School Immersion in France – 14-18 years old – 1 month to 1 academic year

Our programmes are open to particularly motivated students aged 14 to 18 years who wish to live a unique and unforgettable experience.

You will study for 1 term, 1 semester or the complete academic year (or for 1 to 2 months, if you prefer a shorter stay) within a French Middle or High School (“College” or “Lycée”) while sharing the everyday life of your host family. This programme provides a real linguistic and cultural immersion in the heart of French life.

Destination highlights

  • A rich historical and cultural heritage
  • Discovery of a renowned school system
  • Great geographical diversity
  • Possibility to choose your region of stay
  • 3 “fun” excursions offered on site
  • An optional French training course
  • Warm, welcoming and committed host families

Why France?

France is the largest country in Europe and is renowned worldwide for its landscapes diversity and its exceptional culture. Each region has its own charm, gastronomy and cultural asset. From Paris to Lyon and the Alps, Normandy to Brittany, Bordeaux to the Pyrenees, or in the heart of the Massif Central, you will meet people proud of their culture and always eager to share the beauty and particularities of any of those regions.

Placements can be made anywhere in France, generally in middle or small towns where the families have much more time and space to offer to their young foreign hosts.

If you prefer to choose the location of your placement according to a specific region, urban environment, school or particular sport, you can do so in the frame of our Premium Programme.

High School Classic Programme

In this programme, placements can be made anywhere in France, generally in middle/small towns or even more rural areas where the families have much more time and space to offer to their young foreign hosts.

Please do not hesitate to give us your preferential requirements if you have any. We shall transmit them to our partner and shall do our best in taking them into account as much as possible but without any formal guarantee.

High School Premium Programme

This Premium programme gives the students the possibility to select one or two choices from the following list, by order of priority (to be confirmed upon application.
This first and/or second choice will be guaranteed.

  • Placement in a specific region of France
  • Placement in an urban area (city or suburbs)
  • Placement for students who follow a specific alimentary diet or suffer from allergies
  • Placement according to specific activity (sport, music, etc.)
  • Placement in a specific school, class, academic section or subject.

Choice of regions

  • Occitania: areas of Toulouse, Castres, Montpellier, Nîmes
  • Aquitaine: areas of Bordeaux, Arcachon bassin, Bayonne, La Rochelle
  • Brittany, Loire Valley, Normandy: areas of Rennes, Saint Malo, Vannes, Nantes, Rouen, Caen
  • Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes: areas of Lyon, Valence, Montélimar, Clermont-Ferrand
  • Provence : areas of Nîmes, Montpellier, Sète, Avignon, Marseille
  • Great East: areas of Nancy, Metz, Strasbourg, Reims, Troyes
  • Great Paris: Paris and its suburban area

Note: in case of a specific requirement for a precise private school, all extra school fees incurred will be invoiced at extra cost.

French language course option

2 to 3 weeks language course in Saint-Malo (in August) or in Paris (in January) is available before the beginning of the programmes. This course is highly recommended to students wishing to improve their level of French before starting their academic programme in order to facilitate their integration.

“Fun trips” option

3 excursion trips are available to foreign students during the academic year. These school trips are escorted and supervised by appointed French group leaders.

October – Paris and Disneyland: 4 days and 3 nights stay, full board residential accommodation. Visit of the main French capital attractions (Eiffel Tower, boat trip on the river Seine, Louvre Museum, Montmartre and the Latin Quarter, Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Arc of Triumph, the Champs-Élysées, shopping in Galeries Lafayette) and visit of Disneyland Resort Paris.

February – Ski in the Alps: 1 week residential full board accommodation stay in Châtel (Haute-Savoie). Skiing equipment supplied at the resort ; the students are lead and supervised by sport coaches. This stay is also open to ski beginners. Recreational activities, local gastronomical specialities tasting and snowball fights are also included in the programme.

June – French Riviera Discovery: 1 week “End of academic year” school trip to the “Côte d’Azur”. Departure from Paris to Marseilles, Cassis, Nice, Saint-Tropez and Monaco. Transportation, organised activities and half board residential accommodation are included in the programme.

Note : these excursion trips will take place providing a sufficient number of participating students have applied. Prices will be available only upon arrival at the place of stay as well as the opening of the bookings.

Schools can be state or private. Placement depends on the place of residence of each host family and of the schools attended by the family children.

The school’s director makes the decision regarding grade and class taking into account the school’s organization, the student’s transcripts, his/her proficiency in French and the available spaces at the moment of the placement.

