Women's forums are teeming with children's topics. Moms try to give each other advice, stuffing bumps on the delicate foreheads of children.

What are professional educators doing? What, how and where are they taught?

We compare Russian and French elementary schools.

An ordinary public school in France accepts children at the place of residence.

To enroll in elementary school, prepare copies of documents:

• birth certificate;
• parents' passports;
• certificate of vaccination (for foreigners - a certified translation from a medical institution of their native country);
• a document issued by the mayor's office of the city, indicating the level of income of the family (based on it, the payment for food will be established);
• insurance;
• a document confirming the availability of housing (an agreement with a housing company, an employer).

“Letters are different to write with a thin pen in a notebook.” How to start studying at a French school.

Do you think that when they come to the first grade, they start teaching calligraphy to kids? Forget it. No hooks and zigzags for "setting the hand" (well, we're not in ballet, really). There are no even letters, rulers, or changing a ballpoint pen to a pencil either. French freethinkers do not limit the freedom of the child.

Variant of prescription in a cage

Most of the tasks are completed in notebooks with a printed basis, it remains only to choose the correct answer. Ordinary clean notebooks are asked to buy no more than a couple. And the fact that they are in an oblique line, and did not hear at all.

In France, there is no holiday on September 1 with flowers and bows, but Mardi Gras, school charity fairs, and exhibitions are celebrated regularly and on a grand scale.

"Subtract and multiply." The level of knowledge of elementary school.

Let's start with the good. Russian teachers provide the necessary knowledge at a high level. However, it is noteworthy that conditional three-year-olds, having changed their place of residence with their parents, in a French school become the first in terms of academic performance among their peers. Why? Were they underestimated at home? No. It’s just that the scale for assessing knowledge in France and the requirements for a child are significantly different.

French elementary school uses not a point system, but a letter system: A, B, C, D (A - high level of knowledge, D - low).

From now on, about the bad. Let's share a story told by a mother whose child went to first grade for the first time in a French school in a small town near Paris.

Having seen it in notebooks C and D, my mother, a notorious leading student of the Soviet educational system, began to ring the bells. To begin with, I complained to a familiar Frenchwoman.

The fears of our compatriot were not only not shared, but also not understood in essence. The Frenchwoman explained that C and D grades are not indicators of knowledge. They are indicate a stage in the development of a particular material at the time of the task.

In other words, C, D - the initial stage of mastering the material, and the child needs additional time for the final consolidation of knowledge. Agree: a completely different way of thinking.

Bearing in mind the terrible intimidation of teachers “you will stay for the second year!”, Russian parents find it difficult to accept such an approach. What could be more humiliating than such a prospect? The image of a repeater was associated with something like an underdeveloped mammoth, red-haired, on the last desk.

And such incidents were extremely rare. Teachers "drawn" three even in the most neglected case, in order to avoid this shameful phenomenon in school statistics.

By the end of the academic year of the first preparatory class of the French school, parents are given letter of offer for promotion to the next class.

You can agree or leave the student to take the same course again - at your discretion.

No special justification of the reason is required - a tick in the corresponding column of the letter is enough.

These Europeans are putting into practice what others - and Russians - shout at every turn. All children are different. Putting on identification badges to distinguish a person (as the Russian school practices) is a step of dubious effectiveness.

Each requires a differentiated approach, a different period of time for the assimilation of the same knowledge. It is not necessary to line everyone up at the same time by force in a common line.

"Kids do not offend." Behavior: rules, prohibitions.

In French, there is no concept of "norm of behavior". To school it is not allowed to bring toys and medicines, but the child can take his favorite book. If the required tasks in the lesson are completed earlier than others, the child can read it. Or paint a beautiful Indian ornament with pencils, say, in a math lesson.

Now about the "rules of conduct at recess." In France, you can get a shock once you see how children spend their free time at school. Yes, behind them guard watching.

