Lycee Francais holds curriculum information for parents of primary school pupils

Lycée Français Louis Pasteur, a premium French school in Victoria Island Lagos which belongs to the worldwide network of schools operating under the French Agency for Teaching Abroad (AEFE) and managed by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held an information session with parents of primary schools to showcase the French primary school system with a view to giving elaborate explanation to the school’s French curriculum, making comparison with other international curricula, and highlighting the school’s bilingual teaching.

At the event, which held in the Human Rights Auditorium of the school on Saturday 4 February 2017, the school Principal, Mr. Alain Berna, said the session is designed to give parents insights into how the French curriculum and education system works.

According to Berna, the increasingly competitive nature of the world today has made it ever more imperative that today’s children are exposed to a comprehensive set of values towards preparing them for their future.

Highlighting the features of the French educational system as promoting strong positive values such as freedom, equality, togetherness, respect, spirit of justice, solidarity, freedom of speech, openness, creative spirit, and diversity, Berna said pupils that pass through Lycée Français are trained to develop curiosity and courage with which they can excel in all of their chosen endeavours.

“At Lycée Français, parents can be assured of a teaching language that is rich, varied and efficient,” Berna said, adding that “the French language is the paramount language of instruction, but it does not overshadow learning in many other languages like English, Spanish, German and many others on request.”

He said the school takes advantage of the diversity of its students and the languages they practice to make plurilingual education one of its priorities.

The curriculum information session was designed for parents whose children and wards are currently in primary schools or preparing to enter primary school.

“The primary school is the gateway to the French school system, which is divided into the 8 kindergarten classes and the 14 elementary classes,” Director of the Primary School, Mrs. Pascale Lagleize, said, adding that “Lycée Français’ ambition is to provide all pupils, whatever their origin, with quality, content-rich, multilingual and multicultural education, as well as universal values”.

Lagleize explained that while following the French national curriculum, students benefit from reinforced English teaching through the bilingual system. She said personalized support, citizens, artistic, cultural projects, as well as numerous extracurricular activities complement this teaching and allows pupils to learn at their own pace and to flourish. “This is why we are inviting parents to come so we can rub minds with them and show them how our system works,” Lagleize said.

The French curriculum presentation was facilitated by Olivier Alfonsi, Head of Pedagogical Training at the school.