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?

Yes the specific formats and brands is annoying.

We've received the 5eme list (12 year old.) 24 hours later the college recalled it and said a new one will be available tomorrow!!!! By which time I had bought what I could as we are leaving for Europe for 7 weeks....

Fortunately when the new one was published nothing had changed. Equally fortunately, we are on holiday in France metropole so can pick up the half of the list that isn't available on this island (sigh. Why do they DO that?!). But still, most frustrating as I was so chuffed to have finished the lists!

I can't believe parents have to supply anything but a few pens and a calculator. First time I had to provide this sort of thing was university!

In Italy we have similar, mainly in primary though, no one cares as much in secondary.

for primary we get given coupons to go pick up the textbooks from specialist stationery shops (cartolerie), these are paid for by the state, thankfully, but not provided by the school so you need to pick them up. They are usually multi subject, plus a separate one for English.

The stationery list is quite long and specific, however. Depending on the class the exercise books either need to be lined (lower classes have a kind of “tramline” sequence of lines) or squares, with or without margin. I once committed the cardinal sin of getting an exercise book without a margin and DP spent an evening drawing in margins in all pages while I sipped wine and watched. We also had to get plastic covers, specific colours per subject. Thankfully there was never a specified number of pages in the exercise books and they were pretty much all a standard size in the supermarkets. we also needed to supply pens, fountain pens for when they wrote corsivo, felt tips, coloured pencils, set squares and rulers etc. Luckily Italian supermarkets sold these large, multizipped pencil cases with everything already in them. I also had to supply a ream of photocopy paper and a maxi pack of tissues, plus one year, toilet paper. Every year they needed a diary with the school year, again sold in supermarkets.

secondary wasn’t so rigid on the stationery, we needed to supply a specific type of compass though and a scientific calculator. But the textbooks, oh my! So many and every teacher has their favourites, so if you swapped classes or changed schools you needed to buy a new one. Some people were spending up to €500 on textbooks for lycee level. There is a thriving second hand market for textbooks, you take your used ones to the bookshop at the end of the year, they buy them back and sell them in to the following year. Unless a new edition comes out that says exactly the same thing as the previous edition, but the teacher won’t accept a previous version as the page number will be different….

What’s a lutin? I thought it meant elf.

It's the diary that the school provides, which also contains all sorts of useful information and sections where the parents and teachers can exchange information.

For us a lutin is like a presentation folder. So an empty folder with plastic sleeves stuck in it.

DH is French and had no idea what it was when we first saw it on a list! Had to google....

It's not as onerous as it sounds, although it comes as a shock the first time you have to do it. I am now so used to it after six years that I sent my son's lycee an email asking why the liste de fournitures wasn't on the school website for his year group - turns out they'll find out what each teacher wants when they get there... It can be done very cheaply by going to Action (we probably still have several unused appropriately coloured exercise books in DS's bedroom left over from previous years.) and you get used to buying glue sticks and pen refills as a matter of course.

Oh yes the type of lines/squares is indicated each time.

Ive managed to sell DS2's books on. Keeping DS1s just in case DS2 can use them.

However my friend told me today that she wanted to buy her neighbour's old textbooks. Out of 8 textbooks only 1 is the same as last year!

They do get through a lot of glue sticks!

It was a shock for us last year because before we'd been in a different school in France and we "only" provided stationary and various reading books. We then paid the school 150 euros for supplies.

So many Cahier! Ludicrous. Madness.

I will say I'm mid thirties and work with quite a few engineers - We all have and still use our good all TI-83 from lycée though and are always jealous when the young interns come in with their newer flashier versions!

Does the allocation de rentrée scolaire (for those eligible) not cover most of the stationary ? I saw it's gone up a bit this year.

6 à 10 ans 398,09 €
11 à 14 ans 420,06 €
15 à 18 ans 434,60 €

Bonne rentrée!

My liste de fournitures is from 1977 and it appears plus ça change........
my sympathies OP.

My friend with a school-age child says the school has a service where they will provide everything at the beginning of term (for a fee on top of the actual cost of the items I'm sure). We're in 01.