Such a person is in the schoolyard during recess. But he reacts exclusively to serious situations, more precisely, to their consequences that threaten the safety of life. He is in no way concerned about an active game of football in rainy weather with dirty puddles of someone else's hat against the will of its owner.

active change

Expensive children's clothes, scattered on the pavement throughout the yard, often rest there from morning to evening. This familiar picture is indifferent to the French eye.

The school administration ensures the organization of the educational process, a fenced and guarded territory, and the absence of access by unauthorized people. Everything else is the problem of parents and the child himself.

Finding East and South. Atmosphere of French lessons.

The French experience of teaching lessons to kids in nature should be written down by all Russian teachers in the lesson plan with a bold marker.

Children are brought to a plot of land with a couple of trees (for birds), bushes (for insects), a small swamp (for frogs in the reeds) and a booth (for storing equipment). All this is proudly named "garden of discovery". For his sake, a comfortable school bus travels through half the city.

It is strictly forbidden for children to go where they have to, so as not to accidentally crush some worm. Only on designated paths! The scarcity of land is irrelevant. It is important that children learn to truly love the world around take care of him responsibly. Explain the relationships in nature.

And here the older guys are watching the world of plants

The kids sit down right on the ground (do not be afraid: wooden boards are given out under the priests), close their eyes, and then draw sounds and smells. Bird, plane, dog, car, man, rustle of leaves.

The teacher brings special boxes with holes. Everyone in turn puts his hand in there, guessing by touch what is inside: a bump, a thorn, a bark, a moss, a snail. General laughter and fun.

"Good books to love." Educational material: books, school premises.

The French classroom is almost like a home room. Pictures, rugs, creative works of children, family photos. Entrance door with a round window, like on a submarine. In the center is a round table. On it, first-graders prepare pies for the holidays. Later, they will be baked by cooks in the school cafeteria, and the children will eat them together.

Comparing children's "bourgeois" literature with modern native literature, one gets the feeling that one author wrote, then translated into different languages. Monsters that sharpen knives, heirs to the killer throne that get rid of competitors, cannibals, children torturing pets - this is an incomplete list of stories found in the French. Eating a deva's liver, savoring the details of the murders of fairy-tale characters and their death throes - these are Russian books on literary reading.

Attempts from an early age to show the child that life is not always cloudless, and people are not all good wizards? A method that causes many not understanding, but goosebumps.

What M. Plyatskovsky forgot to remember: homework, food, uniforms. How much?

A school cafeteria in France offers a buffet. Salads, vegetables (thawed from bags), fruits, juices, yoghurts predominate - the usual diet of traditional French cuisine. The payment depends on the earnings of the parents. With a monthly income of less than 600 euros - 6 EUR/month per child.

Education in a regular French school free. Most notebooks with a printed basis, books, folders, colored paper and even presents for the holidays at the expense of the school.

Contributions to the class fund are irregular: they may offer to donate money once a year, or they may not raise such an issue at all. The amounts are not fixed, they depend only on the good will of the parents. Free form of clothing.

“We work at school, we rest at home” is the motto of the French elementary school. Homework, at best, comes down to repeating the material covered in the lesson.

The amount of homework for Russian children is sometimes shocking. Maybe you should not teach that the house is a continuation of the same work, only at a different table? This bad habit takes root in the subconscious.

And do not ask why the husband, after returning from work, does not spend time with his family, but sits down at his laptop and stares at the screen until the night, regardless of whether there is a need for this.

Everything seems to be. There is something to think about.

We will be pleased if you share with your friends:

“In the middle of the fifth grade, my daughter, a student of a Moscow school, one of the hundred best in Russia, began studying at a provincial French college - an analogue of our high school. She did not know French at all. Mercy, bonjour, silvuple - do not count. Today, the most terrible threat to her is the promise to send her back to Moscow to study.” "Mel" has already written about how in France and, and today we are publishing a monologue of a mother whose daughter is studying at a French college.

