Mistral
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Posts posted by Mistral
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This does seem a bit low but maybe, as Miki says, you are in an area where lycée pro training is seen as more useful. You'd need to look at the stats for the last few years and the brevet results. The local LEP might have training that leads straight to jobs in the area (we have one that leads straight to working in the oil rafineries)
Of the pupils who go to 2nde GT, around 25% will either be reorientated at the end of the year or have to retake it.
My school is in the oppsosite position. The headmistress is so worried about not having too many redoublements that she will do almost anything to avoid it including allowing pupils who really will not be able to cope (I'm talking about grades of 4-6 in French, English AND maths) to go on to lycée GT. Out of 150 3emes we usually have 1 or 2 redoublants.The amount who find themselves completely lost by the end of the first term and then just hang around waiting for the year to end so they can go to lycée pro is very sad.
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I've just got my new card from the Royal Bank of Scotland and it came with the famous chip and a very nice leaflet explaining how to use it; Not that I really needed help after all the time I've been using one in France.
I'm just back from the UK and, rather annoyingly, every time I tried paying for something with my carte bleue, the salespeople would very eagerly put it in their brand new machine only to get a "card error" message. They looked very dubious when I told them that it was probably because it was a French card. They've been told so much that this is a much safer method that they were obviously convinced I was some sort of international credit card swindler (although why I would be doing my shopping Tesco's if that was the case is another matter)
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Margaret, I have lived in france for the last 13 years and have the grand total of NO English friends. It didn't bother me at first. I neither looked for them nor avoided them. But as the years have gone on I have started missing them. I would love to be able to chat with someone in my first language, to be able to talk about things that only another English person would understand.
I live in a totally French environment and sometimes I feel like I'm either having to supress the English part of me or excuse it. (OK, only on the bad days) Once my children were born I was more aware of it. Having to explain for the umpteenth time why I didn't put them in shoes at 6 months gets boring.
I agree that having the same passport and language as someone else probably isn't the best basis for a long lasting friendship, but it does give you one thing in common
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Congratulations to both your daughters
You certainly deserve to be proud.
good luck for the next stage
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I didn't realise that scu numbers could start with anything other than 1 or 2. I had one starting with 2 from the start but it took a few moths to come through and it was quite a long while ago (1986) It sounds like 5 is a tempory number while they get your definitive number sorted out.
As far as I've understood it, your numbers should start with 1 for a man and 2 for a woman (hence the book le deuxieme sexe) then you have birth year and birth month, after there is birth departement (99 for people born abroad) and after your place on the restister for that month, year, departement which gives you the unique part.
Even without a CV, you should be able to get reimbursed through the old fashioned feuille de soin method. -
I have been here for 13 years and have never been asked for my parents' bith certificates (even less my grandparents') I have needed my own a few times but that was for specific things like getting married.
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Have you contacted the local CFA? People looking for apprentices sometimes contact them first. Otherwise smaller mairies often have a list of apprenticeship available.
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I don,'t think there will be a follow up film. At least not by the same film maker. The teacher has been trying to take the film company to court for a few years to get royalties or something and this year some of the parents decided they wanted compensation for the way they or their children were portrayed as "ploucs"
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The brevet is taken as continuous assessment over 4me and 3me (3rd and 4th secondary years) At the end of each years the teacher have to fill in a "fiche brevet" and all the grades are added up and then an average is calculated. (coff 1 for everything)History-Geography isn't included. Don't ask me why and we certainly never tell the pupils. At the end of the 3me, pupils have to sit the written exam in french, maths and history-geography-education civique. The maths and H/G/ED CIV exams are two hours long, French is 3 hours (twice 1.5hrs)these grades are then added to the continous assessment results and a total average is made.
Most French people (particularly older ones) believe that you have to get 10 out of 20 to have the brevet and that it's something to be proud of. In reality, we get official notes telling us to accept kids from 8 or 9 depending on the statistics they are aiming at.
Since the pass rate for the brevet is around 80%-90%,you can't really say that it's an important and telling exam. Jack Lang had wanted to make it a more important exam and that you had to have it before going to Lyce gnral but that has never happened. He also wanted ALL subjects in the written exam and it's supposed to start next year but we still haven't had the texts.
