Junior School Curriculum

The children spend five years in junior school after the infant classes.

The CP and CE1 programmes emphasise continuity with the infant classes by organising the teaching into broad domains of activity whose primary objectives are:

• Mastering language: learning the French language, reading and writing
• The English language: learning reading, writing and the English language (and Irish if required)
• Mathematics, learning to know and understand numbers, to write them (decimal numbering) and to calculate small quantities

• The basics of science, history and civics that ensure openness to the world and the construction of a common culture by all pupils.

• Artistic education based on emphasising personal expression and direct contact with works of art through an introduction to the history of art

• Physical and sports education also has an important place in the school activities of this cycle.

All of this contributes to the acquisition of the common basis of knowledge and skills.  The quality of the presentation of work, the attention given to mastering movements and to posture, to the tools of school work, are subject to constant vigilance.

The programmes of CE2, CM1 and CM2 are the cycle of reinforcement.

The learning domains refer to:

• Mastering language and the French language

• The English language (and Irish if required)

• Discovering civic education

• Initiation to a foreign or regional language

• History

• Geography

• Mathematics

• Experimental science and technology

• The visual arts

• Musical education

• Physical and sports education

• Computer studies

The pupils are entering into a phase of development that allows them to acquire knowledge in a more considered way, and to gain surer intellectual capacities.  The programmes are organised in a way that expresses the broad, general domains with teaching now rooted in the disciplines they refer to, which gives them the basis of a balanced culture.

The ‘common basis of knowledge and skills’ sets out what every pupils should know and master by the end of compulsory formal education.  Introduced into French law in 2005, it constitutes the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes necessary to succeed at school, in life and as a future citizen.  An individual record of skills allows a pupil’s progress to be followed.  Since 2011, mastery of the seven basic skills has been necessary to obtain the diplôme national du brevet (D.N.B.).

What is the International Section in the Primary School?

This bilingual programme which is part of the primary school sees French and non-French pupils in the same class.  The pupils have at least three hours’ teaching in a modern language other than French.

The International Section has three objectives:

• to facilitate the integration of non-French pupils in the French school system, and their potential return to another system

• to create, thanks the the presence of non-French pupils, an environment that helps  the French pupils to learn another modern language to a high standard

• to foster learning about the cultural heritage of the countries concerned.

Specificities of international sections in primary schools:

At least three hours’ teaching a week in a modern language

• Each week, the pupils have at least three hours’ teaching in a modern language other than French

• Individual teaching can be planned to bring non-French pupils up to the desired level in French, and French pupils in another language

• The pupils are in contact with teachers who are native speakers

What is happening in LFI Dublin?

All our classes from CP to CM2 are now officially recognised as a ‘Section Internationale’ by the French Department of Education, which gives an official title, visibility, and recognition for our teachers by other schools.  This gives a clear framework to our teaching.

Furthermore, this recognised programme improves the coherence and continuity of teaching in LFI: International Section in the primary school, Eurocampus in the junior cycle of secondary school, then International Section in the senior cycle (Option Internationale du Baccalauréat).