Community Rentrée and a Sad Story

The whole of our town (well, the whole of France in fact) marks the rentrée with a rash of exciting events and things to join in with. The Forum des Associations (Clubs Fair) is on Saturday, but I've already found something to take part in: a Town Photography Competition!

The Willows are on the case, of course:

It's more their scene than the whole back-to-school thing, anyway.

The topic for the competition is the 'hidden heritage' of our town, so I'm really showing you a few photos I snapped this morning that don't quite fit that category - I need to save anything I think I might enter. I loved the cosy quilt on the bench outside the maternelle canteen! Really welcoming...

I spent a long time in the graveyard (I'd never been in before), looking for this boy. I can't tell you his name, because our street is named after him, and I don't want to publish our address. This poor boy, aged 15 or 16 (and therefore the same age as Son 1) was shot in Nazi reprisals following an ambush on a convoy just outside our town. He ran into the street by the church shouting, 'Don't shoot, don't shoot!' Ben thinks the marks left by machine-gun bullets raking across the wall are still there:

It's sobering indeed to remember that this is the fairly recent past of our town. Britian had it hard during the Second World War, but we knew nothing like this.

So I found his family tomb, and although it may seem a very gloomy way to have spent my morning, in fact I felt in tune with our town, and paid my respects to someone who, as part of our address, almost feels part of our family, too.

School Report

Both boys have done the registration day in school now, so the timetable starts for earnest tomorrow:

 

The boys seem quite pleased with their 'profs principales' (form teachers) and also with their timetables - but are not so sure about some of the pupils in their classes, Son 2 in particular having a few well-known troublemakers in his class (again). All this is just the same all over the world, I'm sure, so I'll try to tell you a few things that are specific to French education.



School (but not education) starts young, with 2 or 3 year olds going into the Maternelle schools and learning all about how to interact with a group, sit down, put their hand up etc. There is never any problem of children arriving at the education level without having experienced books etc - which seems a good thing compared to my experience in more deprived areas in England.

Formal education, however, starts later than in the UK, at the age of 6-7. Children learn to read within the first term or two, rather indicating that a late start is a good idea..?

At the age of 10-11 (slightly younger than in the UK) pupils go up to Collège - this is where Son 2 is now. At 13, he's in 4° (quatrieme), and will have this year and then one more which he finishes by doing his exams and going up to:

Lycée, which is the school that Son 1 has just started at the age of 15. This stage of education lasts for three years, with the Bac exams at the end. So it's like starting sixth form college a year earlier, really. I think Son 1 is ready for the responsibility, and the sense of trust that seemed to be somewhat lacking in his collège.

Other details - there is no school uniform, although pupils do dress alike! Class sizes are quite good, always staying under 30. The school day is long (8.30 - 5 at collège, and 8 - 5.30 at lycée) but Wednesday afternoons are off. There may well be free periods during the day at both 'secondary' levels - pupils can start school later if they have no lesson at the beginning of the day, or if the teacher is absent. There are no supply teachers any more (thank you, Mr Sarkozy). There is no on-the-job teacher training, but motivated teachers do a lot of individual work to improve their own performance - I know because one of my best adult students is a teacher!

The ethos is one of hard work and seriousness - there seems little room for fun, or even the concept that learning might be fun. I have stopped asking adult French students, 'What was your favourite subject at school?' because it doesn't make sense to them. On the other hand, French students leave school highly capable of putting their heads down and getting on with their work, and my husband notices that this really distinguishes them from UK students with whom he's worked - who still have a: 'What's the point of work, and does it really matter how well I do it?' ethos, even when they're being paid! As always, a perfect system would surely combine the best points of both the French and what they call the 'Anglo-Saxon' (English-speaking) systems... For an interesting and personal view, you could have a look at this article from a few years back. The author's child encountered both the best and the worst of French primary schooling, and both tie in with our own experiences.

EDIT: Cory at 'Tongue in Cheek' has posted on the differences between French and American education today! It's well worth reading (and, of course, has much prettier pictures than this post).

My own rentrée...