Students start secondary school from 11 years old.

From 11 to 14 years they attend “Collège” (Middle School) from 6th to 3rd class, and then from 15 to 18 years they attend “Lycée” (High School) from 2nd to Terminal class.

Completion of these secondary studies leads to the Baccalaureate exams (at the end of 1st and Terminal classes) required for the continuation of graduate studies.

Lessons generally take place Monday to Friday from 08.00 to 17.00 or 18.00. The academic pace is rather steady and consists in an average of 32 hours of lessons per week plus the additional everyday personal homework in most subjects, given and graded by the teachers.

Attendance to all lessons is compulsory.

The subjects

  • In “Troisième” (14-15 years) and in “Seconde” class (15-16 years), the subjects generally taught are: French Literature, Foreign Languages, History, Geography, Maths, Economy and Sciences.
  • In “Première” (16-17 years), students choose one out of these three branches: Sciences (sector S), Economy and Social (sector ES) or Literature (sector L).
    In addition to the compulsory subjects, students choose 3 speciality courses from among the following:
    • Arts
    • Biology-ecology
    • History-geography, geopolitics and political science
    • Humanities, Literature and Philosophy
    • Foreign languages, literature and cultures
    • Literature and ancient languages and cultures
    • Mathematics
    • Digital and computer sciences
    • Physics-Chemistry
    • Life and Earth Sciences
    • Engineering Sciences
    • Economics and Social Sciences
  • In “Terminale” (17-18 years), students follow only 2 of their speciality courses

In France, schools offer very few extra-curricular activities. The practice of a particular activity or sport is therefore taken outside the school setting.

Host families

All families are volunteers (Classic Programme) or get a slight financial compensation (Premium Programme), but whatever the chosen programme, they wish to host young foreign students to share with them their culture and way of life. Each host family takes an active part in the choice of the hosted student after having been recruited on the basis of a home interview and serious confirmed references.

Families are generally located in middle/small towns or even rural areas. But wherever the placement is located, this stay will be a unique opportunity to join in a genuine French experience among a friendly and welcoming family.

Accommodation is in single or shared room, depending on the family’s home, as you can share your room with a child of the family or another student of same gender but different nationality and language who will not have more than 2 years of age difference with you.

3 meals per day are included in the full board : during school periods, lunch is taken at the school cafeteria or restaurant.

All throughout your stay in France you will benefit from the help and support of a local coordinator who will prepare your stay, select your host family and register you at the local school.

The coordinator will be contactable at all times to answer your questions and settle all concerns, even minor ones, that could rise. He/she will also be able to take immediate action in case of problem with the host family, or just to make sure that everything goes smoothly. He/ she will be your privileged interlocutor for the whole duration of your stay.

  • Be between 14-18 years of age before departure
  • Demonstrate intermediate French proficiency and at least 2 years of French language study
  • Have obtained good school results for the past two years (averaging at least a C, no more than one failed subject per year)
  • Be willingly to meet new people and share the daily life of a host family with their culture and language. Show motivation, maturity, adaptability and open-mindedness that are the true keys for a successful stay.

Do you meet the requirements for participation?

  1. Fill in the pre-registration form as soon as possible.
  2. Upon receipt, we will send you a provisional confirmation, including the total amount to pay for the stay, a request for immediate payment of €100 (for the language test and the motivation interview), as well as the complete registration file. We will also ask you to send us a copy of your school reports for the last 2 years.
  3. We then invite you to come and take the language test and interview at our offices in Brussels or Paris. The costs of this interview are payable upon receipt of the pre-confirmation and are non-refundable, but deductible from the balance of the stay in case of definitive registration and acceptance to the programme. A first part of the application form must be completed and brought with you to the interview.
  4. We will confirm you the result of the tests at the latest 8 days after the interview.
  5. If the interview is positive, we ask you to pay a deposit of 25% of the total amount of the stay (with a minimum of €1,500) and to complete all the elements of the file, which includes letters of recommendation from your teachers and other information necessary for the study of your file on site. As soon as it is complete and as we have received the payment of the deposit, we will send it to our partner.
  6. Final acceptance to the programme is awarded by our partner.
  7. When your application is accepted, our partner begins the search and selection of a host family and school.

The complete application file must be returned to us before the following dates :

Stay starting in September :

  • May 01 (for EU citizens)
  • April 15 (for students who need a visa)

Stay starting in January :

  • October 01 (for EU citizens)
  • September 15 (for students who need a visa)

For stays shorter than 3 months : your file must be submitted at least 3 months before departure.

