Even after you’ve persuaded the children to move to France and they are enrolled at school, there’s another surprise in store for you. Children, until the age of 11 don’t go to school at all on Wednesdays. What are you supposed to do then?
Children at école maternelle (3-6) and école élémentaire (6-11) go to school on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Saturday morning classes are only compulsory from cours préparatoire level at école élémentaire. School-free Wednesdays began thanks to nineteenth-century politician Jules Ferry who established a free and secular education system in 1881. Before this time priests usually ran classes and gave religious tuition at school. When the system became secular, children were granted a ‘free’ day for religious instruction.
French children work hard in the academically orientated system. An eight-hour day is just the minimum and it’s even longer for those with parents who also work long hours. With the option of la garderie, children could be at school from 7.30am until 6.30pm or later. No wonder that nowadays Wednesday is regarded as a necessary midweek break.
So who looks after the children on Wednesday? For many parents, where finances allow, the simplest solution is for one of them – usually the mother – to work at 80 per cent or four days out of five, following the same timetable as the children. This is a perfectly acceptable and common option. Elsewhere, parents have to find someone or somewhere to take the children all day. However this is just one part of the story.
If you decide to stay at home with the children, it is rare for a family to actually do nothing. Scan the stalls at a foire des associations during la rentrée in September and you’ll notice many artistic and sporting workshops for a Wednesday child. Wednesday is the day when children compliment their formal education.
Well organised
According to the English poem, Wednesday’s child is full of woe; however it’s more likely to be maman who suffers as she races around trying to fit in all the activites. For an English mum in France, like Anne Passaga, Wednesday’s timetable is more structured than a normal school day. I visited her house where she works as a fine art conservator restoring paintings. Jean-Pierre, her French husband, a miller, works long hours and is out of the house from 6am until late in the evening. Anne’s work demands that she too works long hours so she needs her time, and her children to be well organised.
Anne showed me the children’s weekly timetable – the blanks represented school time and Wednesday showed a list requiring a drill sergeant’s mustering skills. Her three children, Hugo (10), Robin (8) and Emma (5) spend the day in a whirl of activity. For Anne this is essential to compliment their academic life. ‘If you want your child to have a wider education, it is up to you to provide it on Wednesday,’ she says.
With a steely determination and a juggling of transport with other parents a Wednesday chez Passaga goes something like this: Hugo guitar 9.30-10am, then tennis for 10.30am-12.30pm. Meanwhile Emma has pony lessons, also at 10.30-11.30am and Robin rides the same pony 11.30am–12.30pm. Then it’s a mad dash to get everyone home – sometimes with Hugo’s friend Augustin along for lunch as well, if it’s Anne’s turn to collect the boys from tennis. After a swift lunch Anne takes Robin to his art class 2-4.30pm and Hugo to football 2-4pm. Anne laughs that she often has a carload of children for multiple drop-offs when it’s her turn to do the rounds. Car sharing with other mothers is crucial to make such a busy day feasible. Then all the children get rounded up for a evening session with an orthophoniste (speech therapist) at 6pm. Phew, who says that Wednesday is a rest day?
Anne’s timetable might seem crazy but it’s just a normal routine for a Wednesday maman with an eye on her children’s future. Not forgetting the rest of the week with Emma’s dance classes on Saturdays, piano lessons for Robin on Tuesday and football for Hugo on Monday and Saturday. And then there are the long summer and winter holidays to fill. While the children are young, Anne takes her holidays with them but as they get older there will be week-long stages or activity holidays to fill the time. With a combination of determined organisation and using a nanny, again a common practice, to collect the children after school in term time, Anne manages to juggle running her own business and family life.
Hectic juggling
Joëlle Hochberg, a French sales co-ordinator is married to Mike, an American research director. They both work full time and find Wednesdays just one part of a difficult programme of childcare; life is a hectic juggling of rotas and holidays. Their two sons, Julien (10) and Kevin (14), feel too old for the centre aéré (activity-based daycare centre), or to go to a child minder or even to have a day-long babysitter at home. Joëlle finds that ‘people aren’t interested in looking after children in their early teens’. So on Wednesday she has to leave them home alone for large amounts of time. It’s not ideal but it works.
Julien and Kevin have different timetables which adds to the complications. Julien is in the last year of primary education in CM2 (cours moyen 2nd year or UK year 6). He doesn’t have school on Wednesdays but does go to school on Saturday morning for three weeks per month. Kevin is at collège in 4ème (UK year 9). He has school on Wednesday mornings but his Saturdays are free.
When Kevin attends lycée in two years, Saturday schooling may be back on the timetable (as well as Wednesday) depending on his bac options. Despite the conflicting schedules for Joëlle, there is no question that the boys won’t take extra classes. So Julien is alone on Wednesday until a private tutor arrives at 10.30am for extra help with his schoolwork. Joelle manages to come home for lunch and then Julien goes, with a friend, to his football club. Meanwhile Kevin comes home from collège on the school bus and organises himself to get to his music lesson, then maths lesson in the afternoon.
Joëlle finds herself being more of a Saturday maman. Once a month – on different Saturdays – the boys attend English language classes for bilingual children run by a local association IEAM-Outbound. These are essential for keeping their level of English in line with their French. At the end of morning class, it’s a quick change of clothes and the boys head off for football. Joëlle and Mike end up spending their own free time taking the boys to different football matches at different times. Sharing these trips with other parents makes life easier, but never simple.
And then come the long summer holidays. Joëlle just groaned when I asked her how these worked as they are more complex and require more planning than term time. When the boys were young, Joëlle and Mike were forced to take their holidays at the same time as the child minder, with grandparents filling in any gaps. Once the boys became too old for the centre aéré, Joelle started sending them to activity weeks in her village or colonies de vacances (holiday camps). Julien and Kevin find these fantastic. For around €350 (£264) per week per child, the boys stay at a camp in Cévennes, not far from home, and spend their time having adventures with qualified instructors. Joëlle appreciates both the entertainment for the children and the structure that allows the boys to come home at weekends. It’s a system that works very well and not surprisingly is very popular. If finances allow, your child could spend all their summer and winter holidays at a camp.
Academic work
Even French teachers find Wednesday awkward. Marie Taquet is training to be a primary school teacher as well as managing her family of three young children. As someone inside the education system, she acknowledges the utter importance of supplementary activities. In theory, at school every child should have three hours per week of sport and three hours of music and arts. Yet in practice, as the pressure for children to spend more time on academic work increases, these precious six hours are rarely attained.
Marie and her French partner Éric Fouilland, a marine biologist, send their children Esteban (7), Leïla (5) and Noé (2) into full-time care on Wednesdays. The comité d’entreprise at Éric’s work subsidise the fees for the private centre aéré while Noé goes to the village crèche. Outside these hours, they ensure that their eldest children also follow a programme of activities. After a full day at the daycare centre, Esteban goes directly to a Tae-Kwon-Do class, while Leïla extends her Friday at school with a dance class. Esteban’s programme continues on Saturday, where after morning school he spends the afternoon in a music class followed by more Tae-Kwon-Do. His Sunday morning swimming lessons with Leïla completes the week. This is an intense routine but Marie is careful that they only do activities they have chosen. When Marie was young there wasn’t such a choice of activities and she wants her children to benefit.
The philosophy goes like this – want to get ahead then get a Wednesday maman! Except, the whole week requires maman to be in top-speed organisational mode. The infrastructure in France is designed to support this attitude. From the relatively affordable price of childcare for even young babies, to the range of term-time associations and daycare centre options during school holidays, there is a positive support for working parents. In France be prepared to work hard and play hard.