France - the joy of the fournitures scolaires list

[InvincibleInvisibility]

And its that time of year again.

Another massive list of textbooks and cahiers (specific sizes and number of pages) with specific cover colours to buy. As well as all the usual pens etc.

We've just had DS2s list for CM1 (he's 9 turning 10 next year). EIGHT textbooks (manuels). Ten cahiers! Loads of pens and papers and paint. And bizarrely two pencil sharpeners.

Oh and a precision about the type of compass to have (I'm ignoring that one - he's dyspraxic and will continue with the one we have).

Anyway, Ive managed to do all the major things by going to 3 shops in 2 different towns (no internet delivery where we are). And by raiding our supply store. Annoyingly we have lots of A4 cahiers but this year the school only wants "grand format".

Not yet got the list for 5eme. But we're leaving on holiday Sunday for 7 weeks so hoping it comes before then....

What random things have you had on your lists?

Not in France, but your list reminds me of the school supply list for my DCs in a private/ RC school in the US.

I recall buying coloured pencils, several different types of markers, several different types of crayons, a special pen for art, packets of Ticonderoga pencils (2b), packets of red and blue pens, Crayola glue sticks, bottles of white glue, pink erasers, clear plastic rulers, folders in specific colours, ring binders, filler paper for ring binders, composition notebooks, graph paper, wire bound notebooks in specific colours, paper towels, antibacterial wipes, boxes of tissues, bixes of ziploc bags in different sizes, plastic 'shoe' boxes with lids to keep art supplies separate from classroom supplies, simple calculators, protractors, smocks for art, and there's probably a lot more that I have mercifully forgotten. The DCs used to go to school on the first day loaded down with several big bags each plus their backpacks.

In Ireland, parents buy the textbooks too, on top of the supplies. Thankfully, the school issued the textbooks in the US.

Yes that list sounds like ours!

Especially the shoebox to keep all their stuff in.

And the lists aren't standardized. Some teachers make a right fuss about only having white erasers. Or a specific brand of fountain pen (for 6 year olds...).

Today I discovered that "lutins" (err. Not sure of translation- its folders whoch alreayd have plastic wallets in them for you to slot A4 paper into). Anyway these only come in size 60 pages, 80 pages, 120 pages. The teacher wants 100 pages. Sigh.

Its the best part of 200 euros per child per year. To go to state school.

I'm just waiting for this to hit the UK as schools can't afford stationery or text books for the kids.

Genuine question, if you supplied a lutin with 120 pages instead of the prescribed 100 what would actually happen?

As an aside DCs fave bit of the summer French holiday is going to stock up on stationery at the hypermarkets, especially the reasonably priced fountain pens

I’m extremely happy-go-lucky with my approach to the lists…

2 years ago, for CM1, the teacher wanted them all to have a cup, but it had to be made from an environmetally friendly material, no plastic, not paper. So everyone desperately scrambling to find metal or bamboo cups. She wouldn’t let them have gourdes as she said they were too old for a biberon… absolute nutter. She also asked for bamboo straws at one point 🤨

We’ve been unbelievably lucky, the two differents primaries the DC have been to (one public, one private) provided all cahiers and manuels. The private one provided everything else too except a trousse and a fountain pen once they deem their handwriting good enough to use one.

For the collège, all manuels are provided, as are cahiers d’activités, we just have to sort out the rest. Grand format for every subject (it’s so you can stick an A4 sheet without wasting class time with them all trimming and then asking to go to the bin.) Free choice on colours, thank goodness.

I’ve never bought the right size lutin, and I say that as a teacher who technically requests a « 80 pages » for my subject. I always tell my students I don’t really care, as long as they have one. (I think they’re called display folders/books in English).

The really painful bit with collège/lycée is the calculators… DS1 lost his last year and so I had to replace it, and I have to buy one for DS2 this year. 3 very specific calculators in 3 years, and DS1´s will have to be upgraded next year 🤬

Oh the bloody calculators!! I've seen French lists from friends and they are even more nitpicky on the stationery than we are--specific sizes and formats, the special Seyes paper for handwriting, colours of pens. But the Americans are as bad for calculators. It must be a Texas Instruments TI-84 graphing calculator which costs about $100.

Americans are picky about pencil brands. The dollar store pencils are terrible. Dixon Ticonderogas for regular pencils, and Crayolas for the coloured pencils. Eldest did 4 years of art in high school, and thankfully they provide supplies for that.

