The children spend three years in infant classes before going to junior school:

• Petite Section  (PS): age 3
• Moyenne Section / Junior Infants (MS): age 4
• Grande Section / Senior Infants (GS): age 5

We have five infant classes (about 120 children), with French teachers who take the children from 8.25 am to 2.40 pm (8.25 am to 12.25 pm on Wednesdays). In addition, each class has an teaching assistant to help the teacher and has English once a week in MS and every day in GS with a native English speaking teacher.

The Teaching Programme

‘Maternelle’ embodies a particularity of the French educational system, scholarisation from the earliest age.  The children learn to become more precise in their intentions and more demanding in what they achieve, and feel the satisfaction of growing and progressing.  They become aware of the benefits of learning.

The essential objective of the infant classes: to help each child to become independent and to acquire knowledge and skills.  The children must acquire a facility for oral expression which is rich (in French to begin with – but also in English), structured and understandable by others.  The aim is to be ready for CP in French and in English as they continue in our primary school, which is based in the same place in Foxrock.

The learning programme in the infant classes is structured according to the following five domains:

• Developing language – discovering writing
• Becoming a pupil
• Developing movement and corporal expression
• Discovering the world
• Perceiving, feeling, imagining, creating

1) Develop language- discover writing

Oral expression is key to learning in the infant classes. The children learn to converse and express themselves. Particular attention is paid to the comprehension of more and more complex narratives by the speaker. Working with language allows the children to:

• acquire the rules which govern the structure of sentences,
• acquire vocabulary in particular sequences with the help of the teacher, who uses very specific language

Working on the sounds of a word and acquiring the principles of the alphabet and the actions of writing: these are three key activities which help with the learning systems for reading and writing which will begin in first class (CP).

2) Becoming a pupil

The objective is to teach the child to like coming to school and:

• to recognise what makes her or him different from others, to be recognised as a unique person
• to live with others in a group organised by rules (to understand what school is and what her or his place in school is)

Becoming a pupil is a gradual process which requires the infant class teacher to be at the same time enthusiastic, flexible and rigorous.

3) Developing movement and corporal expression

The children discover the possibilities of their bodies through physical activities, either structured or unstructured, and activities involving artistic expression (dance, dramatic games).

4) Discovering the world

In the infant classes, the children discover their surroundings: they learn to get their bearings in space and time. They observe, they ask questions and they learn to take on points of view other than their own. Being faced with logical thought gives them the taste for reasoning. They become capable of classifying, ordering and describing, through language and various forms of representation (drawings, plans). They start to understand the distinction between animate and inanimate (matter, objects).

5) Perceiving, feeling, imagining, creating

The infant classes awaken artistic awareness. Drawing and modelling (making objects) on the one hand, the voice and listening on the other hand (music, songs), enlarge the child’s range of sensory experiences.

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.).

A Bi-lingual Education for Future Global Citizens

The goal of the American International Option is to offer our students aged 14-18 (Seconde/4th year to Terminale/6th year) a bi-lingual education comprising a high-quality English speaking educational and cultural experience and a comprehensive French education, as a follow-on from our Eurocampus course. Our programme develops the skills  that  students  will  need  to  succeed  as  global  citizens  in  an  interdependent  and competitive world, while allowing them to mature both intellectually and emotionally in a diverse and rich environment.

What is the American International Option ?

The American International Option prepares students to sit the ‘Option Internationale du Baccalauréat’ (OIB) in Terminale. The OIB is an integrated certificate that combines the breadth and rigour of the French Baccalauréat with two extra subjects taught in English to Leaving Certificate or A Level standard in a single certificate. The OIB is therefore technically the French Baccalauréat (S, ES or L) + Leaving Certificate or A Level standard components in English Literature and History-Geography.
The OIB is very highly regarded by the best third level educational bodies in Ireland, France, the U.K. and the U.S., as it represents a much higher academic level than the ordinary French Baccalauréat.

Admission to the International Option

The admission process for the International Option takes place at the very beginning of the year of Seconde. It is also possible to join the Option at the beginning of the class of Première for students arriving from schools other than the Lycée Français d’Irlande.
In order to enrol for the International Option all students must sit a one-hour written exam and undertake an interview with the three teachers in charge of the courses. The interview is conducted in English and will enable the teachers to assess the level of English of the candidates as well as their ability to follow a course of a high academic standard. The report files (‘dossiers scolaires’) of the candidates will also be closely looked at.