Under the gaze of the school administration, I was always shy. But, as it turned out, the administration can be friendly and hospitable. We were surprised by the complete acceptance on the part of the college: if you live on our territory, then you will study. There is not enough necessary document - do not worry, bring it somehow later. We took our word for previous estimates. No daughter was subjected to any tests. Need to study? Will learn. Difficulties arise - we will help. “Maybe we should write her down a class?” I asked. "What for? Let him learn with his age! But if there are a lot of problems, it is better to repeat this year. But I’m almost sure that it won’t come to that,” the director gave me hope. And not a hint about any tutoring for money.

French College / Photo: devoirscmbaste-quieta.eklablog.com

In a college in a town with a population of three and a half thousand people, about 450 children aged 11-15 study. These are the sixth, fifth, fourth and third grades (here reverse class numbering), four or five parallels each, 25 children per class. The college attracts children from the surrounding tiny towns and villages. To do this, there are free school buses of six different routes.

At the agreed hour, the bus picks up children from specially equipped stops and returns there at a certain hour

For safety reasons, children are required to wear a bright yellow vest with the symbols of the department.

The French, as you know, are not strong in English, so my daughter's rather lively spoken English is a weak help. And yet, having learned that her daughter spoke English, the mathematics teacher, in order to explain at least something to her, began to bring a French-English dictionary with her to the lesson. Fizruk was not too lazy to resort to the help of an Englishman from a parallel class. Other teachers actively used drawings and pantomime, so that sometimes everyone laughed together. Nobody complained. Nobody called us, didn’t sound the alarm, didn’t get indignant, didn’t ask for help.

Lesson in a French college / Photo: franceinfo.fr

We were also sent to an association that helps children learn. The cost of assistance in learning French is five euros per year. For these five euros, a teacher comes to my daughter in college and teaches her French during the hours intended for individual lessons. The schedule has individual lessons for each student, each has his own subjects that he pulls up, and if there is nothing to pull up, he studies in depth.

What is La vie scolaire

La vie scolaire, which translates as "school life" is a division in the school, consisting of six people, three girls and three young people aged 21 to 35 years. They have a special office where every child can go on any issue. The task of "Viskol" is to solve all organizational issues. One meets students at the gate, the other is on duty in the dining room, the third marks the passes and monitors attendance. La Vie Scolaire organizes extracurricular activities, helps to find lost things, resolves conflicts between children, and so on.

Cabinet la vie scolaire / Photo: lyc-durand-castelnaudary.ac-montpellier.fr

The school day in the college starts at 8.30 and ends at 17.00 (Wednesday at 12.00). It seems like a long time, but my daughter, returning home, does not look tired. Firstly, the lunch break lasts an average of two hours, which allows not only to eat without haste, but also to truly relax. In addition, there are two more breaks of 15-20 minutes and a few small ones - just to move from class to class.

At big breaks, children are not allowed to be in school - they must breathe fresh air and move

Pupils walk in the school yard: they play ping-pong, ball games, just walk in groups, communicate, chat with pets from La vie scolaire, who look after the children on the street and often take part in their games.

Change / Photo: eduscol.education.fr

Children also have a rest on etudes which are in the schedule. You can have time to do your homework on them, or you can go about your business, the main thing is to sit quietly and speak only in a whisper.

There is no school uniform in the college. There are no changeable shoes. Not even a dressing room. Jackets children carry with them from class to class. But everyone has lockers with locks, where children store books, sportswear, so as not to carry heavy things. Despite the fact that everyone wears street shoes, the school is always very clean, and my daughter has never seen a cleaner. Probably, unlike our formidable fairies with floor rags, angrily screaming after the children, the French cleaners do their work during the lessons, and therefore the students do not interfere with them.

The highlight of the school is lunch

“If I don’t feel like getting up in the morning, I remember what a delicious lunch awaits me at school,” said her daughter after a month of study. It was the dinners that became, perhaps, the most striking first impression of my daughter from the college. For the first two months, she enthusiastically described the menu in detail every day, and I, along with her, never ceased to be amazed at its diversity. The names of the dishes sounded like restaurant ones, and their composition made me salivate and even desire to cook something similar to the guests. The main dishes on the menu have never been repeated in the first two months.