You can take the brevet gnral which means that you don't have continous ass results so you take all the subjects in the written exam.
You don't need the brevet to go any further. You can't leave school before 16, but you can go into things like 3me Insertion, (in collge 3 weeks, with an employer 3 weeks) or CFA (centre de formation des apprentis) which can be either 2 days in a centre and the rest in work or 1 week in the centre and 3 weeks at work.
I know less about the others (sighs of relief from people who have read this far)the BEP (brevet d'etudes professionnelles) is taken after 2 years at a lycee profesionnel. Pupils do 14 hours core subjects, 14 hours professional studies. I think there is cont ass and I know there is an exam at the end (each subject has a different coff) You get just one certificate
For the bac, you do the same core sujects in 2nd, with one option then in 1ere you decide your "filiere" after which you will study most the basic subjects but for different amounts of time per week. (i.e. 1 hour of maths in bac L and 5 for bac S) Most bacs are totally on exams (you take French at the end of 1ere and sometimes other 'unimportant' subjects) but each subject has a different coff.
The bac is the university access exam. If you have a bac then you can register for any university. There is no selection system. Unkind French people will tell you that the selection process is the first university year (there is a very high drop out level) -
I've had both. As other people have said, French machines seem to take forever (i think it's got to do with the fact that they fill from the cold tap and heat the water)
I haven't really seen any difference except that top loaders are often narrower and can fit in small spaces and when they break down full off water you can empty them out with a cup and take the washing out without pouring water all over your feet and floading the kitchen
Belinda, I've never had a washing machine in a kitchen here either, the first were in the bathroom (seems quite common) and now it's in the garage -
At least it's OVER now.
My worst was the CAPES oral with examiners who didn't approve of anglophones becoming English teachers and who kept trying to trip me up all the time.
As an examiner (now) I sometimes stop candidates half way through a presentation if it is a bit too "off pat" or when it's obvious that they really know what they are talking about and could go on for ever. (once they've proved their ability) -
At school, when we talk about children who are in residential homes (usually for bevahiour problems) we use "foyer" or even "un foyer de la DASS". We wouldn't use "institution". It sounds too medical.
For children who are fostered, we tend to say "famille d'acceuil" -
It looks like there's a strike planned for Tuesday 25th May. I don't know any more for the moment or whether it's just secondary or primary as well.
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I recorded it (there was the football on TF1) and I'll try and watch it tonight. I missed the programme last year, so I hope they give a bit of background.
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If she's over 16, she is beyond obligatory school age but as you say the employment laws are a bit odd.
Her school choices are, to retake a year in her school (yeah right) to go to another school (almost certainly private) to go back until there end of the year and sit the brevet but if she's only been there a year I imagine her controle continue isn't brilliant.
As far as employment is concerned, the best thing would be to contact the CFA for apprenticeships. She needs to have found an an employer and she goes to the CFA once a week (usually) and to the employer the rest of the time. The wages are usually ridiculous but they exist.
I must have the blurb about the CFA in my school bag I'll dig it out and send you a message. -
Yes, the thickening up "farine" is really common. The idea being that you fill them up and then sleep better etc.
10 years ago, it was part of the standard feeding advice. I had friends stopping breastfeeding because they wouldn't be able to give their baby "farine". Now it seems to be suggested less often.
I have seen unsweetened and unflavoured farine in pharmacies but it's not common. Most of them are very sweet. Pure baby rice is unknown here.
Flouride drops are standard. I even had them during one pregnancy. I kept them up (more or less, but rather less than more) until about a year when I started using child toothpaste.
What else? oh yes the soft cheeses. That depends on the doctor. The information is there but some of them think it's just scaremongering so they don't bother to tell you. You are more likely to get a lecture on eating enough calcium. You are usually warned not to eat "lait cru".Whan I was last pregnant most French magazines were still encouraging pregnant women to eat liver too. -
I don't know much about it but, yes, there is a "bourse" available for students. It is based on parental income (more probably on what tax you pay) and I think it comes in five different bands. From what I have heard it doesn't sound as if it changes depending on whether you live at home or not (as it used to in the UK, no idea if it even exists now) this is probably one of the reasons that French students tend to go for a university close to home.
