Mistral

The lady in the voter registration office here guessed back in December that it would be May or June, so she was right. Her logic was that they would need until the end of april at least to print all the copies of the constitution they have to send to voters, and you just can't have any form of election/voting during the summer holidays. Now I'm waiting for my carte d'electeur to arrive

I've been enjoying this discussion. I must have been among the last generation to have obligatory DS at school (I left in 1985) I can't say I enjoyed it but it was a lot more fun than needlework. BUT (and it deserves capitals) I realise that I it's left its legacy. I have a basic understanding of nutrition and I can produce an edible meal. The needlework has come in handy here in france too. Carnaval is coming up soon. But so many of my french friends don't have any idea about cooking and seem almost frightened of it. French schools used to teach cookery, then it became EMT (education manuelle et technique) which became technology. The only pupils who learn anything about cooking now are those in a lycée hotellier or in LEP doing BEP bio-services.  

As TU says, it's legally possible but not actually very easy to set up. From what I've heard, you can find yourself inspected at least once a year (although it can be more often) and it's up to you to prove that your child is educated to level expected of a child of his age. I don't think you have any obligation to follow the French programme, but that will be the yardstick the inspectors will measure you against. I've never had to deal this the CNED at this level although I know people who had primary lessons sent to them while posted abroad. Lessons from the CNED would certainly follow the programme and I expect they are quite dry and theoretical. Not easy to teach yourself if you're not used to them.

Daughter is three days younger than your son and in CM2, hopes to go to College next year! Can I join the club? OK my son misses being a May baby by 2 days (he's 29th april) but he's in CM2 now and will be going to 6eme in September (in my collège )

I've been lucky so far, we've always been seen very quickly. The slowest was in our local clinique where we had to wait for a doctor (and a nurse and the receptionist- we just wandered up and down opening doors and asking if someone could help) the fastest was aix hospital on an easter sunday. We arrived with a screaming 2 year old with blood pouring from his head and said he had fallen on the stairs. We bypassed the waiting room completely. we weren't exactly popular with the tens of people waiting and who looked like they had been there since the beginning of lent, It was just that they heard child and head and went into overdrive (It was a cut eyebrown and only needed 2 stitches. It got a bit embarrassing when they kept asking how far down  he had fallen- he had fallen up the stairs, but there's no way of explaining that simply in french)  

SB, put a word in his carnet saying you want to see his prof principal. Yes, they do have to get used to 6eme. It's not the same as primary. But by now he should have started finding friends and finding his place in the class. It might be an idea to write a little letter (in an envelope) telling the PP that you want  to discuss how he is settling in, so that the PP doesn't worry that you are coming in to criticise (French teachers go on the defensive very quickly) but to ask for his/her insights on how things are going in school. This also lets him check with the other class teachers before he sees you. We try to make sure that no child is the only one from his primary school when we make the 6emes so that they don't feel so lonely in the first term, but by this time, the "I come from X school" groups are breaking up or taking in new members. Does he have friends from his old school who are in collège with him? Even if they aren't in the same class, they should be able to see each other at break. He comes back on the bus, doesn't he? Who does he sit with there? I understand why he can't move classes. The language thing would be too complicated. I've got pupils who have gone through the 'intello' problem. they usually end up by finding like minded friends and settling although it can take longer for them. Are they any lunchtime clubs? These can help. He sees other pupils, under adult control and it can help him to feel he belongs. Is he a bit of a perfectionist? I ask because the conseil de classe are coming up and I know some kids gets really panicked in the coupld of weeks beforehand, especially those with good grades. You could ask the PP to mention his worries during the CdC. He can always ask that the pupils delegués leave the room while he mentions it, but this isn't alway a good idea. It makes the pupils stand out.  

That is a lot. I think I would think twice before going ahead and I would certainly try to find out if there isn't another doctor who could do it. My mutuelle is very good but I don't think it covers depassement d'honnoraires

    

Mistral, was the conversation with the 15 year olds open enough to suss out whether they were smoking tobacco along with the cannabis? (even though they said smoking cigs was stupid). Yes, it was. Yes they were ("pas moi personellement madame, vous comprennez") No, I don't get the logic either and I did point it out.  

