In France, school attendance is required by law for children ages 6 to 16. L’école primaire (elementary school) starts at age 6 and ends at age 11. The levels in French elementary school are listed below. Read them and listen to the audio as you go:
| cours préparatoire (CP) | |
| cours élémentaire 1 (CE1) | |
| cours élémentaire 2 (CE2) | |
| cours moyen 1 (CM1) | |
| cours moyen 2 (CM2) |
Homeschooling is legal in France; however, most families use the public school system.
As in la maternelle, students in l’école primaire call their teachers maître or maîtresse or use their last names with the titles monsieur, madame, or mademoiselle. Kids can eat lunch at school or come home for lunch. The lunch period for US children is usually about 30 minutes, but it is much longer in French schools – it can be one or two hours long!
Can you put the elementary levels in order? Complete the next activity by dragging and dropping each grade level – from first to last.
CP
CE1
CE2
CM1
CM2
Did you get them all correct? Très bien. Elementary school in France is like a lot of our schools here in the United States, where we have grades 1-5. Le collège -- middle school -- is next!