The daughter is surprised by the care: if there are grapefruits among the fruits, then they will definitely be offered sugar in a bag

Sugar relies on both strawberries (suddenly for someone it is not sweet enough), and natural yogurt. They give a piece of butter to the radish, and a slice of lemon to the fish. It surprises us, but if you think about it, it's normal. It is just as normal as it is to serve dishes beautifully for children, cultivating in them a love of beauty, and not bad habits.

French school canteen / Photo: france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr

The employees of the dining room are smiling, they do not scold the child, even if he dropped the tray. But he must clean up after himself.

The cost of a school lunch is two euros 10 cents, that is, approximately 150 rubles (parents pay once a trimester). Given that the minimum wage here is several times higher than in Russia, the price for such a chic dinner is more than modest.

How students are taught to love sports

TRP standards in French schools do not pass. The main thing is sports leisure during changes. Many children come to school with their own ping-pong rackets, balls (although all this can be taken from La Vie Scolaire). And the very fact that children are required to go outside during breaks and move, and not stand with their hands on a smartphone by the window, is important. By the way, using phones in college is strictly prohibited. For disobedience, the child's phone is confiscated for 24 hours. I thought that the fact of the ban would greatly upset my daughter, but it turned out that at the age of 12 she is already quite capable of appreciating all the advantages of gadget-free leisure.

Sports competitions / Photo: blogs.crdp-limousin.fr

Physical education lessons are completely different here. They are more complex and interesting. The teacher insures each child when performing complex acrobatic and gymnastic exercises. In addition, children are taught to play a variety of sports games: ping-pong, handball, badminton, football.

During the year, competitions are organized in various sports between colleges. For example, in May, my daughter had rugby and football matches

The whole class takes part, even if the child has never tried himself in this sport before. To my surprise, after the rugby competitions, my daughter fell in love with this unpopular sport in Russia and now wants to play it.

Winners in sports cross / Photo: asanatolefrance.canalblog.com

Why the 20-point grading system is better

In France, a twenty-point grading system has been adopted. My daughter believes that such a system better reflects your level of knowledge, more accurate, with her "you can't be free". And also, in her opinion, when there are only five grades, but in fact there are three, the teacher involuntarily stretches the grades for her favorites and underestimates those whom she dislikes. And I agree with her. When a teacher has 20 points in his arsenal, then the criteria for grading are more clear, therefore, the probability of an accurate and unbiased assessment is higher. Every mistake counts. And not just a mistake.

In order to get a score greater than 17, you need to give something "outstanding": an original thought or solution. With a five-point system, these efforts are difficult to evaluate. The five gets both the one who tried very hard, and the one who just did it soundly. It kills the desire to do something outstanding. And in certain cases, the four can be received by the one who “has a lot of corrections and no errors” and the one who has as many as three errors. To children, this, of course, seems unfair.

Photo: europe1.fr

I liked the system of “reporting” of the school to parents. Every semester, parents receive their child's report card by mail. It lists all subjects and grades on a twenty-point scale, rounded to the nearest hundredth, for example, 14.72. But the information that a parent can glean from the report card does not end there. It has columns that show the student's score in all subjects in previous semesters to gauge progress.

For each subject, the average grade for the class is indicated - you can quickly see what the child's progress is compared to others

But that's not all. For each subject, the lowest mark in the class and the highest mark are indicated - this way you can even better see how good the child's progress is. For example, I see 14.72 in math - it may seem that this is lower than I would like. But, after reviewing all the columns, I understand that with such a score, she is among the best.

In the last column of the report card, each teacher writes his opinion about each child. For example: “The student is very good and motivated. Shows progress despite difficulties with the language, but attention should be paid to the handwriting and the design of the works. Or: "An excellent result, there are clear abilities that the student is systematically developing." In addition, it is indicated how many hours of classes the student missed, and how many of these hours are not supported by documents.

