Steering documents and types of activities

Since Law No. 2013-595 of July 8, 2013, educational programs have been designed and offered to the Ministry of National Education and Youth (MENJ) by the Higher Program Council (CSP). Composed of parliamentarians, members of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (EESC) and members appointed by the (MENJ), the CSP is an independent body placed with the Minister of National Education, responsible for issuing opinions and to formulate proposals on the general conception of the lessons given to pupils in schools (pre-elementary and elementary), colleges and high schools. The General Inspectorate of National Education (IGEN) also plays an important role in the reflection on school curricula.

Program contents

The program currently in force at nursery school is defined by the decree of February 18, 2015. It is divided into five main areas of activity:

Mobilize language in all its dimensions

Goals :

• Dare to enter into communication;
• Understand and learn
• Exchange and reflect with others
• Start thinking about language and gain phonological awareness
• Listening to writing and understanding
• Discover the function of writing
• Start producing writings and discover how they work
• Discover the alphabetical principle
• Start writing on your own

Act, express yourself, understand through physical activity

Goals :

• Act in space, over time and on objects
• Adapt your balance and your movements to varied environments or constraints
• Communicate with others through expressive or artistic actions
• Collaborate, cooperate, oppose

Act, express yourself, understand through artistic activities

Goals :

• Develop a taste for artistic practices
• Discover different forms of artistic expression
• Live and express emotions, formulate choices
• Draw
• Practice decorative graphics
• Make plastic, flat and volume compositions
• Observe, understand and transform images
• Play with your voice and acquire a repertoire of nursery rhymes and songs
• Explore instruments, use body tones
• Refine listening
• Practice some performing arts activities

Build the first tools to structure your thinking

Goals :

• Construct the number to express the quantities
• Stabilize the knowledge of small numbers
• Use the number to designate a rank, a position
• Build first knowledge and know-how with rigor
• Explore shapes, sizes, organized suites

Explore the world

Goals :

• Find your way in time and space
• Stabilize the first time marks
• Introducing social benchmarks
• Consolidate the concept of chronology
• Raise awareness of the concept of duration
• Finding your bearings in space and time: experiencing space, representing space, discovering different environments
• Explore the living world, objects and matter: discover the living world, explore matter, use, make, manipulate objects, use digital tools

To this program is added the educational health course defined by the circular of January 28, 2016. This course makes it possible to explain what is offered to students in terms of health at school and district level, in close articulation with their territory. It is organized around three axes:

• Health education: it describes the skills to be acquired at each stage of schooling in order to allow each future citizen to make informed choices in matters of health
• Prevention: prevention approaches implemented at school and establishment level, bringing together local players with reference to public health priorities
• Health protection: this axis includes approaches related to protecting the health of students implemented in the school and the establishment in order to provide students with the most favorable environment possible for their health and their well-being.

The weekly duration of lessons in nursery school is twenty-four hours (decree of November 9, 2015). There are no regulations specifying the number of hours to allocate to each teaching activity. The decree of November 9, 2015 article 1: The weekly duration of teaching in nursery school and elementary school is twenty-four hours.

Teaching methods and materials

The law n ° 2013-595 of July 8, 2013 creates makes kindergarten a unique cycle and recognizes its fundamental place in the success of all students. This cycle establishes the educational and pedagogical foundations on which the future learning of students is based and developed for their entire education. The main mission of nursery school is to make children want to go to school to learn, assert and develop their personality. It is based on a fundamental principle: all children are capable of learning and progressing.

The nursery school program, detailed by the decree of February 18, 2015, defines several fundamental educational principles:

• A school that adapts to young children, that is to say that welcomes children and their parents, supports the transitions experienced by children, takes into account the child's development, practices a positive evaluation
• A school that organizes specific learning methods (learning by playing, learning by thinking and solving problems, learning by practicing, learning by remembering and memorizing)
• A school where children learn together and live together (understand the function of the school, build themselves as a singular person within a group)

There is no state control over the production of school books. The state sets the national curriculum for educational content for all levels, and publishers freely develop educational materials based on this curriculum. In addition, there is no national policy regarding school supplies for this level of education.