Discussing canabis with a group of 3emes (15 year olds) they reckoned that about half of their class smoked it on a semi regular basis, but there are only a couple who are stupid enough to smoke it inside the collège. They seemd to find this normal but did say that it was stupid to smoke cigarettes.

the French way of educating comes from 'a different place' the whole ethos is different. Gay, how true that is. After 13 years in the system, I still find myself confused at times because my "gut reactions" and expectations aren't the same as my colleagues.

Reforms, I don't trust them either. Sad, but true, every new minister seems to feel the need to have his reform, the teachers' unions feel the need to complain; and then the whole thing gets so watered down in the aplication and lack of funds that it doesn't really change anything.

As people have already said, it is normal for schools in France to be locked all the time. I had to collect my son from primary school one day and spent  quite a long time ringing on the bell before one of the cantine staff saw me and let me in. There is no school secretary and the bell rings in the headmistress's office. Since, she was teaching, she didn't hear it. Of course, you wouldn't have any problems with after school football matches, because we don't have that sort of thing. My school has the luxury of having two basketball courts, but all other sports are taught in one of the town gyms (10 mins walk from the school -not fun for a 55 minute lesson) As a teacher, I'm saddened by your story of threats and abuse. Here in france, I think it would have been dealt with by now. In my school, it certainly would have been. In other schools, where a chole class was causing problems, the head called all the parents in and gave them a little talking to.  But that depends on the head teacher. I know of one who actually called a teacher in to his office to tell him off for punishing a couple of pupils (they hadn't done their homework several times) Of course, he also cancelled the punishment. I have had colleagues attacked by pupils and family members (one was knocked out in front of a class of 11 year olds by an older brother of a child he had punished earlier in the day) I'm lucky, I have only been attacked once, but it was very frghtening.

David Charvet!! They are joking! And the Hallidays pere or fils should never beat Sean connery! (or even be mentioned in the same sentence) It looks more to me a test of the amount of times they are mentioned in Télé 7 jours  

Tell me I've misunderstood! You've misunderstood Well, someone somewhere has anyway. Maybe what they were trying to say was that he was certain (in most French people's opinion at least) to have really good grades in English which would obviously be a bonus for the brevet. The way the brevet stands at the moment, it's graded out of a total of 340 (if I remember right, I'm at home at the moment) 200 is continuous assessment and 140 is the written brevet. The continuous assesment is calculated from their yearly moyenne in every subject in 4eme and 3eme. This gives a note out of 20 which is multiplied by 10. All subjects have the same coéfficient including sport, music LV1 and LV2. The only subject that isn't included is histoire-géo ed/civ (don't tell him- this is a closely guarded suject most teachers don't even know this) The written brevet is in French, maths and hist-géo and gives a grade out of 140. I think all three subjects have the same coéff here as well. A pupil needs to get more than 170 to pass. The way this works means that the three subjects taken in the written exam end up with stronger weighting (hist-géo less so) I'm assuming your son will be doing English as his LV2 when he goes into 4eme. Both LV's have the same weighting in the brevet so his bilingualism will be helpful at that point. Of course all this is with the present brevet, the projet de loi is planning on changing some of the details, but we'll see that when (if) it happens.  

Thnaks for reminding me. But no, the Harraps slang dictionary has no mention of marseilles apart from slang terms for people who live there BTW the marseilles IKEA isn't actually in marseilles, it's in Vitrolles (just behind Toys R us) So you can go to what used to be the biggest grand surface in France and do all your shopping and then go and eat salmon steaks and swedish meatballs at IKEA, that's what I was supposed to do yesterday until child#1 went down with an angine. I'll try again next week  

Tax d'habitation for here was 93€. What We paid 630 (yes euros) and more or less the same for TF. No, we didn't choose to live here. This is where we were posted. SB, Have you been living my life?? (Apart from the central heating-we've got that)  

