SPECIAL SCHOOLING AND

EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

IN FRANCE

This seminar is about “special needs” within the school systems of the participating countries in the Comenius project.

Defining what “special needs” is quite difficult for there is no specific term for the pupils needing particular care adapted to their special educational needs in France. However a whole network of actions and programmes according to the difficulties, disabilities or illness of some pupils.

At school, these actions and programmes are under the direct authority of the Ministry of Education but they can be associated to actions and programmes depending on the medico-educational sector and/or the socio-educational sector.

DISABLED PUPILS

DISABLED PUPILS

The law of February 11th, 2005 on the Equality of Rights and Opportunities, Participation and Citizenship of Disabled People affirms disabled pupils’ right to education and the responsibility of the educational system to guarantee the continuity of individual schooling careers.

This law institutes for schools the obligation to:-provide the pupil, whenever possible, with ordinary school access as close as possible to his home; -> “Whenever possible” is important because, for instance, in our school Arche du Lude there is no lift although there are two floors. So we cannot have pupils with wheelchairs. However we have already taken in blind pupils which required individual specific device.

-guarantee the continuity of the schooling career, adapted to the capacities and needs of the pupil and associate their parents in the decision process of orienting their child and in stages of the definition of his personal schooling project (PPS for Projet Personnalisé de Scolarisation); ->In our school Arche du Lude a few pupils suffer from diabetes and the school doctor and the parents meet together and adapt the pupil’s schooling project.

-guarantee the equality of opportunities for disabled and other candidates, by ensuring a legal basis for the adjustment of examination conditions.

Disabled Pupils

The has been created in order to help disabled puMDPH for Maison Départementale des Personnes Handicapées ( Departmental House of Disabled Persons) pupils and their families, it is also a link between schools and the families. -> For instance, in our school, they make sure that some of the pupils with dyslexia get extra time to write their papers during national exams.

Disabled Pupils

SCHOOLING DIFFICULTIES

SCHOOLING DIFFICULTIESPrimary school (first degree)

The RASED networks have been created to spot and help pupils in their schooling difficulties in ordinary educational establishments.

Some primary schools have CLIS for Classe pour l’Inclusion Scolaire can also help pupils with schooling difficulties such as mental disability, hearing disability, visual disability or motor disability, or behaviour problems.

Pupils are part of the time together in a special class (it is generally a small group ) and part of the time in regular classes. The teachers are specialized teachers and can work as educators.

SCHOOLING DIFFICULTIESMiddle school (secondary degree)

If the schooling difficulties persist, underachieving pupils can integrate SEGPA for Section d’Enseignement Général et Professionnel Adapté. These sections are fully integrated into ordinary middle schools, but not every middle school has one SEGPA so it may be difficult for pupils in need to integrate the SEGPA. Another problem is that sometimes educators, teachers and specialists strongly advise (after testing the pupil) to integrate the SEGPA but it hasn’t always have a good reputation among parents who give the final aggreement.

Pupils are helped in achieving basic skills and thus acquiring the basic level of qualification thanks to priority enrolment into vocational high schools.

-> Our school Arche du Lude doesn’t have a SEGPA but there is one in another middle school in our city Joué-lès-Tours. So nearly every year some of our pupils do integrate this SEGPA.

SCHOOLING DIFFICULTIESMiddle school (secondary degree)

Relay classes (classes relais) have been created pupils who can’t stand being at school. Some of them are constantly absent from school or can create a disrupting atmosphere within the classes. After acceptance of a common board of teachers belonging to the Relay class but also social workers and education specialists these pupils can integrate these Relay Classes for a temporary period of time within a school year and then re-integrate their ordinary classes.

-> In our school, regularly a few pupils integrate the Relay Class which is in the center of Tours. Teachers and educators are in constant relation with our school to assess the pupils’ social and educational progress.

SCHOOLING DIFFICULTIESMiddle school (secondary degree)

Another structure is called ULIS for Unités Localisées pour l‘Inclusion Scolaire which are somehow the equivalent of the CLIS but at secondary level, that is a small group of pupils sharing the same type of disability are part-time integrated within ordinary middle or high schools.

SCHOOLING DIFFICULTIESMiddle school (secondary degree)

Another ways of learning for special needs pupils is distance learning with the CNED for Centre National d’Enseignement à Distance. This center allows pupils who are not physically able to go to ordinary schools to get the school curriculum. Sometimes teachers can even go and teach at home.

THE MEDICO-EDUCATIONAL SECTOR

When school attendance in ordinary schools is not possible, disabled pupils integrate medico-social institutions, mostly IME for Institut Médico-Educatif, in which they get schooling, educational and therapeutic care, according to their type of disability.

The CMPP for Centre Médico-Psycho-Pédagogique ensure diagnosis and treatment of pupils with neuro-psychic or behavioural disorders.

->In our school Arche du Lude the teachers along with the school psychologist and career counsellor and the school nurse and doctor sometimes advise the parents to go to the CMPP for diagnosis and guidance.

HOW OUR SCHOOL ARCHE DU LUDE DEALS WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES

A lot of our pupils come from socially deprived environment and are, regarding to the national tests, underachieving pupils.

We help them through different ways:

PPRE Passerelle: a link between primary school and middle school, the action starts in primary and is carried on at the beginning of middle school.

PPRE for Programme Personnalisé de Réussite Éducative for year7s and year8s:We coordonate actions in order to help pupils with their learning difficulties in a document discussed with/between pupils, parents and teachers. It lasts for a period of maximum 6 weeks, by the end of which progress is assessed. The actions are then carried on or not. One teacher works with a very small group of pupils sharing the same type of difficulties, for instance « organize one’s work », « reading instructions » etc.

Aide aux devoirs or Homework assistance: small groups of pupils who may need assistance for various reasons such as minor learning difficulties or unfavourable conditions of work at home do their homework with an Educational Assistant or a teacher at school after class.

How our school Arche du Lude deals with learning difficulties