{"id":2011,"date":"2017-03-31T21:04:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-31T21:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/?p=2011"},"modified":"2022-04-13T15:42:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T15:42:50","slug":"lingo-map-schoolcollege-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/lingo-map-schoolcollege-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Lingo Map: School\/College Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bonjour \u00e0 tous ! This month I have been given the title of\u00a0<em>School\/College Life<\/em>. Despite France not being hugely different to the UK, there are a few significant differences in the way in which their schools function.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Pas d&#8217;uniformes!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>First of all, (and this is <em>always<\/em> the first thing to come to mind), children in France don&#8217;t wear school uniforms. When you talk to them about our uniforms in the UK they seem to think they are ugly, yet a huge proportion of the class always put their hands up when you ask who wishes they could have uniforms in France. Despite the fact they are not obliged to dress in a certain way, as I mentioned in my last blog, all of the students in my school appear to wear virtually the same clothes. French teenage girls are fans of skinny jeans, leather jackets and adidas stan smiths and the boys love tracksuits, football tops and stan smiths too.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Different types of schools:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>When talking about school life in France it&#8217;s really important to understand how their schools work in comparison to ours. Firstly they have\u00a0<em>\u00e9cole maternelle, \u00e9cole primaire, coll\u00e8ge, lyc\u00e9e\u00a0<\/em>then\u00a0<em>universit\u00e9<\/em>. I&#8217;m going to try and break down the school system a bit because it&#8217;s a bit complicated!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>\u00c9cole maternelle\u00a0<\/em>is equivalent to our nursery. There are 3 classes: PS, MS and GS (petite section, moyenne section and grande section) and you go to an \u00e9cole maternelle from 2-6yrs old.<\/li>\n<li><em>\u00c9cole primaire<\/em> (primary school) is from 6-11yrs old. Whereas our classes usually go from reception, yr 1, yr 2 etc. until yr 6, the French classes have different names. They have: CP, CE1, CE2, CM1 and CM2. CP is the youngest class and CM2 the oldest.<\/li>\n<li><em>Coll\u00e8ge\u00a0<\/em>in France is not the same as college in the UK. It is actually the equivalent to our secondary schools. There are four classes that are: 6\u00e8me, 5\u00e8me, 4\u00e8me and 3\u00e8me. 6\u00e8me is the youngest class (11-12yrs old) and 3\u00e8me is the oldest (14-15yrs old) which is the opposite to our system where we count up from yr 7 &#8211; yr 11.<\/li>\n<li>Finally we have\u00a0<em>lyc\u00e9e\u00a0<\/em>which is the equivalent to our college\/sixth form. There are three classes: Seconde (15-16yrs old), Premi\u00e8re (16-17yrs old) and Terminale (17-18yrs old).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Long days<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>My biggest surprise when starting work in a French secondary school was how long their days are. Classes start at 8am and go on until 5pm\/6pm. This is a huge contrast to my secondary school in England that started at 9am and finished at 3.15pm. Most of my students don&#8217;t think anything of getting up everyday for school at 6am. However, on Wednesdays they have a half day and get to finish classes at midday!<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, they have crazily long lunch breaks! The lunchtime here can vary between 1-2hrs. In the two schools I work in it is 1.5hrs which is quite hard to get used to if you&#8217;re used to a 45min lunch break! This gives the children (and teachers) some time to chill out and have a break during their long days.<\/p>\n<p>Another big difference with the schools here is that packed lunch doesn&#8217;t exist. The children either eat in the canteen every day or they go home. It is equally common to go home for your lunch as it is to stay and eat in the canteen. Many of the teachers also go to nearby caf\u00e9s for lunch rather than staying on site.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Substitute teachers<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>One thing I&#8217;ve really noticed is that if teachers are absent, the students get to go home! Substitute teachers don&#8217;t appear to be a thing here so the children either stay and hang around in the playground or go home (this is what I&#8217;ve seen in the coll\u00e8ges anyway). You will often see children hanging around in the school as they also have free lessons. This again, was a big contrast for me as in secondary school between 9-3.15pm we had continuous lessons with no frees.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>School sports teams<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>School sports teams don&#8217;t exist here in France on the same scale that they do in the UK. Even in university if you want to play a sport you usually do it in your own time with a club outside of your school\/university. Lots of my students play for the local football team (another popular t-shirt that&#8217;s always worn in the school) &#8211; RC Grasse.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><strong>Un petit jeu<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>There is a lot of information in this blog about school and college life in France, so I want to break it up with a little game to finish. I had a few of my 3\u00e8me students write a note about French schools. I have copied their notes and translated them to English and you need to try and match them up!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Margaux, 14ans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Nous ne portons pas d\u2019uniformes. On a 1 ou 2 heures de pause le midi. On a deux semaines quand on est en vacances. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Quentin, 14ans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>En France, la cuisine de la cantine est meilleure et nous avons entre 1 et 2 heures pour manger.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Lula, 14ans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Au coll\u00e8ge, on a cours du lundi au vendredi toute la journ\u00e9e sauf le mercredi o\u00f9 nous travaillons que le matin. Nous n\u2019avons pas le droit aux t\u00e9l\u00e9phones. On apprend l\u2019anglais en classe 3 heures par semaine.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Janko, 14ans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Au coll\u00e8ge en France, les cours sont vari\u00e9s et nous avons beaucoup de temps pour manger et les vacances sont plus longues qu\u2019en Angleterre. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Axel, 14ans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Le coll\u00e8ge en France est tr\u00e8s bien car nous avons assez de temps pour manger le midi. De plus, nous sommes souvent en vacances. