About APARC

For more than a hundred years, the Chantilly region has been home to a high concentration of English-speaking families living temporarily or permanently in France. In 1982, APARC was founded to bring these families together and provide for the special educational needs of their children. Today, APARC members - some 200 families - come from all parts of the globe, Great Britain and the United States being the most strongly represented. 

APARC's primary function is to organise classes in English, with the goal of helping children to achieve or maintain a level of English as near as possible to that of their peers in English-speaking countries. Three hours of English are held on Wednesdays in Kindergarten and Primary classes (ages 5 to 11), and at age 11, APARC children can enter the state secondary school in Chantilly, where four hours of English are integrated into the timetable specially for them. The APARC education continues into the Lycee with the students entering the International Section at the Lycee Jean Rostand. Here, they have the possibility of taking the IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) in English language and literature at the end of 2nde. In 1ère and Terminale they begin to prepare for the Option International Baccalaureat (OIB) which forms part of the General Baccalaureat – and is of an equivalent level to the British A-level. APARC is a recognized exam centre both for the IGCSE and the Cambridge First Certificate (for local non-English-speaking pupils).

The aims of the Association

The Anglophone Parents' Association in the Region of Chantilly (APARC) was founded in 1982 to bring together families in the Chantilly area who speak English as a mother tongue or as a cultural language. Its main objective was to set up special English language sections for English-speaking children in the schools in Chantilly, with a view to enabling the children of members to achieve a standard of English as near as possible to that of children in English-speaking countries.

The classes

APARC now has 12 classes of English for English-speaking children, one for each year group from Kindergarten (Grande Section, Maternelle) (age 5) through to the second year in the Lycée (age 15/16). Next year, 2009, a 13th class will be introduced at lycée level as the current 1ère students move into Terminale. The classes are taught by qualified teachers whose mother tongue is English. The curriculum, teaching methods and standards are co-ordinated by a head teacher. The classes are grouped into four levels: kindergarten, primary, collège and lycée, and, with the exception of lycée which is state funded, are paid for by the parents, who must be members of APARC. The school year is based on Zone B (Amiens) as for the French school, and there are no classes during the school holidays. Chantilly operates a four-day school week and consequently there will be some Wednesdays without APARC classes.

Classes for kindergarten and primary children take place on Wednesday mornings at the state primary school in Bois St Denis, Chantilly. Pupils attend their local schools during the rest of the week and come to the Bois St Denis school on Wednesday mornings for their APARC lessons.

At secondary level the APARC classes are integrated into the school timetable at the Collège des Bourgognes (from 6ème up to 3ème) and then in the Lycée Jean Rostand (from 2nde to Terminale). Families who do not live in the Chantilly catchment area for these schools have to request a special 'dérogation' (dispensation).

On entry to the APARC classes the pupils are expected to be proficient enough in their use of English to participate actively in the class and this will be assessed via an entrance test. In order to maintain the level of their English, all APARC pupils are expected to speak English regularly at home.

Organisation of the Association

APARC is run by a committee including a president, a treasurer and three co-ordinators, one for Primary/Kindergarten, one for Collège and one for Lycée. The role of the co-ordinators is to liaise between the parents and the teaching staff, and between the parents and the committee. All queries concerning the classes should be addressed to the appropriate co-ordinator. There are also sub-committees to deal with the social events, the newsletter and the billing of school fees.

L'APARC

Depuis plus de cent ans la région de Chantilly abrite une forte concentration de familles anglophones, installées en France temporairement ou en permanence. En 1982, l’APARC est créée pour rassembler ces familles et pour répondre aux besoins particuliers de leurs enfants en matière d’éducation. Aujourd’hui, les membres de l’APARC – quelques 200 familles – viennent de partout dans le monde, du Royaume-Uni et des Etats-Unis en particulier.

La fonction première de l’APARC est de fournir des cours en anglais pour permettre aux enfants d’atteindre ou de maintenir un niveau d’anglais équivalent à celui des enfants du meme age dans les pays anglophones. Trois heures d’anglais sont proposées le mercredi matin aux classes maternelles et primaires. En 6ème les enfants rejoignent le collège des Bourgognes à Chantilly, où 4 heures d’anglais sont intégrées dans leur emploi du temps. Et à la  fin de la 2e, au lycée Jean Rostand à Chantilly, ils ont la possibilité de passer les examens en langue et littérature anglaises, le GCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education), de l’université de Cambridge. L’APARC est un centre d’examens agréé de l’université de Cambridge pour l’IGCSE, mais aussi pour le First Certificate, examen proposé aux élèves non-anglophones et donnant un diplôme reconnu par les institutions et les employeurs internationaux.