Ahhh the sigh of relief when our PTA decided to use its funds to buy all the pencils and glue and such for the elementary students.

Absolutely nothing, we’re not going to count them. In the first lesson I just ask « Has everyone got a lutin? ». The issue is only when they have something else entirely. Last year one child had a normal folder with plastic wallets and started panicking, so I told him it was basically the same thing. 2 children had cahiers, I told them they could ask their parents to change if their parents don’t mind, but they don’t have to, they’ll just have to stick in on the long edge. Although some teachers are less flexible… but a different sized lutin 🤷‍♀️

I have a real issue with inflexible colleagues. It costs a small fortune to equip children, if they’ve accidentally got the wrong thing some parents just can’t afford to replace it. I traded cahiers with a child two years ago, she was beside herself that she didn’t have a grand format for quite a strict French teacher. I told her I needed a normal a4 one and slipped her one of my son’s in return.

He will have a 120 page lutin.

Honestly the reaction depends on the teacher. DS1 had a couple of horrific ones who bullied pupils for any reason (and non-reason). Parents complained for years but nothing happened.

As for the colours. In primary I imagine so the teacher can say "get your green book out" instead of "history book". However I don't know why in 6eme they were so picky as the teacher changes for every subject.

CM1 list has just astounded me in its length. But the 6eme was shocking. A huge mix between A4 size, grand format size (24x32cm), 96, 140 or 192 pages. Sometimes with alternate blank pages. Sometimes not.

One teacher even made a huge performance (marked in bold and underlined) about the length of the inside flap of the book cover....

And yes, my boys would get incredibly panicked if they didn't have the right thing. Others let it go over their head. But my going-in-to-CM1 son is already a school refuser/has anxiety attacks so get sent home. So I do try to stick to the letter.

Goodness - no wonder we often meet parents and children looking rather manic in the aisles, I had no idea the variety and strictness - that must be quite a culture shock.

Is making me wonder how much schools spend on stationery though if you reckon it's about £200 a child

Nightmare OP! I did year 6 in a French school and the list was bloody endless and everything had to be exact. It was such a contrast with my Australian school which didn’t provide a list at all, it was all up to the individual. I think my mum had to buy new textbooks for the French school. The Aussie school had a massive secondhand bookshop and that’s where everyone got their book- first come had their pick of the best annotated Shakespeare!!

This is our one. And then the subsequent years look pretty much that same.

This is ours

Yes parents do look quite manic in the shops!

We've only just got our lists but I had to queue with other parents to get the books in the shop this morning.

Im very chuffed to have CM1 sorted (even if I'll have to go back for 5eme). But every year i try to do it early ever since my manager told me of her horror at trying to do the list after her August holidays.... the aisles were empty! (I didn't even have DC then but it stuck in my mind).

😱😱😱

That’s utter madness. And they’ll never fill all those cahiers!

140 pages for histoire and then another for géo? That’s ridiculous. They could have had one for both. I teach histoire/géo in 2nde and they copy a lot of cours, we still don’t fill a whole cahier.

I’ve never seen a primary school that does more than about 30 pages of English. A lot of primaries are moving to lutins for that, as it’s all worksheets anyway and that way families can reuse them.

Is it my imagination or is there a school uniform? For a state school?

Well done for getting it all done though! I normally do it at the end of July, but last year we got back from holidays on the 13th of August. I was pretty shocked by how little was left 😳

I’m planning to go through our store and start writing my actual list this weekend. But then I’ll wait til Leclerc does their cartable buyback offer.

Yeah its a loose uniform. White polo or tshirt. Khaki shorts/trousers/skirt. Although khaki has turned into "green".

We re in the DOM and apparently its normal here in state schools.

But I agree with the stupid amount of work planned. It'll never happen (Ive had to finish the CE2 program with him as its not all been covered).

I wish I had kept our lists.

They were formatted spreadsheet style, with the grades from PK3 to 8th across the top, every single item every single teacher wanted listed once at the side, and the number of each item in the little boxes under the grade. All I had to do to keep track was vertically highlight the applicable grades and add the numbers from left to right. The lists were a thing of beauty.

I once dropped my list on a frazzled day in Walmart and another shopper picked it up for me and gasped at the level of organisation. This woman had a sheaf of double-sided lists in her hand that she had to keep referring to in order to figure out how many packs of markers, etc, to put in the trolley.

