Secondary Mathematics Teacher

The English National Programme is a ‘section internationale’ within the French state educational system, governed and financed by a parents’ association. It teaches several secondary subjects in English for part of the school week within the French Lycée/Collège International de Ferney-Voltaire and offers part time complementary primary education in English in years 2-6.

The employer and governing body of the Programme is the parents’ association, ALA-ELP, a well-established structure that has been employing teachers for many years. Parents pay an annual fee to the association for tuition by ENP staff and for resources used or provided by the Programme. The ALA-ELP school budget covers purchase of books and libraries, ICT equipment, staff CPD, inspection and so forth. Secondary classrooms are made available to ENP by the French school in which it works.

The Lycée/Collège International is a prestigious French state secondary school, with historical connections with CERN, the particle physics laboratory, and incorporating international sections in several languages. The Lycée/ Collège as a whole now welcomes well over 2,000 pupils and occupies a site with views of the Jura mountains and the Alps, on the edge of Ferney-Voltaire and near the open countryside of the French/Swiss border.

Places in the school and in the Programme are much sought after. They are awarded, after entrance test, by the ‘proviseur’ of the Lycée/Collège. Continued growth in numbers has led to a second Lycée site being built in St Genis-Pouilly, a short drive away. This site opened in September 2016. ENP teaches on both Lycée sites and applicants are asked to note that the post advertised will involve work on both and travel between them.

The English National Programme, with over 1000 pupils altogether in secondary and primary, is the largest international section in the Lycée and now among the largest in France. The school also has German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and Swedish sections. All pupils in the school receive the major part of their education in French. The Programme teaches bilingual pupils in English for part of the school week: half a day for primary pupils and 6 or 8 hours per week for secondary pupils. Primary pupils study English only. Secondary pupils study English (for 4 hours) as well History-Geography for 2 hours and Mathematics in English, a subject which is taught as an option (in addition to the compulsory Mathematics course taught in French) for 2 or 3 hours per week. While secondary pupils are part of an international school, and while their ENP lessons form an integral part of the school week, primary pupils attend their local town or village French school and come to the Lycée site for one of three half days (according to age-group) each week for tuition in English.

In certain ways, the Programme acts as an autonomous educational unit within the school, with its own teaching departments and its own leadership structure. The Leadership Team works with the Head of Programme to lead and manage the Programme effectively. ENP’s main aim is to apply English educational principles and curricula, as well as teaching and assessment methods, to the teaching of subjects in English within a French state school context, enriching pupils’ bicultural education and development and aiming for high levels of achievement. ENP pupils are a mix of nationalities, with a sizeable minority of first language speakers and pupils with good second language mastery, many of them French. All pupils are taught in mixed groups. Care is taken to limit class size as much as possible, so that a strong emphasis can be laid on participation and oral work and on teachers’ knowing pupils well, maintaining strong positive relationships, and promoting rapid progress.

Exams results as well as summaries of the university places gained by pupils can be seen on the ENP website; recent Newsletters, published by ALA-ELP and available on the site, will give applicants a sense of the successes and achievements, academic and personal, of our pupils and of the range of activities of the Programme and the Association.