For reference: school grades

To give everyone a little background, here is a bit about the school system in France, so you know what we're talking about when we say CE1 or troisième.

Instead of having kindergarten through 12th grade, you have:

Preschool, école maternelle

Elementary school, école primaire

Cours Préparatoire (CP): ages 6-7

Cours Élémentaire 1 année (CE1): ages 7-8

Cours Élémentaire 2 année (CE2): ages 8-9

Cours Moyen 1 année (CM1): ages 9-10

Cours Moyen 2 année (CM2): ages 10-11

Middle school, collège

Sixième (6e)

Cinquième (5e)

Quatrième (4e)

Troisième (3e)

High school, lycée

Second

Premier

Terminal

Then you can go on to a preparatory year, a BTS, university, etc. I am actually not very clear on what happens after elementary school so maybe Natasha you can clarify. I know that in high school you have to choose a track that is basically your major and what you will go on to do for the rest of your life.

As a primary school assistant, my students all have one main teacher, le maître or la maîtresse, and I come in for 45 minutes to do an English lesson twice a week. I have students from every grade and 7 different classes.

It sounds like high school assistants will often take some students out of class to do an activity in a separate room, but all of this probably varies a lot by region.