Son 1 is at lycée - we await the end of the day (technically they can finish as late as 5.30pm, but possibly not every day) to see how he's got on! Thanks for all your comments about this yesterday - Ben and I cycled up with him for the first day, and then stood to one side and watched (with a load of other parents in the car park) as our offspring went in without a backwards glance... So today it's just Son 2 and me at home - and I'm getting ready for my own rentrée! This means a good tidy-up...

The guest bedroom is going back to being my teaching room, after accommodating some wonderful house-sitters over the summer (Izzie and George, what would we have done without them?). So the bed is allowed to go all vintage again, and I have my first Rentrée Resolution - keep the spare room tidy!

There's plenty of motivation - every Wednesday my teaching (usually spread all around Toulouse) narrows down to the nearest town and villages and I have a stream of local children and teenagers coming for lessons on their day/afternoon off. I also have an adult coming for lessons on Thursday evenings this year, so a good desk and a pleasant atmosphere are a must. The good desk was donated a whole year ago - do you remember this post?

A pupil donated me her old desk, and I had an interesting time reading your comments about how to tie modern and vintage together - Wendz was particularly helpful and it only took me a year (sigh) to talk Ben into putting holes in the wall for all the pictures she suggested. (Yes, many of you can hang your own pictures. I suffer from clumsiness and have a perfectionist, but very capable husband, so I usually DON'T.) Here is the delightful result:

You'll have spotted the Willows having a good look around - I got Mr Toad off my laptop ASAP, I can tell you! Who can tell what would have happened if he'd got onto my Facebook page?

The road to school...

...has just got longer for Son 1, who starts at lycée tomorrow! The lycée (high school) is in the town next door to ours, so instead of the 5 minute cycle ride he and his brother are used to, he'll be cycling 20 minutes there and 20 back each day.

We all have bikes, crammed into our utility room following some thefts a few years ago.

Both boys are learning basic bike maintenace with Ben - frankly, I should learn too, but I just hate all that dirt and confusing machinery! Above is Son 2 with his dad, preparing his bike for the rentrée last Saturday.

Yesterday Son 1 and I checked the route (mainly on a cycle path) and the timing for his new journey - it really took me back to the summer rides I enjoyed with him three years ago (photo above) when we were getting him ready to cycle on his own to collège - a dyspraxic cyclist takes a little longer to be roadworthy than your average child! Aww - what a little cutie he looks there, compared to his tousle-haired, square-jawed, lumbering self these days... but I'm so proud of him. He's chosen to cycle rather than register for the school bus. I've pointed out that he'll regret that on cold, rainy days, but he points out freedom (first priority) and exercise (second) are worth a bit of cold and wet over the course of a school year...

The Rentrée Shopping Bill

Yesterday morning I cleared the table, got out the lists, and started going through the stationery shelves:

Not very tidy but you get the picture - we have a lot of pens, books, papers and those beastly little plastic pockets in stock! This seemed a safe enough moment to involve the Willows - and so it turned out.

With highlighter pens, extra lists and lots of sorting, I whittled down Son 2's list for 4° in Collège (that's year 8 or 9, in the UK), using up lots of the stationery I'd already picked up whenever I found it going cheap,

and even some of his stuff left over from last year, although most of it looked like the contents of his pencil case, above!

Unusually, Son 2 wasn't helping me, as he was out in the garden with Ben, working on his bike - this seemed a good excuse to head off to the shops with only Ratty for company (I heeded Jane's warning about the likely outcome of taking Mr Toad into a French supermarket)...

Above is the physical result of our labours,

and this is the financial damage! 66€52 is a great saving on the projected cost of the Rentrée, which was estimated this year at well over 100€ per child. Son 2 has kept his cartable (school bag) from last year, as it was fantastically strong and reliable, and with a bit of care we've also re-used some books, a pencil case, a calculator etc...

And by working carefully from the Intermarché booklet I showed you yesterday, the list above shows how much money I got back on my loyalty card - about 20% of our total rentrée spend. Phew! How much does it cost to go back to school where you are?