Getting them equipped for school cost more in the early years than later years because I kept everything that could be reused the next year (markers, pencils, pens, etc). But I still shelled out about $200 annually. Irish parents pay more as schoolboys are factored I to the cost of each year in primary and each exam cycle in secondary, but school textbooks are usually possible to hand down or sell on.

YY to the calculators in high school, @knitnerd90 - we bought ours on eBay.

This is the pre-k list for our school district. Pre-k! 4-year-olds have to carry all this to school. Note you have to have a certain brand.

1. • White Copy Paper Ream, 8.5" x 11", 20 lb., 92 Bright, 500 Sheets (1) - Reynolds Presto® Gallon Zipper Bags, 19 ct. (2) - Reynolds Presto® Sandwich Zipper Bags, 40 ct. (1) - Pacon® UCreate® Watercolor Pad, 90lb., 9" x 12", 12 Sheets (1) - Ticonderoga® Beginners™ #2 Round Pencil, UnSharpened with Eraser, 13/32" Diameter, Box of 12 (2) - Antibacterial Hand Soap with Pump, 16.9 oz. (1) - Boulder Clean® Disinfectant Wipes, Flip Top Soft Pack, 72 ct. (2) - Economy Weight Sheet Protectors, Non-Glare, Top Loading, 3-Hole, 10 ct. (1) - Insertable Paper Dividers, Multi-Color Tabs, 9.25" x 11.5", 8 ct. (1) - Scotties® Facial Tissues, 2-ply, 230 ct. (1) - Paper Towels, 2-Ply, 85 Sheets/Roll (2) - Baby Wipes, Aloe Vera, Alcohol-Free, Soft Pack, 80 ct. (2) - Crayola® Crayons, 24 ct. (2) - Washable Watercolor Set with Brush, 8 ct. (2) - Washable Markers, Classic Colors, Broad Tip, 8 ct. (1) - Prang® Construction Paper, 9" x 12", 50 ct., 10 Assorted Colors (2) - Colored Pencils, Full Length, Sharpened, 12 ct. (1) - Kids Scissors, Blunt-Tip, 5", Ages 4+, Assorted Colors (1) - Primary Composition Book, 1/2" Ruling with Picture Story, 100 ct. (Grade K-2) (1) - Paper Mate® Stick Pen, Medium Pt., Black (4) - Paper Mate® Stick Pen, Medium Pt., Blue (1) - Paper Mate® Stick Pen, Medium Pt., Red (1) - 2 Pocket Heavy Duty Poly Folder, Blue (1) - 2 Pocket Heavy Duty Poly Folder, Red (1) - 2" Round Ring View Binder, White (1) - Play-Doh® 4-Pack, 4 oz. Containers, Assorted Colors (1) - Elmer's Washable School Glue, 4 oz. (2) - Small Washable Glue Stick, .28 oz. (2) - Large Washable Glue Stick, .7 oz. (2) - Germ-X® Hand Sanitizer with Pump, 8 oz. (2) - Sharpie® Permanent Marker, Fine Tip, Black (2) - Scotch® Magic Tape, 3/4" x 300" with Dispenser

One year we had to get some kind of special ruler which cost something stupid like 30eur and was never used.

I'm surprised you can't just subscribe to a service which buys it all for you.

Where we live (59) there are companies which specifically do that and the larger bookshops/ stationers offer the same service. You can upload your list and knock out stuff you already have.

We've stopped buying everything now the kids are in college/lycée - they get a selection of supermarket cahiers, a pack of bics and some blanco. The art stuff will do from last year and we have loads of porte vues in the house. And a stationary shops worth of sharpeners, rubbers, rulers etc

No wonder French supermarkets have such an amazing array of stationery! I’m sure my DD’s most favourite part of our French holidays was browsing all the pens and stuff. We used to stock up every year. She still talks about it now 😂

I use scoleo. Complète game changer.

www.scoleo.fr/fournitures-scolaires-31765.html

From this September the government is supplying books to primary children in Ireland.

It will be interesting to see if this sees an end to those annoying “workbook” style textbooks where the child writes directly on the book meaning it can’t be passed down.

French stationery is one of my favourite things about France 😂 Although I can see how the rigidity of the specified items can get very stressful very quickly.