MIGNET MIDDLE SCHOOL
Mignet Middle School is founded on the spirit of blending cultures, talents, and languages. The school’s persistent goal is to mix and share all these possibilities to enrich the lives of all students.
Mignet Middle School is located in the heart of old Aix, providing our students with history all around them. Mignet, before becoming a middle school, was a convent and the high school that Paul Cezanne himself attended ! The many old stairways in the school are named after famous people from the area and the many buildings lend an old and historic look to the school !
The school itself
Mignet provides the students with many opportunities to improve their learning, both academically and physically. Mignet has a separate science building, that is equipped with the material needed to do any type of experiment, a computer lab for technology purposes, and a conservatory for those who would like to improve their dancing and musical skills. All of the students in eighth and ninth grades receive their own individual laptop computers.
Every student at Mignet has THE chance to benefit from a gymnasium, with a rock-climbing wall and volley-ball court, a track, and four basketball courts.
Finally, having to feed a lot of hungry kids, the school recently installed a new self-service cafeteria that pleases everyone and is very kid-friendly.
This school is also one of the few public middle schools in France with an International Section.
The international section
The international section is a part of the school devised specially for English-speaking students. There are two teachers in this section : Mr. Terrisse, who teaches history and geography and Mr Sainte Rose, who teaches advanced English.
The two teacher’s main desire is to see the students progress and grow intellectually. There are eight hours of English speaking classes per week. Included in English class is grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing...
There are four hours of History and Geography class a week, where you learn about the history and geography of the world. It is an intellectually challenging section and admission is only through successfully passing a written and oral exam.
The exam is usually given in May.
INTERVIEW by Gregory Blake (student 4e) of Mrs. Fady
What do you think of the section and of the student’s level ?
“I am very proud of my students. The international section has a 100% success rate on the brevet (The big exam to enter high school ). There is an excellent atmosphere in the class, and it is a pleasure to teach here."
A GOOD LEARNING ENVIRONMENT : a student’s point of view
"This international section is very united and has a friendly atmosphere."
"Since you are with the same people every year it is like a big family."
"Every one helps each other. "
"We work a lot in groups or in pairs to help develop social and personal skills."
"But there is also individual work to test knowledge."
"We work on interesting activities (reading books, writing, exploring the maps of the world...)"
"There are also special times before the holidays, with parties, sweets and videos to reward the students for their good work."
A PUPIL’S DAY
A typical pupil’s morning is organised this way.
They start nearly every day at 8:00 am. They have two lessons followed by a break of 15 minutes before 2 other lessons and finally the lunch break from 11:50 am to 1:55pm.
During the lunch break, they eat a hot lunch at the school cafeteria and can participate in clubs or do sports until their lessons start again in the afternoon.
In the afternoon they have 2 lessons, until the break of 15 minutes at 3:45pm, and they finish by their last lesson at 5:00pm.
Starting from eighth grade, everyone chooses a third language including : Spanish, German or Italian. In the seventh grade, you can start Latin and in ninth grade you can even learn Ancient Greek ! The other subjects that you have are : English, History and Geography (in English), French (or French as a Foreign language for non-French speakers), Math, Physics and Chemistry, Biology, IT, Music, Art, and Sports.
Mignet Middle School is very open to new possibilities so feel free to contact us by e-mail (or by phone (04 42 93 63 00). We hope to see you soon !!!
This text was written by the students of the 4e International Section with the help of their teacher advisor, Mrs Fady.