliers? (They Shoot Schoolchildren, Don't They?) .

I believe a lot of what is happening is about relatives sharing of the deficit problem; these sentiments will continue to rise as the cuts bite hard. Should education bear the consequences of bank failures and poor government regulation. There is a sense that those that got us into this mess are paying way below even a fair proportion, let alone the full amount of what they should be paying. if the UK is to remain competitive, then it needs graduates with high levels of skills, but I also agree that in the last decades we have dumbed down with the creation of too many vocational type degrees courses. The other problem of course is that the UK appears to be going to a US style of fees, but without recognising that the UK does not have the same level of private philanthropy. US fees are high, but few students pay the full list price.

Hi all, I need to lay a chape liquide of 6 cm over an extruded polystyrene floor onto which underfloor heating is laid - about 100m2. With the polystyrene we are using and the thickness it seems we are not required to use any reinforcing mesh It doesn't look complicated so I'm planning on doing this myself with a couple of friends I'd be grateful for any tips or techniques to get the best finish. Do we basically just rake it in and let it settle ? Also where is the best place to buy the ready mix? thanks for any advice. Richard

I'm using draytel.org and sipgate.co.uk Both will give you a free uk 0845 or geographical number. (For a uk number you need to sign up from a UK IP address). Both charge as you go but also do package deals. I use them in addition to Orange , as it means people on Uk mobiles can phone a local number in the uk (included in their subscription), and landline to 0845 is free in the UK. Routing cost to a fixed landline fixed is around 1p/minute for most countries, if you pick up via your VOIP phone its of course free. sipgate one can also be setup to call hunt. e.g it will ring for a user defined time at various phones in sequence until you answer one. sipgate also accept paypal top up. Both work well though a linksys PAP2 analogue to VOIP converter, connected to a live box. remember that you can also get VOIP on some mobiles, e.g iphone. So in a wifi area you make a call using a UK phone caller id. Also works on 3G, although this is usually not allowed in your contract ;-))

In my view a spot-on summary of the French education system ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/05/french-schools-pupils-feel-worthless

Its certainly easy to live in the country and commute to Paris, from all around Paris. I can comment directly on that area, as we live south of Paris in the Fontainebleau area. However, in Ile de France rental of houses in small villages is not abundant. I would suggest that you use seloger.com or pap.fr to see what is available first, rather than try to fix a village in mind. With this and a combination of google street map you can easily look around the area where the house is located, and check out local facilities. If you considered using the train, you could also perhaps widen your area. Public transport in and out of Paris in all directions is pretty good and Conflans St Honorine is well served. regs Richard

[quote user="Will"]Picked up from another forum - http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2010/05/12/la-cour-des-comptes-denonce-le-systeme-scolaire-francais_1350226_3224.html It would appear that the French equivalent to the National Audit Office has produced a highly critical report on education in France, concluding that despite the high budget the system is elitist, rooted in the past, and fails to meet the needs of the majority of students. [/quote] Something we been saying on the forum for years. Whilst perhaps the UK has gone too far in terms of measuring performance of the system, in France measuring the performance of the education system is non-existent. Poor results are blamed on the kids. I find most teachers lazy, and incompetent at "teaching" ; they are promoted on age rather than ability. The whole system particularly from college upwards is a disgrace. The BAC is an elitist exam (see the Senat report http://www.senat.fr/rap/r07-370/r07-3701.pdf ) , with few possibilities for those not having the ability, but not wanting to do a ProBac. France is one of the worst countries in Europe in respect of providing academically educated students at 18 years old and is seeing too many now take the BacPro option. However, it should be remembered that the values of this system are entrenched in French life. This is a country where your job for life is dictated by the exam results in your hand, rather than your personal qualities and future potential. Richard    

Hi all, we are going through a similar exercise, and perhaps looking to move from 3eme to a UK school (fed up with the system here !). There appears to be different opinions as to whether the brevet is equivalent or slightly less than GCSEs. The most useful - and perhaps authoritive link we have found is with the UCAS international qualifications comparison documents http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/ug.admissions/ucasinfo/intquals06.pdf where the Brevet is generally considered as 4 GCSEs below grade C. This would make sense, as most kids would effectively take GCSEs the year after finishing a brevet. However, I would concur with an earlier poster in that the Brevet in subjects such as Maths and French (compare with English) , appears significantly more challenging than GCSE exam papers that I have seen. However, the whole subject seems to be rather subjective with various proposals for comparison schemes. A more optimistic view of the brevet is provided at. www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/Users/.../Casmin%20Education.htm BTW the general French view is that GCSEs are the equivalent of a Brevet. regs Richard

