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SC

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    What are French schools really like?

    in French Education

    Posted

    Its pretty clear from the posts below that education in France is being criticised by French speaking parents whose children have passed through primary into secondary education here, and defended by relative newcomers and occasional visitors who also question the validity of an independent international study, which I should point out, certainly shook French certitudes.

    I would be inclined to take heed of what the former have to say; they are not rants, and have based their comments on their experience backed up by examples.
    It would be reassuring to see some positive comments from English parents whose children have progressed through higher education or university in France.

    I have made my comments with the experience of our son graduating from the UK state system, and our daughter's primary in the UK, and subsequent four years primary and secondary education in France: my comments should not lead to the assumption that she is either failing or unhappy, or that we considered our sons education in the UK to have been without faults.

    Katherine: your sons are young enough not to be held back by the language barrier and will get the same education as a French child, but expect everything detailed in the postings by those of us with experience here to happen and to develop your own frustrations with the system and teaching methods. I believe that if you have academic aspirations for your children you will find them harder to achieve here. That is the reality for French parents too.

    If you dont believe me/us, read Susan Loomis's book 'On Rue Tatin' for an American parent's experiences in Normandy, tearing pages out of exercise books, teachers shouting at the kids, and all. It is not just a few of us griping here who have noted this.

    Imagine not knowing if your child has a strong regional accent or not, if they swear all the time, if their language is lazy...that is the reality for many non French-speaking parents. Ill bet that many of them havent even thought of this. Later you may wonder why your bright child from a bright family can read and understand a French pop magazine, but not a French novel. (Because their vocabulary has come from other children, the family input is missing)

    Don't underestimate the difficulty of the French language, written and spoken, even for the French, many of whom feel that further academic education has been denied them because of their inability to master it to the required standard.

    Thus the great majority of the (much vaunted in the UK) bacs are bacs pro. (professional=trade); two year courses in such subjects as secretarial, beauty therapy, patisserie, etc. and thus the direction of your childs future can be dictated at age 15; all the bacs pro graduates that we know have not followed their trade for one reason or another, and mostly now work in local factories.

    Those parents with children approaching the brevet, who are concerned about their childrens further education may be interested to know that the Lyce Isle de France in Rennes tries to maintain an intake of 50/50 English/French native speakers, and is very keen to hear from more English speaking applicants. Prep courses for entrance qualifications to UK universities are available. If anyones interested Ill post the contact details.

    What are French schools really like?

    in French Education

    Posted

    This is a bit long, Ive cut it short.

    The OECD says at: http://www.oecd.org/EN/document/0,,EN-document-604-20-no-12-22675-0,00.html

    On average, 10% of 15-year-olds in the world's most developed countries have top-level reading literacy skills, being able to understand complex texts, evaluate information and build hypotheses, and draw on specialised knowledge. In Australia, Canada, Finland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the figure is between 15% and 19%.

    The French education system produces only average results on the worldwide scale regarding language and sciences in young teenagers according to the OECD. Britain is one of five countries achieving significantly above average results and Jess's posting below makes this obvious. Both the British education system and Jess, should be proud of this.

    UK newspapers enjoy kicking education around, and compare British teaching unfavourably because a) that is what their readership expect, or b) their readership is uneducated enough to believe what they read.
    The problem for the majority of Brit parents moving to France is that they can't speak the language themselves and they think that everything is OK, which is how their childrens teachers like to present it (tearing pages out of exercise books so that Mum and Dad don't see the mistakes!), until it is too late.


    The English assistant at the end of her six months at a nearby lycee told me when I demanded a comparison of the two systems: The teachers here are horrible to the students, none of the staff seems dedicated.

    A major problem for foreign (and many French) students is that the language is so complicated that even at lycee they have 4-5 hours per week of French.

    Our daughter came with us to France when she was 11. Used to academic and sporting success and worried about not performing well, she became used to having pages torn out of her books, being the butt of English jokes (from the teacher: everyone knows the English cant add up!), and more recently, hassle because of the Iraq invasion. Parents, of course, only ever hear a fraction of the problems.

    sc

    DIY PRICES

    in House Renovations

    Posted


    I think that if one compares the cheapest item in each sector, the newspaper report is probably correct. After this however, as Teamed up says it's swings and roundabouts.
    Notable price differences are for Ikea kitchens which can be as much as 40% cheaper in the UK, and as already mentioned, emulsion paint. Constructional timber too, is cheaper at Wickes than at our local sawmill.
    We try to plan our requirements ahead and make the occasional trip to our nearest Brico Depot which is usually far cheaper than alternative DIYs. (Competition? -Brico Depot, Castorama, B&Q are all in the same group- owned by UK based Kingfisher, which also owns Darty and But).

    An amusing point regarding the quality of French electrical fittings- there's now a plastic household tool available, specially made to pull out plugs leaving the socket still in the wall! It could only happen.......
    SC
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