In its latest Oftsed inspection, officially reported in January 2023, The Lycée Charles de Gaulle has been declared “Inadequate”, despite its 100% success at the French Baccalaureate. A big blow for a school that has been relying on its good reputation for years. Why such a discrepancy between the Ofsted’s judgement and the school’s academic results? It is all down to a difference of culture in education between France and the United Kingdom.

The British Education System is a nurturing one, a system where schools have academic duties but also pastoral duties; where the child is supposed to acquire knowledge but also learn to grow into a healthy and balanced adult. It is as important for children to succeed academically than personally – to become educated adults both in their brain, their mind and their body. While the French system focuses mainly on the academic side: teachers’ role in school is mainly to share knowledge.

Let’s look at the way the French government describes the role of a teacher. On the French Department for Education website, we can read the following under the title “Etre enseignant aujourd’hui” (To be a teacher today): “Accompagner ses élèves pour en faire des citoyens instruits et éclairés” (Accompany students to become educated and unlighted citizens). In this official text, the teacher has two main roles: 1) “la mission première est de développer le potentiel de chaque élève, afin de lui fournir les clés nécessaires pour réussir son parcours scolaire, lui donner le goût d’apprendre tout au long de sa vie et de penser par lui-même” (The first mission is to develop each student’s potential, in order to provide them with the necessary keys to succeed in their school journey, to give them the desire to learn all their life and to think by themselves); 2) “À travers son enseignement, il permet aux élèves de faire l’apprentissage du vivre ensemble pour devenir des citoyens capables de s’intégrer dans une société démocratique et de respecter les valeurs de la République.” (Through the teaching, the teacher allows students to get the knowledge of living together to become citizens able to integrate themselves in a democratic society and respect the Republican values- which in France are described as “Liberté-Egalité-Fraternité” / Liberty – Equality – Fraternity). In other words, the teacher’s responsibilities are to provide knowledge and a love for learning, and to shape a citizen in the political sense of the word. Nothing about wellbeing, mental health or vulnerability. When checking the composition of any school’s staff team, there is no mention of pastoral care. Safeguarding is understood in one sense only: protecting children from violence and other issues they could have outside of school, similar to the work of social services. Besides, the translation of “pastoral care” in French involves a religious meaning and can only be used in a religious context.

I don’t know why it has taken so long for Oftsed to notice that some serious failures were taking place in the Safeguarding area in the French Lycée. I suppose it is due to the fact that Ofsted has, over the last years, put a massive emphasis on Safeguarding in schools: if Safeguarding policies and general Safeguarding culture are not right, the school goes directly into the “Inadequate” section, with no consideration of results in other areas. And this time not even the reputation of Academic excellence could save the Lycee from being downgraded.

It is interesting to report the Headteacher’s comments following the report: he made a point to clarify that the school was still successful in the eyes of Ofsted in 4 categories (out of 6) – general quality of teaching, students’ behaviour and attitude, teaching quality in Early Years and 6th form. After all, it is where the priority stands, and remains.