How many hours do French students go to school?
Generally speaking, the school day in France is from 8:30 until 4:30, but it varies depending on which area you live in. This is longer than the typical school day in the UK or America, but there is a longer lunch break and two other breaks during the day. There are 24 hours of lessons a week.
It means that pupils on 4-day week attend school for 144 days a year, when the average in the OECD is 187 days. At collège (lower secondary) and lycée (upper secondary) there are 5 days of schooling each week.
Depending on the region of France, students may attend school four, four and a half, or five days per week. Some schools close on Wednesdays. During school, students get two short breaks (recesses) and a minimum of a one and a half hour lunch break. Students can go home for lunch or eat at school.
School days are long – in part to fit in the two-hour lunchbreak which allows children to eat their meals without gulping them down, and to decompress after a busy morning conjugating verbs and learning about Charlemagne. READ ALSO Do French kids get the best school lunches in the world?
| Average number of hours in the school day and average number of days in the school year for public schools, by state: 2007–08 | ||
|---|---|---|
| State | Average number of hours in the school day | Average number of days in the school year |
| United States | 6.64 | 180 |
| Alabama | 7.03 | 180 |
| Alaska | 6.48 | 180 |
Chile School Hours
The honor for “most time spent in school for elementary students” belongs to Chile, where data compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development shows young kids spend 1,007 hours in school every year.
The breaks are usually around two weeks each, apart from the summer holidays, which last about eight weeks. France splits schools into three different regional zones. Dates for the winter and spring holidays vary across the three zones.
At school, the lunch break lasts between 90 minutes and 2 hours, during which a four-course meal is eaten while seated. French etiquette recommends that everyone starts eating at the same time and leaves the table only once everybody is finished.
According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), French is a category 1 language. This means learning French takes 23 – 24 weeks (575 – 600 hours) for most English speakers. This makes French one of the easiest (and fastest) languages to learn.
Essentially, they teach 24 hours per week, typically from Mondays to Friday, and Wednesday is a half-day. That said, a minority of primary schools (in French) have chosen to swap out Wednesday mornings for Saturday mornings or have every Wednesday off.
How long is a preschool day in France?
French Preschool hours
Maternelle starts at around 8:30am every morning and continues until 4:30pm. There is a 2-hour break in the middle of the day for lunch and recreation.
French children go to school four days a week. They have about two hours each day for lunch. And they have more vacation than their counterparts almost anywhere in the West.
In Finland, children get a 15-minute break every 45 minutes.
This equates to an average of three hours and 45 minutes of educational instruction each day.
That French schoolchildren have had Wednesdays off is a quirk of history. When France instituted universal public education in the late 19th century, the government granted a weekly day off for children to attend catechism by the Roman Catholic Church.
Israel is the only country in the developed world where children go to school six days a week.
In general, kids have to be at school by 8:45 am. School finishes around 3:15 pm, so they have to be in school for about six and a half hours every day from Monday to Friday. However, most kids also attend after-school clubs, and many also go to juku (cram school) in the evening to do extra studying.
The school days usually last a whole day (from around 8:00 until 17:00) with 45-minutes-long classes, with a little more flexible schedules in more rural areas. In China's metropolises, where lunch breaks are shorter, kids might finish school around 15:00 as well.
Well-known for its high-achieving students, South Korea's education system is quite demanding. Students spend much of their time, often between 12 to 16 hours per day, at school or at a special after-school academy called a hagwon.
Singapore ranks high both in the world's smartest kids category and most hours spent on homework (nearly 9.5 hours a week).
How long is Italy's school day?
Students in Italy attend school Monday-Saturday, from about 8:30am to 1:30pm. There are about five classes per day, with one 15-30 minute break in the middle of the day.
The French Ministry of National Education sets a minimum time requirement for children to sit at the table: 30 minutes. This is in order to allow them eat their food sufficiently slowly and properly.
In food-loving France, the lunch break can last around two hours. The French are known to take time with their food, and they believe it's important to take a break in order to enjoy one of life's most important pleasures (we agree).
PARIS, April 8 (AP) — By tradition, French children go to school on Saturdays and have Thursdays off. The system is coming under attack — the idea of “le weekend,” comparatively new in France, has caught up with schooling. More and more parents want their children free to spend Saturday and Sunday with them.
French schools have a reputation for being tough, with students enrolled in study-abroad programmes often bemoaning the number of working hours, the pressure of the grading system and the lack of physical activity.