The crous are also the people who deal with university cantines and residencies
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No they aren't free in France. Some pills are reimbursed and others aren't. The older ones (and by this I don't mean the age of the actual box but when they were first put on the market) are reimbursed by the scu (I don't know by what percentage) but the more recent (light?) versions aren't.
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>... what would be the various "levels" of pain relief, from the least to the greatest?
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epidural or nothing. The other forms of pain relief are considered not to work sufficiently to be offered.
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I don't think her UK teaching qualification would be recognised by the education nationale. Her degree (whether Britsh or French) would be recognised, but ed nat teachers are "fonctionnaires" and have to take the civil service competitive exam.
On the the other hand, it would probably be accepted by private schools (I don't know much about the private system)
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Try talking about Van Gogh. I once worked in a collge with that name and had to learn to pronounce it Vann Goggg if I wanted to be understood.
It's not just non French speakers who have this problem. For years my husband heard the bit in the communion service "prenez et mangez-en tous" (take, eat all of you) as "prenez et mangez-en douce" (take, eat in secret)
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There are two kinds of private schools in France. "Priv sous contrat" and "priv hors contract". The "sous contract" ones have an agreement with the education national and follow the same curriculum as state schools. In return they get money from the state which allows them to keep fees very low and (usually) means related. They are generally religious but whereas that used to mean that all lessons started with a prayer and the teaching was done by nuns, it's more likely to mean that there is a crucifx in each classroom and a nativity play at christmas.
A lot of people send their children there because the level of discipline is often better than in a state school. Because the teachers are recruted directly by the school, you are more likely to a a coherant school ethic/mentality and teachers more implicated in what they are doing. There was a time when class numbers were a lot lower than in state schools but apparently that's not so much the case now.
The teachers won't have followed the French teacher training system. But quite a few teachers in the state system haven't either and it is more subject based than pedagogic.
The negative things can be that lack of funds means less equipment. If the local state schools aren't popular then the classes can be very full. Since the strikes last spring, a lot more people have put their children in private schools.
A report on the news last year mentioned that primary schools and collges were particularly popular for the discipline and more child centred approach but that state lyces were more popular because the subject based teaching was more in line with what was needed for the Bac.
A priv hors contract has no state aid and can more or less teach what and how it wants but they are much more expensive. -
Discussing "the last book I read" in class yesterday, the first two answers were a Jules Verne and Hamlet (in French)
Things like Buffy and Goosebumps are very popular and most of my pupils have read the Harry Potters. A lot of young French people read BD or mangas.
A friend writes books for young teenagers but his own children's favourite books are the Philip Pullmans, the Baudelaire orphans and Buffy.
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We live in the Gers. The office is on Rue saint Jean. Toulouse is on the river Garonne. Paris is in France. He is at home. She is due on the 30th.
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I would use (and this is me who still gets corrected by her pupils at regular intervals )
Nous habitons DANS les bouches du Rhone, but EN Provence. Le bureau est (dans le) rue St Jean. Toulouse est SUR la Garonne. Paris est EN France. Il est A la maison. Elle est prvue la 30.
The main rule I remember from school is '' for towns and 'en' for counties. But it turns out that 'en' is allowed for towns beginning with an 'A'. So you can say "en Avignon" or " Avignon" (or "en Alexandrie" for Asterix fans )
The confusing one for French people is that you will use " la maison" or "en France" for going to and being at, whereas in English you change as to whether you are there or merely en route.
Worrying little statistic
in French Education
Posted
Dick, I think that French schools can more easily encourage pupils to into vocational training and not be critisised. Not so much because vocational training has a better press here but more that parents are less interested in league tables and stats. I was reading a magazine about how to analyze your college in the Paris area recently and they gave the brevet results and the percentages of pupils going to lycée pro, but that's the first time I've ever seen anything like it and, most importantly it was for parents in Paris.
Colleges can't push pupils into more academic exams than others because there is only the brevet and everybody takes that.