Public v's Private

[Floss]

Hi,

I have noticed that some towns  in France have 'public' and 'private' primary schools.  I once asked someone the price of the private schools and they told me that they cost around 40 euros per term!  I presume 'private' in France is different from 'private' as we know it in the UK? Can anyone explain please?  [8-)]

Many thanks

[Tourangelle]

There are two sorts of private schools in France, the ones that are "genuinely" private as we understand it in the UK , and those that are "privé sous contrat" which is to say that they are almost entirely government funded.  They are usually catholic schools, although the dose of religion may be very minimal. Although it may sound like they are like church schools in the UK, in fact they are not allowed to recruit pupils on religious grounds.  The "privé sous contrat" schools must follow the same curriculum as public (state) schools and the teachers are trained and recruited in the same way, although with separate quotas.  Often, it is just a traditional thing to send your child to private schools, certain families do, and in certain areas (Brittany, Ardèche) it is more widespread than others.  For other families, it is a way of avoiding a local school which might not be seen as being so good.  It is generally true that while the primary schools are ok and the collèges can be fine too, private lycées do not get as good results as the public ones.

[Busy Bee]

Our daughter goes to the local private (Catholic) school on the basis that it is just 10 minutes walk from our house.  For maternelle it is just 31euros a month plus 4.20 euros a day for canteen and lunch time garderie.  We like it as it is a lot smaller than the public school and I have the impression it is more flexible in terms of canteen and garderie etc - they have a morning garderie from 7.30 and after school til 6.30.  After asking around, we found it had a good reputation locally and yes, famillies continue sending their children, generation after generation.

We also checked out the religion side of  it as although I am more than happy about a Christian school and values my husband was worried it would be too dogmatic however they just receive general religous instruction and celebrate regular christian stuff - eg Christmas, Easter and on their Saints day the children take their bikes to ride at school.  It is possible for children to learn Catechism etc if they want to but no one really minds if they do or don't.

Our other bonus is that as they also take weekly boarders, they have lessons on Wednesday morning, never on Saturdays, and if they 'fait le pont' they make up the time by doing a full day on the Wednesday. 

Hope that gives you an idea about it - it took us quite a while to find out reliable information and then weigh up the pros and cons but lets face it, if the children are happy there, that's the most important thing for this age.

T

[Floss]

Thank you for your replies.  We are moving to Brittany later this year and have a boy of 6 and a girl of 8.  Our son is a bit of a live wire and although he is prone to the odd strop in class, I think he will be fine (kill or cure!).  Our daughter is a different altogether, she isn't very confident and I hate to think that the language barrier will hammer what confidence she does have.  I would love to hear any tips, experiences etc. from other parents.  I am going to buy the muzzy DVD for them to watch before school every morning and hope that will help.  Thanks[:D]

[SC]

[quote user="Tourangelle"] private lycées do not get as good results as the public ones.
[/quote]

Our daughter is in terminale at the Catholic Lycee Saint Paul in Vannes (Brittany) which is 161st in France in L'Express league table http://www.lexpress.fr/services/lycees/ . I couldn't find another Brittany lycee that came anywhere near that.

Her local secondary Catholic college had a brevet pass rate of 100%, the state college 68%.

No-one's mentioned the teacher strikes in the state sector that has sent hundreds of students into the private sector in the past few years. If private Lycee teachers demonstrate, it's on Saturdays so as not to disrupt the education of their students.  

479 more students in Catholic education this year in Morbihan, why?

Steve

[Tourangelle]

I imagine nobody mentioned teacher's strikes because that's not the question?  The question was why so cheap.  Why have you highlighted what I said about lycées, whilst cutting out that I said "generally"?  I said that Brittany was an exception.  Really, I don't see the point of this last post.

[SC]

Tourangelle-

in your earlier post you eloquently outlined the differences between the state and private sector, and my post was intended to point out some other differences that are considered important by an ever larger number of parents.

 

You said that sending children to private schools was more widespread in Brittany, that’s all. Floss is coming to Brittany to live and I wanted to point out that contrary to your generalisation that I quoted, private lycees here do in fact get excellent results.  

 

Steve

[Tourangelle]

Don't quote me out of context, then!

[sf]

We are a couple with two boys aged 11 and 8 who are busy researching relocation to SW France.  I expect you'll have heard of Frenchentree.com (sp?) who offer fantastic info re education including a schools site called www.fabert.com.  This gives a list of all schools in your specified area.  My only problem is that I can't identify for certain which are sous contrat and which hors, and the according expenditure!!  Also, I believe that some schools are far more open to English pupils and offer extra help, but how to discover these I have no idea. 

Anybody any ideas?  Also, is it fairly standard for a new English pupil to start down a year to help out with getting accustomed to the language?

 

Kind regards.