Beyond these dates, enrolments are still possible upon request and will be considered on a case-by-case basis. A late enrolment extra charge will apply (see prices*).

Travel

Airport/station of arrival: depending on your stay area. The arrival/departure airport or station will be communicated to you upon placement.

Visa

Citizens of the European Union do not need a visa to enter France. Citizens of other countries (such as the United States, Brazil, Japan, Korea, etc.) can visit France for a period of three months without a visa.

If the programme exceeds 90 days (3 months), you must come to France with a long-stay visa that covers the entire duration of your stay. However, it may happen that you have been granted a temporary visa and that you need, during your first three months of stay, to apply for a visa extension at the nearest “prefecture”. You should discuss this with the local coordinator immediately after your arrival.

If you turn 18 during your stay, you will need to apply for a residence permit at the nearest “prefecture”. You will be asked for various documents, including an official translation of your birth certificate. If you did not bring it with you, ask your parents for it as soon as you arrive in France, so that you receive it in due time.

All costs incurred by these procedures are at the student’s expense.

A medical/accident/repatriation and liability insurance policy is compulsory for this type of stay. We will ask you to produce an insurance certificate for the constitution of your file.

Easy Languages offers a complete insurance coverage perfectly adapted to young travellers abroad. Please see the corresponding page in Insurances & guarantees.

Dates 2022-2023

Start in September 2022* :

  • Academic year (10 months): 26/08/22 – 16/06/23
  • Semester : 26/08/22 – 24/02/23
  • 4 months : 26/08/22 – 16/12/22
  • 3 months : 26/08/22 – 25/11/22

Start in January 2023* :

  • Academic year (11 months): 06/01/23 –  24/11/23
  • Semester : 06/01/23 – 16/06/23
  • 4 months: 06/01/23 – 28/04/23
  • 3 months: 06/01/23 – 31/03/23

* The dates of stay may vary slightly.

For shorter stays, dates are determined on a case-by-case basis.

School Holidays 2022/2023 :

  • Autumn : 22/10 – 07/11/22
  • Christmas : 17/12/22 – 03/01/23
  • Winter : 2 weeks between 04/02 and 06/03/23 according to the academic area
  • Spring : 2 weeks between 08/04 and 09/05/23 according to the academic area

Optional French course :

Saint Malo (August) :

  • 2 weeks : 14/08/22 – 25/08/22
  • 3 weeks : 07/08/22 – 27/08/22

Paris (January) :

  • 2 semaines : 03/01/23 – 15/01/23

*The courses dates may vary slightly.

The course includes : 15 hours of French lessons (introduction to the French way of life and school system, vocabulary, literature and civilisation) + 2 cultural activities per week and Homestay accommodation (host family), single room with full board (packed lunch).

Prices 2022-2023

WPCS 42.0.1
Classic program, course, homestay, full board
1 month 2.295
2 months 3.195
3 months 3.795
4 months 4.295
6 months 5.795
10 months 6.995
Premium program, course, homestay, full board (Except Paris)
3 months 5.295
4 months 5.995
6 months 7.595
10 months 10.995
Premium program, course, homestay, full board (Paris)
3 months 5.995
4 months 6.995
6 months 8.995
10 months 12.495
Supplements
St Malo French course (2 weeks) 1.190
St Malo French course (3 weeks) 1.420
Paris French course (2 weeks) 1.400
Return transfer 195

* Late enrolment extra charge : €250

Prices include:

  • French test and preliminary interview before enrolment
  • All necessary documents and guidelines for enrolment in a French Middle or High School
  • Host family selection
  • Homestay full board accommodation (lunches taken at the school restaurant or cafeteria Monday to Friday)
  • Personal assistance, constant support and advice from our local correspondent and supervisor throughout the stay
  • Orientation meeting at the beginning of the stay
  • Transfer on arrival (from international airport or railway station to final destination)
  • Easy Languages assistance to parents throughout the stay
  • School reports at the end of each term and certificate of completion at the end of the stay

Prices do not include:

  • Round trip travel to and from the destination in France (airport or train station)
  • Course materials and textbooks (about €235 to €300)
  • Private school fees (for Premium Programme only in case of specific request from the student)
  • Local transport during the stay
  • Pocket money and personal expenses including telephone and Internet, school computer or Pad hire if necessary)
  • Departure transfer (to international airport or train station to final destination)
  • Visa fees if any (only for non EU citizens)
  • Mandatory travel medical and public liability insurances

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