Photo: bfmtv.com

I do not know how good my daughter will be after graduating from this provincial college, but I see that she goes to it with great desire and pleasure and does not want to miss a day. And I think this attitude is worth a lot. Sometimes I even envy her, for example, when she tells how the lessons of geography, music and fine arts go, I immediately have a desire to enter these lessons as a student.

Back to Moscow school? Never!

I know that using threats is not pedagogical, but in moments of weakness, when my teenage daughter drives me to despair with her behavior, I sometimes threaten to send her back to a Moscow school. She begs me not to do this, because she doesn’t want to go back to where they “walk in formation”, they learn chants at the classroom hour, where the canteen smells sickeningly, and you need to manage to swallow tasteless food in 10 minutes. Where the cleaning lady can “shout for nothing”, and during breaks you can’t run and play ball, where students are herded into the assembly hall to listen to the speeches of an official or a priest who arrived in a Mercedes with security.

Original taken from alanol09 in School in France. Peculiarities.

The educational process in France is divided into several cycles:
1. Ecole maternelle (similar to kindergarten) from 3 to 5 years old;
2. Ecole primaire (primary classes) from 6 to 10 years old;
3. College (college - middle classes) from 11 to 14 years old;
4. Lycée (lyceum - senior classes) from 15 to 17 years old.

The basic principles of the French education system were laid down at the end of the 19th century. Education in France is free and compulsory for all children from 6 to 17 years of age. So, when we moved from Russia and applied for a visa, one of the mandatory requirements was to show the child's enrollment in school if he was over 6 years old. The educational system is centralized, the state develops and approves all school programs, organizes examinations, approves vacation plans and school schedules. There are three types of schools in France: public (free schools), catholic (private schools that are partly subsidized by the state) and private schools. Catholic and private schools are paid, but the former are actively supported by the state, so education in them is several times cheaper than in ordinary private schools. So, if a month of education in a Catholic school costs 60-80 euros, then education in a private institution will cost about 10 times more.

The organization of the school week in France differs from the usual five-day period for us. For many years, Wednesday in French schools was a day off, like Saturday and Sunday, and the school day lasted from 8:30 to 16:30. On the one hand, such an organization of the educational process is very gentle for the child, but on the other hand, it is absolutely inhumane in relation to working parents who are forced to resort to the services of nannies or specialized centers to accommodate the child on this day off in the middle of the working week. But in 2014, France introduced a new mode of learning, according to which Wednesday became a school day. The study week now lasts 5 days, while the total number of study hours remains the same, lessons are held from 8.30 to 15.45 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, and on Wednesday - until lunch. It should be noted that Wednesday has become a compulsory school day only in public (public) schools. Catholic and private French schools still have a choice and often leave Wednesday as a public holiday.

For working families in France there is an extension system. The school opens from 7.30, and after the end of the school day, the child can be left at school until 18.30 - thus, working parents have time to take the child to school before the start of the working day and pick him up after. There is no need for nannies - convenient, right? After the end of the school day, the children pass under the responsibility of the employees of the city hall department, who work with the children, walk, draw or do homework, etc.

The school day in French schools seems to be long. But do not think that the life of a French schoolboy is so hard. Indeed, children in France spend most of the day at school. But, firstly, it is worth noting that the big break, during which the children have lunch, lasts 2 hours in French schools! The rest of the breaks are usually 30 minutes. And, secondly, written homework assignments are legally prohibited in France! Therefore, as a rule, evening preparations for the next school day take 15-20 minutes. Of course, not all teachers agree with studies conducted in France, according to which homework does not affect the assimilation of educational material in any way, and they are asked not only to repeat the studied material orally, read or learn a poem, but also written exercises. But these are rather recommendations, optional for implementation.

Another feature is the annual change of teachers and classes - parallel classes are mixed. They say that this is done so that there are no “groups” and favorites, and how one French mother answered me to my words “it’s a pity that teachers change, we like ours so much!” - “can you imagine if you didn’t like it - and so for several years?” - typical French logic!