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A. Secondary school in France is great as we have enough time to eat at lunchtime. Also, we&#8217;re always on holiday.<\/p>\n<p>B. In secondary school, we have lessons all day Monday-Friday, apart from Wednesdays where we only work in the mornings. We are not allowed to use our phones. We have English lessons for 3 hours a week.<\/p>\n<p>C. In secondary schools in France, the lessons are varied and we have lots of time to eat and the school holidays are longer than in England.<\/p>\n<p>D. We don&#8217;t wear school uniform. We have 1-2\u00a0hours for our lunch break. We have two weeks off when we have our school holidays.<\/p>\n<p>E. In France the food from the canteen is better and we have 1-2 hours to eat.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00c0 bient\u00f4t !<\/p>\n<p>Kate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bonjour \u00e0 tous ! This month I have been given the title of\u00a0School\/College Life. Despite France not being hugely different to the UK, there are a few significant differences in [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[268],"tags":[42,249,282,277],"class_list":["post-2011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","tag-erasmus","tag-europe","tag-traineeship","tag-working"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4QQbz-wr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1868,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/lingo-map-local-and-regional-culture-and-characteristics-of-your-country\/","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":0},"title":"Lingo Map: Local and Regional Culture and Characteristics of your Country","author":"Kate Pritchard","date":"March 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Bonjour \u00e0 tous ! This month I have been given the title of 'Local and Regional Culture and Characteristics of your Country' which is\u00a0a perfect title for where I'm living now. Perfume Capital of the WORLD! Grasse is extremely significant as it is the perfume capital of the world. Throughout\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;European Placements&quot;","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/03\/image1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/03\/image1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/03\/image1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/03\/image1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":748,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/thursday-is-scout-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":1},"title":"Thursday is Scout Day","author":"Samantha Edgson","date":"July 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Every Thursday the students wear their scout or cadet uniforms to school. It\u2019s incredible and everyone looks really smart. Apparently in Thailand scouts is mandatory so you don\u2019t get a non-uniform day if you aren\u2019t a part of a group. That just does not happen. The cadets do a drill\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;International Summer Programmes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"International Summer Programmes","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/summer-programmes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"13866725_10207013186387515_289623890_n","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2016\/07\/13866725_10207013186387515_289623890_n-450x338.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1612,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/self-and-relationships-how-to-be-super-chic\/","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":2},"title":"Self and Relationships: How to be super chic","author":"Emily Seaborne","date":"December 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Bonjour \u00e0\u00a0tous, This is my first blog post which I have decided to write on teen fashion in France. I hope you enjoy reading :) How to be super chic...French chic It is no secret that France is a leading country in the fashion design industry. Bringing us style icons\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;European Placements&quot;","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com\/originals\/2e\/45\/27\/2e45272c93c3263c4d343bb959a70a53.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2366,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/lingomap-school-and-college-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":3},"title":"LingoMap: School and College life","author":"Sarah Gregory","date":"July 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Finally I am back with another LingoMap blog! I hope you have enjoyed reading about my year abroad journey so far! For this blog I am focusing on school and college life in Spain. The first thing I will say about school life in Spain is that it is extremely\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;European Placements&quot;","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":253,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/coucou-tout-le-monde\/","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":4},"title":"Coucou, tout le monde!","author":"Kathryn Muldoon","date":"November 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Three very eventful months into the first stage of my Erasmus story, it\u2019s probably time to reflect a little on my time so far in Lyon. And why is it that I\u2019m in Lyon, you may ask? As a French (and German, but more on that in a few months)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;European Placements&quot;","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2014\/11\/DSCN0539-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2014\/11\/DSCN0539-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2014\/11\/DSCN0539-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2014\/11\/DSCN0539-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2014\/11\/DSCN0539-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2014\/11\/DSCN0539-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2085,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/lingomap-el-sistema-educativo-espanol\/","url_meta":{"origin":2011,"position":5},"title":"Lingomap: El sistema educativo espa\u00f1ol","author":"Melissa Tavares","date":"May 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Hola a todos!! Hope you\u2019re all doing well! I'm loving life in very sunny Granada! This month\u2019s topic is school and college studies. Funnily enough 5 years ago today, I left school, it feels way longer than that, to be honest, and although they say your school days are the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;European Placements&quot;","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_6991","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2017\/05\/IMG_6991-450x338.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2011"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2046,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions\/2046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}