Miki what you are saying is so true. My kids were born here, so their French (written or spoken) has never been a problem. On the other hand, their written English is almost totally phonetic. They learnt to read in french and have transferred their skills to reading in english (although they prefer French) But they just don't get any practise in writing in English. I don't count the hour and a half a week of english they get in primaire, it's mostly spoken. In my enthusiastic moments, I plan to spend 10 minutes a day getting them to write for me in English. In reality, once they have come home from school, had their gouter and done their homework, neither they nor I feel like doing any extra work. This is the way it is, I have to accept it. Since we live in france and we aren't planning on leaving, it is probably more important to make sure their french is up to scratch. I know that when the eldest goes into collège next year, he will start having to write correctly in English, but what's expected of a collège pupil isn't going make him fully biliterate. The best I can hope for is better than most other french people. So saying, I actually learnt to read and write english with a phonetic system and although I still have problems with spelling, I manage to get myself understood when I write in English. And having learnt french from the age of 11 through the UK school system, my written french is better than a lot of french people I know (I won't go into the number of pupils I have who write phonetically in french- it's too dezpressing)  

If I look at my female colleagues, I would say that a high proportion is slim. I think that tradionally, french people eat a lot of vegetables and generally don't snack between meals. All that is good, but I would say that quite a few of my colleagues could actually do with a few kilos more to make them look healthy. (and possibly be healthy- so many female colleagues have to take time off for "tiredness") then there are the women who don't actually eat with the rest of their family because they are following a regime. When we have guests, the women often only take very small portions of anything and generally don't have any dessert. I worry too about my pupils who don't eat any breakfast or lunch and just drink diet coke all day. OK they're thin, but at what price?

I had a top loader before and now I've got a front loader. You get the feeling you can't get as much washing in a top loader but when I really looked at it, it was about the same amount. The top loader lasted 10 years, the front loader is on its third. The big advantage of a top loader is that if it breaks down mid cycle you can empty it without flooding the kitchen.

I got quite excited seeing posters for manege enchanté in marseilles, but I've now realised that it is a French film so it will be based on the French version of the proçgramme and not the English version (so it's probably going to be less sarcastic and cynical) my husband remembers it as being a children's programme a bit before his time, but nthing exciting (not like casimir)  and I'veseen a group of French adults quote castor or pollux or any of the others, or even sing the theme music (something they will happily do for île aux enfants or goldorak) I'll take the kids to see it some time. According to FR3 mediteranée, it was made in marseilles

I have never heard that one. I'll check in the slang dictionary when I get home. There are quite a few teachers here who claim to be "marseillais" maybe I've been missing something  

Sizings don't seem to be exact equivelents. I've seen size 38 translated as size 10 and as size 12. I find that it's somewhere between the two; more or less an 11. As for T1 etc. It means Taille 1 and so on. I generally try a T2 first because I find T1 can be a bit too tight (it probably caters for those size 34/36 women here) Of course, just like in the UK, you have to know the shop. Some of them size more generously.  

In France there are loads of different bacs. If you take the bac S for example, you will have done 5 hours of maths a week for the last two years and 3 hours of philo in terminal. A bac L has 2 hours of maths in 1ere, none in term and 8 hours of philo in term. Each subject has a different weighting so maths will count for 7 for bac S and for 2 in bac L. Obviously, the exam subjects are differnet for each bac (except possibly philo - I can't remember) Employers will look at which bac a student took, not just if they have a bac. But any bac is acceptable to go to uni (so technically, you can register for a maths degree with a bac L) The strong points of the bac are that pupils get more subjects for longer (more well rounded maybe) although you could question how well rounded you become if maths and science are limited to 2 hours a week. What I find a pity is that pupils have to decide at 15 whether they are "literaire" or "scientifique" and can't combine. I mean I took A levels in french, german and Biology but in france I would have been forced to decide if I wanted to take the language route or the science route. I think the most important thing about the bac, is that it's centuries old and considered to be na inetegral part of French education  

I thought about watching it, but as you say 9 hours is a bit long. The television is also showing Renais' classic "nuit et brouillard" . It's a bit old fashioned but still striking (and short)