PRIMARY
The primary school at the CSI Lyon is connected to the main school building, but has its own dedicated entrance and playground area. There is a separate building for the youngest pupils, with its own canteen and library.
Children between the ages of 6 and 11 years old spend six hours each week in their Anglophone Section classes. The remaining 18 hours of the school week are spent with their French 'homeroom' teachers, with whom they follow the French national education programme. All the core subjects (French, Maths, Science etc.) are taught in French.
In France, primary schooling begins in the calendar year when a child has their sixth birthday. The school structure is quite different to that of most Anglophone countries. The table presented below shows the age that corresponds with each year group in primary.
Primary teaching staff
All the teachers in the Anglophone Section primary are fully qualified, native English-speakers with teaching experience from across the world. The primary staff work closely together to create a warm, welcoming and positive environment to help our students become happy and successful learners.
Aims and objectives​
Each student is supported and extended to ensure their 6 hours of English are accessible, interesting and challenging. A variety of teaching methods and resources are used, corresponding to those found in the English-speaking world.
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As teachers we aim to:
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Provide a positive learning environment, which encourages children to take risks and venture beyond their comfort zones
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Understand the different needs and learning styles of individual children and differentiate accordingly
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Support children as they develop their speaking and listening skills by working in different situations (whole class, small groups, pairs etc working on drama activities, discussions and debates.)
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Develop understanding of a variety of text genres and teach students how to interpret a range of different texts
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Encourage reading for pleasure
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Teach our students how to plan, draft and review, with the aim of improving their own writing and becoming independent learners
The Anglophone Section primary team has high expectations of our students and we work together to provide a rich and stimulating curriculum which enables all students to succeed. We expect all of our students to be responsible members of our school community by being polite, kind and respectful. We believe that this will help them become successful global citizens, who can play a positive part in wider society as they grow up.
The Primary Curriculum​
The curriculum of the Anglophone Section primary is broadly based on the English curriculum but also incorporates aspects of other Anglophone teaching programmes. Pupils will study a range of different authors and topics, which allows them to discover a variety of different cultures and backgrounds.
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The focus is on three key areas:
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Speaking and listening
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Reading
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Writing
Ordinarily, there will be two classes per year-level in the Anglophone Section. Class sizes vary: there are usually around 14, but never more than 20, students per class.
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The primary school day starts at 08h45 and ends at 16h30. Pupils can attend a morning club and an after-school club (collectively known as garderie in French schools). The garderie runs from 08h00 to 08h45 and for one hour after school between 16h30 to 17h30.
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You can find more information about the Primary school on the CSI Lyon website, here.
The French primary curriculum​
The French national curriculum for primary can be found here.