Children go to kindergarten at the age of three, where they spend three years in different groups: first in the younger group, then in the middle group, and then in the older group. Classes in the French kindergarten begin at nine o'clock and end at half past five in the evening. Kids, as in Russia, perform various crafts, learn to handle glue and scissors, draw, paint and sculpt from clay, as well as sing and dance. In some kindergartens, children are taught the basics of working with a computer. In the younger and middle groups, after lunch, a quiet hour. In the older group, children learn to read and write.

Primary School (L'ecole Primaire)

At the age of six, children go to primary school. The first year of study at this school is called C.P. (from French - le cours preparatoire - preparatory course). At the end of this year, children should be able to read and write. After the preparatory class, there are 4 following: C.E.1 (cours elementaire 1 - elementary course 1), C.E.2 (cours elementaire 2 - elementary course 2), C.M.1 (cours moyen 1 - elementary course 1), C.M.1 (cours moyen 2 - elementary course 2). The school week is five days, but children do not study on Wednesdays and Sundays. However, now many schools are switching to a four-day school week: there are no classes on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. From Monday to Friday classes last from nine to sixteen-thirty, on Saturday - from nine o'clock to noon. Many children go to an after-school group, which in France is called la garderie. Unlike the Russian extended day group, the French group starts its work in the morning, before the start of classes, at 8 am and continues its work after class, until half past six in the evening.

College (Le College)

The first class of college is already the sixth year of study. Students enter college after elementary school at the age of 11 and spend 4 years there: in the sixth, fifth, fourth and third grade. Unlike the Russian system, where classes go up, French students move to a smaller class during their studies. In the sixth grade, the student must choose a foreign language for study: usually it is English, but it can also be German or Spanish. In the fourth grade, a second foreign language is chosen. Here the choice is wider: English, German, Spanish, Italian or Russian. From the sixth to the third grade, classes run all week except Saturday and Sunday. The lunch break lasts an hour and a half - from noon to half past one. Classes begin at eight o'clock and end at half past four, except Wednesdays, when classes end at noon. In addition to foreign languages, the college studies mathematics, French, history-geography (this is one subject in the French education system), chemistry, physics, natural science, there are classes in physical education and music, labor, fine arts, jurisprudence, and sometimes in Latin. During the week between classes, students have a few free hours during which they must stay at school and spend this time in a special classroom under the supervision of a teacher, doing homework. In addition to this work, French students do part of their homework in the evenings, after college. At the end of college, in the third grade, everyone takes an exam called le Brevet des colleges. The student leaves college at the age of fifteen and a half to sixteen.

Lyceum

After college, French students go to college, where their schooling ends. In the lyceum, education lasts three years - in the second, first and terminal (last) grade. Classes begin at eight o'clock and usually end at half past six in the evening. In the second grade, students study the same subjects as in college, with the exception of music, fine arts, law, and labor. Optionally, you can choose a third foreign language to study.
In the first grade, it is necessary to choose a general specialization: the direction of literature, the scientific direction, economic or the direction in the field of service and non-production sphere. You can choose a narrower direction: for example, medical, acting or hotel business. At the end of the first grade, students take an exam in French and the grades for this exam are added to the grades obtained by the student in the last terminal grade; all grades will be displayed in the final diploma at the end of the lyceum. At the end of their studies in the terminal class, students take a bac (le bac) - an exam in their chosen specialty. In the last class, philosophy is added to the available subjects. The average tank grade that students receive is 10 or more points out of 20.

