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The girls have finished their first week of school. No
tears! French public school has been our number one concern since the day we
set foot in Aix (really since the day we started talking about a sabbatical in
France). We had heard stories of children having difficulty in French schools, and lots of tears after school. And so on Tuesday, the first day, with all of our nerves on
high alert, we were ready and out the door ten minutes earlier than we planned.
Mind you, this will be the only day that happens. We were not the first to
arrive, but we were ahead of most. We
waited in front of a locked gate, watching other families arrive and watching
for signals to proceed. Looking through the bars of the gate, we could see a
building and a courtyard, but not much else. Finally, at 8h20, the directeur
(principal) of the school unlocked the doors and welcomed everyone in. We introduced
ourselves and the girls to him, but he already knew the girls’ names and
situation and kindly introduced us to their teachers. He also explained (in
English) that the girls would spend some time each day in a class designed for
foreign students. There are three other students in the class. We waited until the girls were lined up, then
I kissed the tops of their heads and we waved good-bye. I left relieved, but still nervous about their
day and how they would feel about school. When the bell rang at 16h30, our
girls came out smiling, happy and very willing to give full reports. They had a
good day! And then, they had a day off because there are no classes on
Wednesdays. Thursday and today they came home still happy with school, if a
bit tired.
A little about the school:
L’ecole de Cuques is small with 120 students in 5 grade
levels. This means there is one teacher per grade. School starts at 8:30 and
finishes at 4:30 with a break from 11:30-1:30 in which the girls can sign up
for extracurricular activities like gymnastics, theater, library or mixed
sports. In addition, lunch is provided during the break. Hot lunch! Tuna and
beans and tarts today, ham and fries and salad and custard yesterday. The
school gate is locked at 8:30 and unlocked at 4:30 and it is very secure with a tall fence encircling the school grounds. There isn't a playground, but Rivi
happily reported she was allowed to climb the trees (a little) and to crush
rocks. It does sound like the rules are stricter, but mostly by the staff in
the restaurant. Kyri was asked not to sing and the girls were shocked at one
student being sent to a corner of the room to face the wall for talking and
laughing too loudly to her friends at the lunch table.
And now the
list of supplies. We sweated over this list after hearing it was a nightmare to
gather. It’s a long list, but I wouldn’t say a nightmare. Especially since so
many stores carry everything on the list.
Here is Rivi’s
list (Kyri’s is a bit shorter, but not by much):
Dans une
trousse – In a pencil case:
2 stylos bleus – blue pens
1 stylo vert – green pen
1 stylo rouge – red pen
1 Gomme + un crayon gris – eraser + a
pencil
1 Feutre - felt tip pen
1 Colle – glue stick
Ciseaux - scissors
Regle de 20 cm - ruler
2 Surligneurs fluo (2 couleurs
differentes) – highlighters
1 Taille crayon – pencil sharpener
Une trousse
de feutres – case of markers
Une trousse
de crayons de couleurs – case of colored pencils
Un cahier de
texte - homework notebook
Agenda –
agenda/calendar
Ne ardoise
velleda avec feutres et chiffon – slate with felt and cloth
Un paquet de
100 pochettes plastiques 21/29.7 – plastic paper sheet covers
Un classeur
souples transparent de 2 cm – transparent flexible binder
Un classeur
de 4 cm epais - workbook
Deux
porte-vues 60 vues (chorale et maths) – workbook for choir and math
Deux
pochettes cartonnees a elastique – cardboard covers
Ne ramette
500 feuilles blanches 80 gr – ream of paper
Un boite de
mouchoirs en papier – box of tissues
Dans un
boite a chaussures maquee au nom de l’enfant (relerve pour l’annee) – in a
shoebox labeled with child’s name.
5 stylos bleus – blue pens
2 stylos vert – green pens
3 feutres - felt marker
2 gommes - erasers
5 crayon gris - pencils
4 colles baton – glue stick
1 regle - ruler
3 surligneurs different - highlighters
Now compare that to our supply list in Canada:
For grade 3:
Sharpened pencils
Erasers
2 glue
sticks
Pencil case
Box of Kleenex
2 Highlighters
Sharpened pencil
crayons
Knapsack
Gym shorts/t-shirt/running
shoes
It was a good week. Whew!
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