Getting your children into French school: the parent’s guide

The shape of it: maternelle to lycée

French schooling is a single, nationally-defined ladder, and knowing the rungs makes everything else legible. It runs in three stages:

• École maternelle (ages 3–6): petite, moyenne and grande section. Compulsory from three. Play-based but real — this is where your child becomes French-speaking almost frighteningly fast.
• École élémentaire (ages 6–11): CP, CE1, CE2, CM1, CM2 — the primary years, where reading, writing and arithmetic get serious.
• Collège (ages 11–15): counting down — 6ème, 5ème, 4ème, 3ème — ending in the brevet, the first national exam.
• Lycée (ages 15–18): 2nde, 1ère, terminale, ending in the baccalauréat — général, technologique or professionnel.

Two things trip up British parents immediately. First, the year-group names count downward through collège, so “6ème” is the first year of secondary, not the last. Second, the cut-off is the calendar year, not September: children born any time in a given year start together, so a late-December birthday can mean being the youngest in the class by nearly twelve months.

The private/state surprise

This is the section to read twice, because the British intuition here is not just unhelpful — it’s actively misleading. In Britain, “private school” means expensive, selective, independent, and outside the state system. In France, that describes a tiny sliver of schools. The reality:

State schools (école publique) are free, secular by law (laïcité — no religious instruction, no ostentatious religious symbols), and staffed by civil-servant teachers recruited by national competitive exam. This is where the large majority of children go.

Private schools — and here’s the twist — are overwhelmingly sous contrat d’association with the state. Around 97% of France’s private schools are of this type. What that means in practice: the state pays the teachers (who train and qualify the same way as public-sector ones), the same national curriculum applies, and pupils sit the same national exams — the brevet, the bac. The school keeps a caractère propre (usually a Catholic ethos, though it must admit all children regardless of faith), and charges a modest contribution toward its buildings and running costs. Typical fees run in the low hundreds of euros a year — figures around €366 a year in maternelle/primary and €650 at collège are commonly cited averages, though a well-known Paris establishment might exceed €2,000 and many rural schools charge under €200. Bursaries and sibling discounts are common; ask.

The genuinely private, state-unfunded school — hors contrat — is the rare exception (roughly 3% of private schools): free to set its own curriculum, free to charge what it likes, and it does — fees can run from a couple of thousand into the tens of thousands. This is the closest thing to a British private school, and it’s a niche within a niche.

So when a French parent says their child is dans le privé, they almost never mean what a British parent hears. They mean, in 98% of cases, a state-subsidised (usually Catholic) school charging a fraction of UK fees, teaching the identical curriculum. The choice between public and privé sous contrat is far more about ethos, class sizes and local reputation than about money or academic content.

Enrolling: who to talk to, and when

The single most important rule: a public school cannot refuse your child on grounds of nationality or your immigration status. Instruction is compulsory and guaranteed for every child aged 3–16 present on French soil, full stop. With that reassurance banked, the who depends on the child’s age:

• Maternelle and primary (roughly 3–11): you go to the mairie of your commune first. They confirm your zoned school under the carte scolaire and pre-register the child; you then complete enrolment at the school itself with the director. Enrolment for a September start typically runs January–June, so start early.
• Collège and lycée (roughly 11–18): the rectorat (via the departmental education authority) handles placement, not the mairie — and for a non-francophone child this is also your route to the CASNAV and language support (next section). For a privé sous contrat school at any age, you contact the establishment directly.

What to bring: proof of address, the livret de famille or birth certificates, an up-to-date vaccination record, and — crucially for older children — their most recent school reports from home. You can request a dérogation (an exception to your zoned school) for defined reasons: keeping siblings together, a specific course of study, a medical situation. It’s granted on motive, not on preference, so make the case properly.

If your child doesn’t yet speak French

This is where France quietly does something rather good — and where you must be awake, because the support is a right you have to claim. Children arriving without French are formally EANA (élèves allophones nouvellement arrivés — newly arrived non-francophone pupils), and that status unlocks dedicated help. The key fact, in the words of one official guide: EANA status is not granted automatically — you have to ask for it. Skip that step and a non-French-speaking child can end up in an ordinary class with no extra support at all.

Here’s how the system is meant to work when you do claim it. The child sits an évaluation / test de positionnement — organised via the CASNAV, the academic service for newly-arrived pupils — assessing their academic level in their own language plus maths and any French they have. This is why their old reports matter: the system is trying to place them at the right academic level, not just the right language level, and it explicitly assesses prior schooling. A plain translation you’ve done yourself is fine at this stage; sworn translations are only needed for final secondary diplomas.

Based on the assessment, the child is placed in an ordinary class for their age (within about two years of the age-normal level) and, where available, given intensive French through a UPE2A — a language unit attached to the school, typically several hours a week alongside mainstream lessons. They join ordinary classes immediately for subjects that don’t hinge on French — maths, sport, art, music — which is both good pedagogy and good for making friends. In rural areas without a local UPE2A, a travelling specialist teacher or the CASNAV arranges support instead. Children immerse startlingly fast, especially the younger ones; the maternelle in particular does this almost by osmosis.

The rhythm: the school week and the zoned holidays

Two features of French school life reliably surprise British families, and both are logistical rather than academic.

The primary week is short and unusually shaped. Depending on the commune it’s four days (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday) or four-and-a-half (adding Wednesday morning), with Wednesday afternoon — sometimes all of Wednesday — free. Lunch breaks are long, often two hours, and children can go home or eat in the cantine. The days themselves run longer than in Britain to compensate. For working parents, the load-bearing structure is the périscolaire — the municipally-run wraparound care before school, after school, over the long lunch, and on Wednesdays. Sort this out with the mairie as you enrol, not after; in some communes places are finite.

Holidays come in zones. To stop the entire nation descending on the ski slopes and beaches simultaneously, France divides into three zones — A, B and C — whose February and spring holidays fall on staggered dates. Summer, the Toussaint (late October) and Christmas breaks are nationwide; the two mid-year holidays are zoned. Which zone you’re in depends on your académie, i.e. where you live — so before you book flights home or visitors in, check your zone’s specific dates for the year. The French school year runs early September to early July, with a generous eight weeks or so of summer.

A few British particulars, cleared up

Assorted things British parents ask, answered quickly. Uniforms: almost no French state school has one (a national trial is running in a small number of volunteer schools, but it’s the rare exception, not the rule). Vaccinations: genuinely checked at enrolment — for children born from 2018 onward, eleven vaccinations are required, so reconcile your child’s UK record against the French schedule early and expect to catch up any gaps. Religion: state schools are strictly secular; a privé sous contrat school may have a Catholic ethos but still can’t turn your child away for being the wrong faith or none. Financial help: means-tested bourses exist for collège and lycée (in the private sector too), and the CAF’s allocation de rentrée scolaire helps with September costs — both worth investigating once you’re in the system.

Last honest word: the paperwork feels daunting and the acronyms come thick and fast, but the underlying promise is simple and generous — every child gets a place, the non-francophone ones get real support, and children absorb the language far faster than their parents dare hope. Start at the mairie, ask for what you’re entitled to by name, and bring the old school reports. The rest, remarkably, tends to work.

Where next

This guide offers practical, general information, not legal or educational advice. Enrolment procedures, required documents, fees, the school calendar and language-support arrangements vary by commune, académie and year, and several education rules evolve each rentrée. Always confirm the current position with your mairie, the school, the CASNAV, or the official service-public.fr and education.gouv.fr sites before relying on it.