The long summer holidays are over and on Tuesday this week French pupils went back to school. There are none of the major reforms and controversies that have greeted previous new academic years under President François Hollande. But there are still some changes for schoolchildren and teachers alike, notably new compulsory moral and civics lessons prompted by the terror attacks in Paris in January. Feriel Alouti and Lucie Delaporte report.
Pupils across France went back to school on Tuesday for what education secretary Najat Vallaud-Belkacem described as a year of “consolidation” after recent major reforms. The next large-scale changes – involving the middle schools or collèges and the curriculum – will not come into effect until next year. The only exception concerns nursery schools, where a new syllabus does come into force for this 'rentrée scolaire' or return to school.
