The Ecole Condorcet is a primary school in the town of Lièvin, in the Pas de Calais region.  It has 10 classes and 300 pupils.  The children start school at the age of 6 years and finish at 11 years, just like the English primary system.  The school is split into two individual and identical buildings across the road from each other.  This dates back to when the girls and boys were seperated, but are they now all mixed.

 

The children sit at desks two by two and in rows.  They have huge school bags that they carry all their books in for the day.  These are hung on their desks.  A notable differences between Elmsett School and Ecole Condorcet is that the children do not wear a school uniform.  The pupils from Elmsett thought this was a great idea! 

 

                               

 

The school day is also quite different to Elmsett.  School starts at 9am with lunch at noon.  They have a 2 hour lunch break, which means that alot the children go home for lunch.  School restarts at 2pm and finishes at 5.30pm.  They have a half day on Wednesday, but have to go to school on Saturday morning.

 

The town of Lièvin was originally a coal mining town, the last mine having shut in 1974 due to an accident.  As a result there is high unemployment in the town.  The area is going through a phase of rejuvination with wastelands being turned into parks and recreational areas and the prospect of the Paris Louvre opening up a museum in the area.  Lièvin can also boast that is has Europe's two biggest slag heaps!  They are so big that they look like small mountains and in winter they are skiied on! Two mining headframes are kept in the town as reminders to the next generation of their heritage.