La Rentrée - Shopping List

As I promised yesterday, I'm going to be combining my week with the Willows with a little guided tour of la rentrée - the French Back to School week. I feel as though I've told you a lot about it, but never shown you how it all works. So we begin here - when the boys finished school last June (or got inscribed into the new school, in the case of Son 1), we filled in oodles of forms and were given, in return, loads of lists! The Willows are giving the whole set a once-over:

As you'll see, our handy local supermarket, Intermarché, is well on the case to help us get every last item. I've waited until this week to buy the bulk of the stationery, as Intermarché always gives us great deals on the loyalty card, for ten days only...

Well, those ten days run out tomorrow, and very few Intermarchés are open on a Sunday, so today is my last chance to go shopping!



The green list to the left is Son 1's school books for lycée. These are already sorted, thanks to an astonishingly organised Parents' Union event which sells second hand and new books to all students. The mauve list on the right however, is all down to me, Son 2, the Willows and Intermarché... I will tell you how we get on!

The Willows in France

Many of you probably know about the intrepid band of explorers which has been winging its way around the bloggers of North America and Europe, but for those of you who are new to the team, here they are, sunning themselves, in Haute Garonne, France (the département number for Haute Garonne is 31, so this photo seemed appropriate!):

Here are Ratty, Toad, and, balancing precariously above them, Mole. They had a bit of a sabbatical over the summer holidays, with some interesting travel arrangements and absent hosts (including me), but were safely tucked up chez mois when I returned (finally!) from Italy. I instantly plunged them into more down-time as I was far too busy hosting parents in law and then visiting my dad and his financée, but now here we all are together, back in le trente-et-un, or the sunny south of France, to non-French readers.

 

I wondered for a moment how to entertain them, and you, dear readers, in the time they have left with me, and the answer came quickly: la rentrée! The French Back to School is upon us, and I'm going to aim for a short post per day over the coming week, to keep you up to date with the Willows (for those of you who are following their adventures) and to give all readers an insight into the serious but rather beautiful business of getting back to school in France. This will give us a nice run-up to my now traditional Rentrée Resolutions and Giveaway, and then I'll post the Willows on to their next stop, spring-time Australia!

In Edinburgh and Not Blogging!

My sister snapped this photo of me (she said I matched the plate, so the snapshot had to be taken)...

The boys and I are here visiting my dad and his fiancée. Life continues to be too busy and too pleasant to find time for blogging - but I haven't forgotten you, my friends!

Italia!

Well, yes, many of you were right, we went to Italy! It was wonderful...

We started off just over the French border, in Pietra Ligure, which is a fairly standard seaside town but just what our sea-starved British souls needed:

We were getting very good vibes about Italian campsites, which seemed cheerful, shady and relatively quiet. Our next stop, in Siena (close to Florence - well done, guessers!) was an incredible campsite actually within the medieval city. We visited the sites by day (too hot) and then by night (wonderful).

On to Rome, where another city campsite on the banks of the Tiber was calm and relaxing - and much appreciated as we visited Rome:

Pompeii:



and the particularly wonderful Herculaneum:

Exhausted by a lot of walking and driving (these sites aren't near each other!) we headed off to the Apennine mountains near the Adriatic sea. Our final campsite was a tiny one in an olive grove, full of very friendly Dutch people:

It's where we got to make (and eat) pizzas with the local pizza chef!

It was a wonderful three-week holiday, made very easy by great campsites, a GPS system and good-natured family members. One of my French trainees asked me: 'Was everyone happy, all of the time?' and the answer is, of course not! We just worked on the theory that everyone would have their off moments and that this wouldn't matter. It didn't. We will be travelling like this again!

Travels...

I've enjoyed reading your comments and guesses, and have a tiny bit of time to tell you more about our travels, and some newly arrived travellers who have been even further than us!

I'm not going to make it too easy, though - here are some photos to go with my original clues:
"We left France and camped by the sea..."

"Then by a medieval city..."

"Next on the banks of a mighty river curving around an ancient city..."

"and finally stayed in the mountains near a second sea..."

So those are my clues, and now, those charming Willows have arrived and have been sunning themselves on the banks of our less mighty, but equally warm, river:

More on them, and on our travels, later! Can you guess where we went, yet?