Collège is when pupils move up to secondary education. It is organised into four grades from 6ème to 3ème and structured into educational cycles.

Cycles and hours

All pupils of the collège receive 26 statutory hours of teaching per week, to which further optional lessons may be added.

Cycle 3, the consolidation cycle, links CM1, CM2 and 6ème – age 9-11. It is thereby able to improve the continuity and coherence of learning, building on a programme of teaching that is prepared for the three years together. The year of 6ème is intended to confirm the fundamental knowledge acquired at elementary school while introducing pupils to the subjects and methods used in secondary education.

Cycle 4, the further study cycle, comprises 5ème, 4ème and 3ème – age 12-14. It enables pupils to develop their knowledge and skills in different subject areas. Each pupil steadily prepares their ongoing studies, including within the framework of the various educational pathways (Future, Citizen, Artistic and Cultural education, Health), for future integration into the business and professional worlds.

The year of 3ème is when pupils take part in an observation exercise of the working world. This takes place within companies, associations, administrations, public entities and local authorities, under conditions set out in the Labour Code. Since 2016 it has been included in the “Future” pathway.

• Hours per cycle in collège (in French)
• Collège programmes (in French)

Collège must enable each pupil to develop their skills and express their potential while also taking specific situations into account. Various mechanisms are in place to support all the pupils.

The Brevet National Diploma (Diplôme national du brevet – DNB): a pupil’s first diploma

Awarded by a panel, the Brevet is a diploma that certifies knowledge and skills acquired on completing collège.

The award of the Brevet does not affect access to an upper secondary class when 3ème is completed. The common foundation of knowledge, skills and culture represents what every pupil must know and understand on completing statutory education. It combines all the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes required to succeed in school, private life and future citizenship.

• Diplôme national du brevet (in French)

Additional subjects to the language disciplines and other options can be studied thanks to the AEFE network using the National Centre for Remote Teaching (Centre National d’Enseignement à Distance – CNED – http://www.cned.fr/). These subjects are included in the assessment, enabling us to personalise our pupils’ course of study.

On leaving the collège, pupils may continue their education in a general and technology lycée or a vocational lycée. Schooling takes place over three years: 2nde, 1ère and Terminale.

Programme and teaching

The teaching programmes define the essential knowledge, skills and techniques that pupils must acquire to prepare for their higher education and entry to working life. They enable gradual course specialisation through to Terminale – the final year.

A broad foundation of shared humanist and scientific culture, that is open to the challenges of the future.

Specialist subjects chosen by the pupil and studied in increasing depth from 1ère to Terminale (three subjects in 1ère and two of those three in Terminale). Significant numbers of hours are dedicated to these subjects, offering ambitious programmes and giving pupils time to learn in depth. Additional optional teaching is also available to help the pupil complete their course.

Support time for guidance throughout the lycée years, to help choose courses and ultimately prepare for entry to higher education. Pupils are taught according the timetables planned in the context of the establishments’ margins of autonomy.

The lycée programmes are ambitious. They consolidate learning acquired in collège, ensure solid subject content is imparted and contribute to the intellectual training of the pupils.

• Lycée programmes (in French)

The initial year – 2nde – is a period of decision-making, with teaching that is common to all pupils alongside exploratory learning of their selection.

• Learning in 2nde (in French)

The Lycée français Vincent van Gogh offers the general option only

Baccalaureate Diploma

There have been changes to how a general and technology lycée is organised, as well as to teaching programmes, to prepare for the new baccalaureate. The general option no longer runs in series, but to a pathway chosen by each pupil according to their tastes and ambitions.

Baccalaureate 2020 at the Lycée français Vincent van Gogh:

– 100% success rate in the first group of tests with 57% graded Very Good (Très Bien).
– prestigious admissions to higher education in France, the Netherlands, the UK and many other countries.

The baccalaureate provides access to all higher education in Europe, the USA, Canada and many other countries.

• 40%of our pupils choose France, whether the Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles, engineering schools like INSA, or Sciences Politiques in Paris, with special access to international campuses on interview and Medicine.
• 40%choose the Netherlands, joining the best universities like Delft, Leiden, Maastricht, Erasmus Rotterdam and Eindhoven.
• Others leave for the American universitieslike Colombia, of for Canada and McGill or the University of Montreal, or head for other countries like Switzerland (EPFL), the UK (York University, London School…), Belgium (Brussels, Namur, Liège, etc.). There are many more examples, because we are able to build courses to suit our pupils.

The AEFE (Agency for French Education Abroad) has set up the AGORA platform which enables pupils to make contact with young alumni of French lycées worldwide, so they can discuss their plans for post-bac study – https://agora-aefe.fr/.

There are social networks for former pupils too (in French): https://www.aefe.fr/reseau-scolaire-mondial/anciens-eleves/reseaux-sociaux-dedies-aux-anciens