University (L'Universite)

If a French student passes the tank on the first try, he enters the university at the age of 18. There are no entrance exams to French universities. Based on the results of the bak, you can choose a university and apply there. Usually, students do not have classes every day. There are weeks when students go to couples for no more than 3-4 days. The subject that is chosen by the student as the main one usually takes up most of the time in training. So, students studying English at the university study it for about 18 hours a week (it depends on the university). Almost all students who do not receive a scholarship work to pay for their education. Previously, there were 5 types of diplomas in the French education system: le D.E.U.G., le diplome d'etudes universitaires generales (it was received after 2 years of study at the university after receiving a tank), la License (3 years of study), la Maitrise (4 years of study), le D.E.A. (Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies) or le D.E.S.S. (Diplome d'Etudes Superieures Specialisees) after five years of study, and le Doctorat (8 years of study). Now in France there is a new European system and there are only three diplomas, they are called L.M.D. (in capital letters of the titles of diplomas): la Licence (3 years of study after the tank), le Master (5 years of study) and le Doctorat (8 years of study).

In contact with

Classmates

Secondary education in France consists of several stages: school, college and lyceum. Education lasts 11 years, but the countdown starts in reverse, from more to less, i.e. from 11th grade to the oldest 1st grade. Until the 6th grade, children want to go to school, and from the 6th grade they go to college, and from the second to the lyceum. Schools are private and public. To enter the state, you need to pass a test in French, and also have either documents for housing ownership or a rental agreement, since schools are distributed by the municipality at the address of residence. We decided to send the child to a private college, since it is inexpensive in France - only 30-35 euros per month. Classes in colleges are held five times a week from 8 to 15-40, with a break from 12 to 14, and on Wednesday only from 8 to 12. In France, preference is given to the humanities, sometimes it seems that the child is studying at the philological faculty. At school, children learn English, then in college, Chinese is added from the 6th grade, Latin, Greek and German begin from the 5th, and Spanish or Italian at the end. It would seem that after such training, children should become just polyglots, but in practice they don’t even know English properly. During the English tests, the whole class unanimously cheats from my son. Their son evaluates their knowledge of English as the level of his kindergarten. With Chinese, it’s even more fun - for six months of classes for 2 hours a week, the children were able to master only the word “Hi”. Apparently the French language techniques leave much to be desired.
Physical education and sports play an important role in the college. In addition to training sessions, children go in for sports even during a two-hour break, when they can play football or ping-pong. There are also handball and volleyball sections, but they take place after the main classes. But with out-of-school sports sections in France, in my opinion, it is rather weak. Although the infrastructure for this is simply magnificent: a huge number of stadiums with excellent equipment and excellent football fields with natural turf, since the climatic conditions allow this.
At the same time, they are always empty, only one holds rugby classes, residents use the rest of the fields for dog walking. What caused such irrational use of expensive infrastructure is not clear. Perhaps the French women do not dream of making Arshavin or Kabaeva out of their children and they are not taken to the section, so the groups are simply not recruited.

The rest of the 6th grade subjects coincide with the Russian school: mathematics, biology, history combined with geography, technology, music, art. There is no OBZh, but there is a subject of catechesis, which is taught by a Catholic priest.

There are also household differences. For example, there is no wardrobe in a French school; children go to class right in outerwear and without a “shift”. But at the entrance there are lockers in which you can store textbooks so as not to drag them back and forth from home. There are practically no changes, except for a two-hour break, between lessons there are only a couple of minutes to move from class to class.
The school library does not carry a simple function of storing books, but is a party place where you can not only read, but also chat and watch movies. It is strictly forbidden to use phones at school, even during a break.

During the two-hour break, children are offered a lunch buffet, although for some reason without soup. Probably, French nutritionists, unlike Russian ones, do not consider soup a necessary attribute of the children's menu.
This pleasure costs 6 euros, but those who live nearby can go to dinner at home.
In my opinion, the system of waiting is not thought out in the French school. Until the bell rings, the doors to the school are locked, and the children run around the school yard or stand in any weather, even in cold and rain.
The situation is the same after classes - they are immediately expelled from the school premises, so the children, waiting for their parents, stand on the street, and for some reason there are no benches in the school yard. A similar situation is in a music school, although they are allowed to go there, but the children are waiting for classes in the corridor, sitting right on the floor.
From extracurricular activities there are trips to the theater, museums, trips out of town. There are also longer trips around Europe: to Spain, Germany, England.