Bonjour
PRIMARY SCHOOL
*école primaire
School starts at three years old for most children. But they have to be at school -it's compulsory- at the age of 6
1-petite section
2-moyenne section
3-grande section
theses are kind of preschool where you learn to behave together, and you start leaning songs, alphabet, reading and then writing
*école élémentaire
Then you go to "elementary" school for 5 years => around 6 years old
4- cours préparatoire (CP)
5- cours élémentaire 1 (CE1)
6- cours élémentaire 2 (CE2)
7- cours moyen 1 (CM1)
8- cours moyen 2 (CM2)
-
ÉCOLE SECONDAIRE
*le collège (= middle school)
the grades are named
9-sixième, (6ème)
10- cinquième (5 ème)
11- quatrième (4 ème)
12- troisième (3 ème)
Then you pass "le Brevet des collèges" at the end of la troisième.
After that, some may want to go in "lycée professionnel" (vocational schools or technical college) to get a "baccalauréat professionnel" or "Centre de Formation des Apprentis" "apprentice learning center"(CFA) to both work and study in order to have a CAP (Certificat d'Aptitude professionnelle). The students who choose this way already know what they want to do and it's mainly jobs that don't require a very high level ...However, they can pursue their studies if they wan to to get higher level.
-
*le lycée (high school)
after the troisième, you go to le lycée for three more years
13- seconde
14- première
15- Terminale.
at the end of terminale, you have to pass le baccalauréat (BAC) which leads you to higher studies in Universities .....
-
to make it shorter, 2 main levels with 2 parts in each
level one = école primaire (divided in 2 parts : preschool and école élémentaire)
level two = école secondaire (collège + lycée)
-
I tried my best to explain how it works
hope it helps ☺☺☺