Hi, I had a search through the forum, and although there's plenty on soil pipes (primary ventilation) I couldn't find out if there are any regulations concerning the placement of the "chapeau" on the roof. Common sense tells me it should be above (or some distance) from any windows, but are there any regulations ? I have found the rules concerning the height of the secondary ventilation and the minimum distance (1m) from this to the the soil pipe, but cant find anything on the positioning of the soil pipe outlet itself. thanks for any info Richard

I just completed this yesterday !! I was told that to exchange a license that requires a medical examination (to transfer additional categories such as E (trailer), C1(small lorry), C1E, D1(minibus), D1E) categories you need to apply at the prefecture that is designated for your commune. In my case I went to see them first and a few days later I received a letter to go for a medical. I then returned to change the license. Note that not all prefectures know how to change a UK (or other EU license). It took time and patience(40mins) to ensure that all categories were properly transferred - not helped by their IT system. The same morning another Brit had changed his licenses and they admitted that he'd lost all his additional categories and I have a colleague that also lost his additional categories when changing. regs Richard

Hi, Thanks for this, I was looking to see how the C1 and C1E, are implemented as I am going through an exchange proces and it is important for me that I keep the C1 category. Does this mean for example that in the main part of your French license for category C, you simply have 74 in the right hand column. I was told that the French are actually introducing a specific C1 3500-7500 kg, but I guess this does not show up as a such on the French license as a standalone entry. Did your previous UK C1E have an associated "code". I have a photo license (passed test in 1978) with the following C1E(code 107), D1(code 101) and D1E(code 101, 119). I understood that the C1E with code 107 limits the lorry+trailer combination to 8250 Kg, and not to 12000 kg I had previously thought. regs Richard

Your mairie should be able to give you a list of the official recognised translaters or search using  maps.google.fr or www.pagesjaunes.fr . You need an official translator and most already have templates to translate uk certificates. A few years back, we got 3 birth+marriage certificates done for around euros50 regs Richard

Hi, and thanks for the very helpful information. Do you have reference or link for regulation concerning the living door ? Is this in one of the AFNOR documents ? thanks again Richard

Hi everybody, Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere - I did a search but the posts were a few years old. Has anybody here recently imported and registered a UK 7.5 ton horsebox with living(kitchen, beds etc) into France . I have looked around on the DRIRE site and the paperwork seems to be horrendous. First there seems to be the lorry part and then a whole bunch of regulation concerning the living part. I have seen posts in other forum where air and gas tanks and various other bits had to be changed/modified. Does it help if the horsebox is professionally converted - e.g. Oakley or similar, in which case do the UK coach builders assist in providing the info required. Does it matter that the living door is on the "wrong side" ? thanks for any help or info Richard 77 Seine-et-Marne

South 77 (between Paris and Orleans) for a 170m2 extension to be built in Siporex. Permis and plans available. Must be registered, with guarantees etc. Contact me through PM. regs Richard

