Please explain French school system for exam.

[admylin]

Ds has an exam this week and he will have to explain the French school system in French.
So far he's understood that there is maternelle, ecole primaire, college and lycee with le bac as exam (sorry no accents) and then universite. Does he say 'etre scolarise' for maternelle or is that just from ecole primaire? Also he couldn't find out what the years are called - in college is it year 1 in the first year and how do they count the years in lycee?
Is there an exam at the end of college?

For years it starts in Maternelle with Petit Section (PS1 and PS2) for 2-4 yrs old
Then Moyen Section (MS) 4-5 yrs old, then Grand Section (GS).

Following on the years are CP, CE1, CE2, CM1, CM2.

Then at college they start in 6th year (ie seizième) then count down; So seizième, cinqième, quatrième, troisième are in collége. They take the brevet at the end of troisième. Lycée is seconde, première and terminal. The bac is taken at the end of terminal (though part of it is taken at end of première)

In college you start of in sixième and work down to troisième. There is an exam called Brevet at the end of troisième.
In lycée, seconde, première then terminale. Bac at the end of terminale.
I would say 'être scolarisé' from maternelle. They learn lots of stuff in a specific order and if you sign them up they are expected to attend all the time. It's not like a playschool.

Looks like I took too long to reread my post!

Thanks alot, it wa srealyl difficult for him to research the names of the years but that's a great help.
What does CP stand for? And CE and CM? Is C for cours ?

CP = Cours Préparatoire
CE 1 = Cours Elémentaire 1
CE2 = Cours Elémentaire 2
CM 1 = Cours Moyen 1
CM2 = Cours Moyen 2

Merci!
Ds is going to be busy learning all that tonight!

How old is your DS?
how much detail does he need?
Because for extra points, he could mention that after the Bac, French kids have two major paths: university (la fac) or the much more prestigious grande école system.

Ds is 14 and that would be great - they haven't talked about fac or grande ecole (just universite, faires des etudes) yet so he could add that information for extra points.
He's at German grammar school, amazing standard of language teaching compared to what I did in French in my school days!