Handwriting

For my second year learning from life placement, I was lucky enough to be able to help out in  a French primary school in Orléans for 6 weeks. During this time, I discovered a lot of things that were done differently in France compared to Scottish primary schools that I’ve been in. This post will explore a few key things that I noted over my placement and that stood out to me. Firstly,  when I began my placement at L’Ecole Guernazelles, I noticed that the children’s handwriting was very different to their Scottish equivalents. It was mostly neat and sophisticated, and seemed to have a lot more swirls than the way children write in Scotland. These are the style of letters the children were supposed to be using, this poster was on every classroom wall for the pupils to refer to.

I did question whether this was necessary and thought surely making sure a child’s spelling is at a good standard is more important than the style in which they write. When I asked the French teachers about this they said that writing in this style it is a tradition. Also having watched a video about it (called ‘French – Teaching Handwriting’ which is part of a series called ‘How do they do it in….?’), I learned that in France, handwriting is taught in a formalised manner that allows children to be creative. Their belief is if pupils’ handwriting is good they won’t be held back in being creative. This style of handwriting has been used for sixty years and it comes from a font called “La Ronde”.

• teachfind (2007) France – Teaching Handwriting. Available at: http://archive.teachfind.com/ttv/www.teachers.tv/videos/france-teaching-handwriting.html (Accessed: 15/04/2018)

Class Structure

In France, they don’t have Primary 1-7 in the Primary school. Instead, they have 5 classes.

• CP (6-7 year olds)
• CE1 (7-8 year olds)
• CE2 (8-9 year olds)
• CM1 (9-10 year olds)
• CM2 (10-11 year olds)

CP is the youngest class in the French primary school. In the school I was volunteering at for my placement, the CP class was the biggest in the school, at around 30 pupils (the school was in a rural area, only around 100 children in total). Something that I observed whilst I was in at the school was that the CP teacher did seem to struggle with the number of children in the class, and often had to send a few pupils to another class, if things got too hectic. One of the teachers at the school told me that Emmanuel Macron (the French President) was aiming to have a maximum of 12 pupils in every CP class in poorer neighbourhoods of France. This would be so that pupils could receive more teacher attention, earlier on in their education. Something else that was recently implemented in some primary schools (particularly in Nice and Marseille) by The President, is only having 4 day weeks. Typically pupils get a half day on a Wednesday, but this would be changed to a whole day off instead meaning children are out of school for 3 full days a week. In Scotland, schools are open Monday to Friday, with no half days (with the exception of Edinburgh).

Emmanuel Macron also wants compulsory education to start at the age of three, from September 2019. This would be lowering the starting age by 3 years and schools would require a lot more staff.  The President feels that nursery in France should no longer merely be treated as ‘childcare’, but it should be educational too.

• The Connexion, (2017), “Changes in Store as Children Head Back to School”
• The Connexion, (2018) “School to Start from Age 3 in 2019”.