DH earns too much to get the allocation. But Im very glad it exists for others cos the costs add up quickly (over 120 euros just on the textbooks for 5eme).

My main grumble is the sheer complexity of it. And that it feels like a waste when exercise books only get half used. We do pull out the middle pages to use as rough paper, but still it feels wasteful. Plus the time that I put in is ridiculous (the only supplier on the island does have an order service BUT you still have to collect and they don't stock everything).

My 2nd main grumble is the weight of their schoolbags!!!!!

In 6eme DS1 had chromebook plus textbooks, exercise books and pencil cases for 7 lessons a day. Plus water (we're in the Caribbean its essential). A few times he physically couldn't fit everything in his massive rucksack. No lockers provided...

Its been interesting reading about the other countries too.

@BritWifeInUSA those are very specific brands! I imagine not the cheapest either...

@DiDonk (LOVE your username!!!!!)
30 euros for a ruler that wasn't used! 😯

I'm trying to remember if we've ever had anything that hasn't been used. There's been a few exercise books that have barely been touched.

Another bugbear is not being able to buy individual colour felt tip pens. They only come in packs of 12 colours. My boys use loads of black, red, blue and green. I've ended up giving away loads of pink and purple to a colleague for her DD.

It was the proverbial goutte though because after that we stopped buying the entire list and encouraged the kids to develop their inner bolshie Englishness when it comes to stationary conformity!

That and finding 4 pairs of scissors and a dozen sharpeners in Dds desk

I would say the school is becoming less annoying generally: fewer different types of cahier and art materials (unused oil paints for four years!)

I feel your pain. Mine are both in collège now and it seems less rigid than primary, thank goodness. My main gripe is it's so environmentally unfriendly - will nobody think of the trees, our poor planet?! And then the pure consumerism of it all, going to the supermarket and filling your trolley with a load of stuff you don't really need, without thinking about it.

My goodness. We're in Ireland and in primary, paid €80 to the school, who then supplied everything except pencil case contents, and they weren't at all fussy about those. They got free lunches as well. DD is just starting secondary, and for her it's €240 and they supply everything, including a second set of books to keep at home so they don't have to carry them back and forth. Again, it's just pencil case contents. And they still get free lunch.

We are such jammy gits.

Interesting that schools in France (and Ireland it seems) still use textbooks. My child is yr7 in England (12) and has never used a textbook. Everything is handouts and online. When I was at school, textbooks were issued by school at the beginning of the year, but this seems to have disappeared.

I haven't looked yet..I left it til the last minute last year was a right nightmare 😅

We can't afford it. Our textbook budget has to go on ks4 and ks5.
Ks3 get handouts.

It's amazing when you compare it to the UK. Some of our students don't even bring a biro. We literally provide everything - down to tissues and hand sanitiser.

Nope in France we have to provide the tissues! A box at the beginning of the year and sometimes beginning of each term.

A couple of years my DC also had to take in those large desk protectors (of a specific size and colour!) to use all year. We've also been asked to provide plastic tablecloths for painting.

Definitely agree with the environmental impact although we do pull out the unused pages and use them as scrap paper. And I'm never short of a pen or pencil.

In secondary school this year DS1 had to have (buy) a chromebook. Some textbooks were on this. Some workbooks were on it. Then other subjects had the paper versions.

I've managed to finish both lists 🥳. The last book was delivered to MIL on Friday which we'll pick up in August.

We have a CUBE of A4 copybooks and DD will be using them up in the next two years, no matter what…
But nothing beats the “new pencil case” feeling of the first day back.

Italian high schools register their booklists with the Ministry for Education so you can just click on your class through Amazon or Il Libraccio (second hand). Even buying most second hand, we’re expecting about €200 this year.

My kids were given all their primary books free (regione a statuto speciale) and huge Latin (Liceo Scientifico) and Greek (Classico) dictionaries in first year with the chance to buy them for a song in 5th year or give them back (comodato).

And your school diary is your marker of “cool”.