A nice summary mackyfrance, and reflective of our experience to date. We have been in France 16 years. We have 3 kids 14,10,8 , all born in France and all bilingual on starting school. To date they have been through a variety of schools. village, town, state and private church. Of the our 3, 2 actually appear to do quite well - often at the top of their class, but you will see below that this give no assurance of a good education . I can not compare directly with the UK as none of our children have been through any part of the UK system. However, I was educated in the UK, my father was a UK primary school head for nearly 30 years  and we keep in touch with a couple of teachers friends (UK secondary and primary). I myself work for an international organisation, based near Paris. I have previously been involved in the hiring of staff of various nationalities, including many French. The French education system is of course directly embedded in the culture of the country. It is a system created by Napoleon and later updated by de Gaulle. Fundamental to the system is hierarchy, uniformity and learning of facts. Gaulle once remarked that at any time of the day he knew the exact subject being taught in the classroom - little has changed.  Practicality, culture, creatively, expression, sport etc are expected to be taught within the family and in outside activities. Team working is almost nonexistent within the class and within the teachers of the school.  The role of the teacher in France is to teach facts and theory. They are appointed by, and report to one of the regional academies. The head teacher has no educational control of the teacher, who may or may not decide to work together for a common cause. In one primary school we had a class with two 1/2 time teachers that were in constant conflict, refusing to communicate;  often there was a third teacher as a  replacement. When you enrol for a school in France you will be handed many forms to sign concerning behaviour, rules and regulations,  but you will not find one piece of paper in which the school presents its obligations to you and your children. In large schools, additional staff are employed specifically to handle the discipline; "surveillants". In one primary school we found the teacher was sellotaping shut the mouths of 5-6 year old, until one of the parents (a French doctor) threatened to take them to court. The initial response from the teacher; "This is what we do here" All too often the teacher will do the absolute minimum and they are extremely resistant to any form of change. Both parents may work, but the rdv with the teacher can only be during school hours. The inability of the teachers and school to work together is most evident during the individual teacher/parent meetings, held each term where queues of parents stretches around the car park well into the night. The teacher will lecture the parents on the problems of you and your child and leave you to find a solution.  Beware, teachers also adopt the right to stay very little at these meetings - you will only discover that little Isabelle will have to redouble at the end of the academic year. "suffisant" is the highest accolade that any child may have; motivation from French teachers is as rare as unicorn dung. "Moyens"  for a whole class may be appalling ; I have seen a class moyen of 5 and 6 , but it is never of course the teachers fault - rather the problem is the whole class of children. If your child is below average then worry - if your child has a poor memory then worry. If your child is less theoretic and more artistic then worry. You will learn that your child has a problem. Never is there a problem with the teacher, the school or the method.  In the 30+ teachers we have come across in the last 12 years, probably only 2 seemed actually interested in their work and their pupils. The method in French schools can only be described as mind numbingly boring. It is based on rote learning of facts and theory. They will not be taught how to find additional information and find out for themselves ; they will not learn to learn.  Your child will learn a 4 page poem by heart and learn how to write in beautiful handwriting ( which always comes in handy as a social party piece ) , but at the expense of not learning practical skills needed for later life.  Your child may arrive at a perfectly good solution to a maths problem but unless it is the exact same method used by the teacher , s/he will loose 50% of the marks. Technical tasks will be severely downgraded due to grammar errors ; we even had an "English teacher" that down marked a paper as the title date was written in British, rather than American format. If your child is performing poorly, then be prepared to pay for additional private lessons - at least now these are tax deductible. My father, on exiting our son's primary school, remarked that it was like the UK system in the 1950s. Being at the top of the class is based on regurgitating the facts at the correct moment. If your child is ill and misses a test, they will be down marked accordingly at the end of the term. Part of the current governments reforms is to have more course based work - this is rejected by teacher unions. Whilst in the UK, I was told that many schools are moving to high tech interactive learning system with electronic white boards and individual note books. In  a French school it is often difficult to spot the working PC, and if it does work it is pretty unlikely that the teacher has any idea on how to use it. Of course for some children this system "works", and indeed this system of rote learning continues right through, only stopping once you reach post degree level. It is perfectly matched to what comes next.  For those that have not been rejected or demoralised by the education system, they now make their applications  to human resources managers who went through the exact same system. Only at this point, do we really see the result of this system.  Young people that are now excellent at solving Cartesian problems, but completely unprepared for the team working and practical application needed in the work place. So even with 2 children at the top of their classes, I have serious doubts that they are even close to their potential, and perhaps even more worrying school is certainly not as much fun as it should be. regs Richard

these regulations explicity exclude au pairs. the correct one is http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F15813.xhtml - the formalities are much less than described above. regs Richard

Hi Mike, thanks for the info. We will be seeing the accountant next week. What I am really keen to know is whether we need to have any TVA-chargeable income or can it really be zero for the first few  years , whilst we are waiting for the first stock to arrive and mature. i.e it will be 2-3  years until we start selling. thanks again for your help Richard      

Hi to all you entrepreneurs, My wife is setting up a horse breeding business which is classified as an agriculture business, type BA (Bénéfices agricoles). We are registered with the MSA, INSEE, Tax office etc and have a SIRET. By default the tax office has put her in the TVA regime "Remboursement Forfaitaire Agricole (RFA)", which basically means she is not registered for TVA. Although TVA deductions are not possible with this system you can claim a small % based on your sales, which doesn't help us much as we will have no major sales for the first few years. I note, however, that you can opt for the "Regime Simplifié Agricole (RSA)" , which is full TVA registration. Does anybody know whether it is possible to opt for RSA, even though there may be no receipts in the first couple of years. E.g. in the first years we would only claim deductions on investments and setting up costs until the first stock starts to arrive. Any pointers to the French TVA tax codes, or other sources on this specific point would be great. Thanks for any info/advice Richard