Why do (most) French primary schools have Wednesday off?

But it’s true. In most areas, children up to the age of 10 or 11 – when they switch from école primaire to collège – go to school Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and get a mid-week break from the daily grind.

Some areas do have classes on Wednesday mornings for younger children, but give them Wednesday afternoons off.

Once children hit collège, and then lycée, the usual pattern is to have classes on Wednesday morning, but the afternoons off.

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It’s one of a number of education-based cultural upheavals that children previously educated in other countries have to get used to — and, from their point of view at least, one of the easiest to get to grips with. But it may cause some concern among parents wondering how to incorporate it into their working week.

It certainly makes it a little easier for children to cope with the long French school day, if they think there’s a day off in the middle of the week. That, and the lovely, long lunch break, and the regular holidays (especially the eight-week summer one) not to mention all those public holidays in May…

So why does France do this?

Well aside from the above-mentioned reasons (which apply to teachers as well), there are historical reasons for the unusual timetable.

In the 19th century French children attended school six days a week. But, in 1882, then-education minister Jules Ferry introduced a law that established the principle of secular, free and compulsory education for all children.

This law cut the school week to five days, with Wednesdays set aside for extra-curricular activities, with Saturday school making up for the midweek absence.

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In 2008, Saturday schooling was phased out by the Sarkozy government, though some schools in some parts of France still have Saturday-morning classes – and it’s why the official school holiday calendar still lists Saturday dates as the end of a term.

How do parents, children and teachers feel about it?

Pupils tend to like having Wednesday off for obvious reasons, while teachers also tend to be supportive.

But parents seem to like it too - it's so ingrained in French family life that there were protests when, in 2013, the government tried to introduce a nationwide half-day schooling on Wednesday mornings, coupled with shorter days for the rest of the week.

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The backlash from parents and schools to a well-intentioned but chaotically introduced policy was so deafening that the policy was quickly scrapped in mainstream schools, and was widely ignored among the country’s private fee-paying establishments.

Paris is the exception here, and some of the capital's primary schools do have teaching on a Wednesday morning. Meanwhile across the country private schools set their own rules - some do have Wednesday mornings, some don't.

But what about working parents?

It's all very well for the kids, but what about parents who need to be at work on Wednesday?

Well there are options for childcare - Wednesday (or Wednesday afternoon) is traditionally the day for sports club to hold training sessions, plus other extra-curricular activities such as music lessons or swimming classes. 

There's also the centre de loisirs - publicly-funded activity centres that offer full or half days on Wednesdays so that parents can go to work and children can have fun with activities - these centres offer a five-day-a-week programme during school holidays for the same reason.