State primary and nursery schools are becoming surprisingly diverse in their educational methods.
They have had a reputation for bare walls, strict lines of desks and learning by rote but alternative methods, usually associated with the private sector, are practised in some public schools.
Each regional education authority has an innovations-expérimentations section and for the past nine years, there has been a Journée Nationale de l’innovation organised by the Ministry of Education, with awards for schools that have introduced successful new ways of teaching.
Teachers are given the freedom to use different methods, as long as they follow the national syllabus. They need the support of other teachers in their school, for it to work, and their project will be looked at by local inspectors or the education authority, so it is not always easy to put into place, but there are more and more schools doing so.
I visited Marcillac-Saint-Quentin, a rural school in the Dordogne, which has introduced a flexible system, inspired by a Canadian method.
The school has 106 pupils and four classes with mixed year groups from two to three-year-olds up to 10-11s.
“For some time we had felt dispirited about the way we were teaching, finding we were spending too much time reprimanding pupils for not sitting straight, or taking off their shoes, and it was tiring for us and the children,” said teacher Claire Moynihan.
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“When the mayor wanted to build a new classroom and we started researching furniture, we discovered the concept of flexible seating and, after a great deal of thought, decided to give it a try.”
Instead of children sitting at desks facing the teacher, they can choose how and where they sit, and no longer have assigned places.
They have a choice of seating, including chairs on castors, exercise balls, high bar stools, wobble stools and the floor and traditional desks are transformed with elastics underneath, which pupils can swing their feet on.
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Flexibility also extends to the teaching. For part of the day, the children do not sit and listen to the teacher but work individually from a list of tasks they are given at the beginning of the week.
If they are not completed by Friday, they have to finish the work at home at the weekend. This mostly covers maths and French for two hours in the morning, with other subjects taught in the afternoons.
The school has also introduced a 15-minute reading period for all ages, when the children can sit where they wish to read, even outside when the weather is good. For those who are too young, the teacher reads them a story.
When I opened the school door, I was met by a girl sitting on the floor working on her computer. In the classrooms it was calm and quiet as children went about their tasks, asking questions to the teacher when necessary, and getting her full attention.
Some were on the balls, some on the floor and some on traditional chairs.
“They tend to favour one method for a while, and then maybe move on to something else”, said Ms Moynihan.
“However, we do not let them do just what they want. We keep a close eye on them to make sure they are working. If they talk too much, we move them elsewhere in the classroom.”
There is also a sensory room, decorated by teachers and pupils in an Egyptian style, complete with a pyramid made out of cardboard books.
This and the flexible system make it particularly attractive for children with severe learning disabilities, who come for two mornings a week from a local special school.
One of the nursery teachers, Ghislaine Merly said the main benefit was to give children a less stressful environment to work in: “A little girl who finds it hard to read, will still find it difficult, but I will be able to give her extra attention, while the brighter children are working happily on their own and she will be less worried about her difficulties.”
The children told me they love this way of going to school. Sorcha said she used to cry before going to her old school: “But now I sing in the morning,” she said.
They were keen to tell me all about their school and show me their work.
The school has 120 pupils signed up for next year and has asked for an additional teacher – it is a rural school that is expanding rather than closing classes.
There are also some Montessori (public-montessori.fr ) classes within state schools, at a time when there are a growing number in the private sector, some of which have been criticised in the press for not teaching as they should.
Yanek Husianycia, is Montessori trained and has been teaching a nursery class with a group of three to six-year-olds at La Cerisaie, Charenton-le-Pont, Val-de-Marne for four years.
“At first parents were worried but it only took a month to convince them of the benefits,” he said. “The majority of pupils are ahead of others at a similar age in reading, writing and mathematics. But this is not the major advantage. The children enjoy learning and are independent and have confidence in their abilities. It also gives all children an equal chance to succeed.”
This sounds very much like Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer’s stated aim to reduce inequality in education.
The education minister has shown interest in this style of education. He wants to make sure the full potential of young children is realised in the early formative years, which is the aim of Montessori.
“We put great value on reading, writing, increasing vocabulary, learning logic and mathematics and working on the sounds of letters but we teach them through sensory games led by the individual, rather than more traditional formal lessons,” said Mr Husianycia.
He is president of Public Montessori, an association that supports and promotes Montessori teaching in public schools. “It is difficult to know just how many teachers are using Montessori methods, but we have about 1,000 members,” said Mr Husianycia.
“Some of us are trained but not all, because tuition is private and expensive, and so are Montessori teaching materials, which can cost €5,000. I paid for some out of my own pocket.”
The association has support groups in 50 departments, to support teachers who want to introduce Montessori methods in their classrooms and helps find and share materials.
At the rentrée 2019, the association wants to introduce a strict certification system to show to what extent a class uses Montessori, and more individual support for teachers using it in the classroom: “Montessori has to be applied correctly, if it is to benefit pupils”, said Mr Husianycia.
“Ideally, I would like to see one state Montessori school from maternelle up to lycée in every department, but I know that it is early days.”
