Chapter 15 of 17 · Water and the Weather
Appendix. School correspondences
What the stage of this volume means, and where it sits in the school systems of the main French-speaking countries.
Why this appendix exists, and what it is not
Every volume of this house carries a stage, and that stage does not state an age. It states what the volume assumes is already known and what it leaves the reader able to do. Only four values exist, and they describe the place of a volume in a progression, never the class of whoever reads it.
This choice has a reason, and it is the same one that makes this house exist. The name of a school year denotes neither the same age nor the same syllabus from one country to another, and it changes with every reform. This house publishes in seven languages: vocabulary tied to the system of a single country would be wrong for six languages out of seven on the day it is written. That is why no name of a school year appears in the body of this volume, nor in its title, nor in any of its fields.
But a teacher, a parent or an educator needs a marker in order to know whether this volume suits the child they are supporting. This appendix is that marker, and it is placed here, apart, for a precise reason: it is the only page of the volume where national names of school years are written. They are here because a reader looking for a marker has to find one somewhere; they are here only, so that the course itself stays readable everywhere.
A word of warning before reading the tables. What follows is not an official equivalence, and no ministry has approved it. The structure of each system is taken from public sources, cited in the sources chapter; the linking with the stage, for its part, is an indication given by the house. A child may perfectly well read this volume earlier or later than this table suggests, and that says nothing about them.
| Stage | What the volume assumes | What it leaves the reader able to do | This volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Nothing about the subject. The reader has never met it. | Know that the subject exists, and recognise it when they come across it. | No |
| Foundations | Nothing about the subject either, but the volume goes further. | Hold the basic habits: name, measure, record, explain a simple case. | Yes, this is the stage of this volume |
| Fluency | A base already held, the one a foundations volume installs. | Extend that base, cross it with others, deal with less direct cases. | No |
| Mastery | A solid and sure base across the whole subject. | Explain a cause, reason about a new case, draw things together. | No |
What this volume really calls for
Before looking at a table of correspondences, it is better to know what the volume calls for in practice, because that is what decides, and not an age. It calls for being able to read a continuous text without tiring, being able to copy a number into a table, and accepting a wait of several days for the result of a measurement. It calls for no science, no calculation harder than a multiplication, and no equipment.
An adult in doubt therefore has a better question than that of age: does this child read a paragraph of six lines without losing the thread, and can they copy a number into the right place in a table? If so, the volume is within reach, with support. If not, the volume remains useful to the adult, who will find in it the explanations and the experiments to carry out themselves.
This volume is in any case addressed first to that adult. The child comes in through the experiments and the worked examples, which are written to be carried out by two people together.
| Country or territory | What the stages are called | What the stage cited covers | What the sources say |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | Numbered cycles: the cycle of fundamental learning (cycle 2), then the cycle of consolidation (cycle 3). | Cycle 3 brings together the last two years of primary school and the first year of lower secondary school. | The order of 5 June 2026 sets the syllabuses for these two cycles and names, in its article 3, the school years concerned: cours élémentaire first and second years, cours moyen second year, and sixième. |
| Belgium, Wallonia-Brussels Federation | Fundamental education, in two levels: nursery education, then primary education, from P1 to P6. | Primary education covers six years. | The official portal states that primary education is intended for children who "reach the age of 6 in the calendar year of their entry into the 1st year", and that compulsory schooling lasts thirteen years. |
| French-speaking Switzerland | Three cycles, defined by the Plan d'études romand within the framework of the HarmoS agreement. | Compulsory schooling covers eleven years, spread over three multi-year cycles. | Cycle 2 covers years 5 to 8, from ages 8 to 12; cycle 3 covers years 9 to 11, from ages 12 to 15. |
| Quebec | Primary school, in three cycles of two years each. | 1st cycle: years 1 and 2. 2nd cycle: years 3 and 4. 3rd cycle: years 5 and 6. | The age of admission to the 1st year of primary school is set at 6 years old on 30 September. |
Where this volume sits, and with what caution
This volume carries the foundations stage: it assumes nothing about its subject, and it installs habits the reader holds on leaving it. Set against the structures above, it aims at the moment when a pupil reads a continuous text fluently and can keep a numbered record, that is to say, in France, the end of primary school and the beginning of lower secondary school; in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the end of primary education; in French-speaking Switzerland, the end of cycle 2; in Quebec, the 3rd cycle of primary school.
That sentence is an indication, and it should be read as such. It brings together systems that do not overlap exactly, it takes no account of the differences of syllabus from one country to another, and it will need revising at the next reform of any of them. The date of verification of this volume, in its colophon, says when this bringing together was done.
One last word, worth more than the table. A volume that suits a reader is a volume whose first page they understand and whose second page they want to read. No table of correspondences replaces that test, and an adult supporting a child has done it in five minutes.
The names of school years written in this appendix appear nowhere else in this volume, and that is deliberate. A manual that announces a school year on its cover becomes wrong as soon as it crosses a border or as soon as a reform passes. The stage, for its part, describes what the VOLUME does in a progression: it stays true everywhere and it is not reformed. If you translate or adapt this volume, replace this appendix with the systems of your own country, and do not move the names of school years into the body of the text.