Saturday school

[EuroStar]

Do French children have to go to school on Saturdays?

[Suze01]

Depends on the area.  My children's schools had lessons on a Saturday morning until 3 years ago when it was voted to change the half day to a Wednesday instead.

[Val_2]

Nor here in Brittany. We voted way back in 98 or 97 I think overwhelmingly to stop Saturdays as no one could go away for weekends or weddings easily. Our primaire dosn't go wed mornings either but they do return from summer earlier and often break up or re-start mid week to make up the required number of hours.

[Teamedup]

Yes in this village they go on a Saturday and lots of places around here. Some ski places and villages on the main ski routes have the same system as Val's. Some do Wednesday mornings instead.

So in one family you could actually have three kids doing all three systems depending on where you lived and which schools you had sent them too.

[JJ]

Here in the Charente Maritime our two children aged 10 and 8 who are at Primaire go in for 3 hours on a Saturday morning. Although when they go up to college they do not, but go in on Wed mornings, so much ferrying and collecting etc. And we will have one at each in the next couple of years.

Ideally they would all have weekends off, but after 4 years it is surprising how one gets used to it.

Every 3 weeks they get a free Saturday, which is to do with the teachers 35 hour week.

There is some evidence from educational pschologists that children learn more in the mornings.

Historically the day off on Wednesday was something to do with children being able to attend church, so it does seem a bit odd considering the we fact that we are supposed to be in a secular society that this practice continues, mind you, if we applied that theory then we might lose all our public holidays as they are also linked to the church.

 

[Clair]

[quote user="JJ"]Historically the day off on Wednesday was something to do with children being able to attend church, so it does seem a bit odd considering the we fact that we are supposed to be in a secular society that this practice continues, mind you, if we applied that theory then we might lose all our public holidays as they are also linked to the church. [/quote]

As a pupil in France in the 70's, I used to have Thursdays 'off'.

This was later changed to Wednesdays to balance the workload of the school week more adequately.

I also used to attend the (optional) Sunday school equivalent on a Wednesday morning.

[Teamedup]

There are still quite a lot of kids in our village who go to le cathé every Wednesday morning.

[Mistral]

[quote user="JJ"]

Every 3 weeks they get a free Saturday, which is to do with the teachers 35 hour week.[/quote]

I wish [:)]

The samedi libéré is a lot older than the 35 hour week (in fact teachers' hours date from the 1950's working hours calculations and haven't been changed since) Primary school children just have 10 free half days in the year, one for each month. It doesn't actually always work out as one per month because of the holidays. In our town, two of the half days were put together by the rectorat (without asking our opinion) to give pupils ascension Friday off. So they only have 8 Wednesdays. (which now means that parents who don't have that day off -like secondary school teachers- have childcare problems)

We used to have Saturday morning school but it was moved to Wednesday mornings about 5 years ago (I prefer it) The collèges open on Wednesday mornings. In the neighbouring town, they schools still open on Saturday morings and the Saturday off varies depending on the class you are in. (so if you have children in different classes, they won't be off on the same day and you never get a lie-in)

[Panda]

Hi

We've lived in the Vienne and the Charente and in both cases the schools run on the Wednesday system not the Sat, I've also noticed a move towards schools getting rid of the Weds all together too and shorten holidays, I would chose that if I could. 

One thing that is very different here are the hours, my sons school hours are 9.10 until 4.30, before we had to race to get him in for 8.20.

Panda

[Charallais]

My grandchildren don't go to school Wednesday but do go Saturday morning here in the Cote d'Or. There is a club run on Wednesdays that the children can go to.

My grandson is 3 and a half and he can opt for all day or half day schooling. The chidlren in Petit Section usually have a sleep after lunch then play but he isn't used to that and wouldn't sleep at night if he slept in the afternoon. The Maternelle now let him go in the afternoon and work with the Moyenne Section. His sister is in Grand Section and although they only joined the school at the begining of May she is going up to Primaire in September.

[Gemini_man]

[quote user="EuroStar"]Do French children have to go to school on Saturdays?

[/quote]

It was voted on area by area by parents so it does depend - you need to ask locally.