For ten years, Jérémie Fontanieu, professor of economics and social sciences, has been teaching at the Eugène Delacroix high school in Drancy (Seine-Saint-Denis), in the Priority Education Network (REP). Faced with the difficulty of putting the students to work, he fashioned his own method, combining trust, high standards but also a “alliance with families”. With this objective: to achieve 100% success in the baccalaureate.
For several years, he worked in tandem with another mathematics teacher, David Benoît, and for five years the results have been there. We followed his senior class throughout the year to see how the project called “Reconciliations” works. Back on these months of work.
Before the start of the school year: the alliance with the parents
Even before the start of the school year, Jérémie Fontanieu contacts all the parents of his students to make an appointment with them. For the teacher, many families from working-class neighborhoods feel excluded from the school world and he thus intends to recreate a bridge and link.
September: a start that sets the tone
A few days before the start of the school year, families are invited to a meeting to share the project and get on the same wavelength. Parents are considered as partners: they will be notified in the event of difficulties or progress, by text or telephone. Jérémie Fontanieu’s project is based on significant pressure put on the students, to push them to work intensively, with the approval of the parents, who must hold a similar discourse at home.
For the teacher, “vst is a discourse that is not self-evident because, spontaneously, we think that the schooling of a final year student depends above all on him. Whereas here, the idea is to say that it depends on all of us, and therefore we all have to take our responsibilities”.
On All Saints Day: weekly evaluations and severe grades
Every Monday, students test their knowledge with a multiple-choice questionnaire with particularly severe scoring. Objective : “create the click”. We follow young Grace, a conscientious student who arrives late that day. The teacher is in contact with his mother by text message and he will also inform her of the grade. He wants the students to know their lessons perfectly. For Grace, this may be an opportunity to dare to participate more in class.
Before Christmas: the time of discouragement… and the first progress
The end-of-year holidays are approaching and the atmosphere in the class is more and more studious. Grace is gaining self-confidence, but has to review her method of taking lessons, helped by her teacher. The pressure is always strong, but he does not hesitate to call the parents of a student whose grade is bad to ask them to surround him. According to Jérémie Fontanieu, many students do not dare to project themselves into the idea of succeeding, which was the case for Ridita the previous year. She sees her grades improving this year and now dares “dream higher”. It is also the time of the first white baccalaureate, only for the students of the class.
In February: a white bac and a method that is starting to bear fruit
First official white baccalaureate carried out under the conditions of the exam and the results in progress. Since the implementation of his Reconciliations project, Jérémie Fontanieu is not always unanimous among the teachers of his establishment. One of his mathematics colleagues, Oussama Ferhat, who shared a class with him, confirms that he was skeptical about the method used, but he says that he was later convinced when the students were put to work, including in its own material, and through dialogue with the families.
In March: a cultural marathon in Paris to reward students
Jérémie Fontanieu’s class finished the program a month early, which is a tour de force. To reward the students, the teacher offers them a cultural outing in Paris: direction the Arab World Institute and the Paris 1 university campus (Panthéon-Sorbonne). A way to push them to project themselves, when it comes time to make their career choices in Parcoursup.
In the spring: talks to talk about the future
It’s spring and Jérémie Fontanieu’s class continues to progress: 31 out of 32 pupils have had the average in the white baccalaureate, including Grace, for whom it is the “note of hope”. The teacher conducts interviews with student volunteers to talk about their post-baccalaureate orientation. No pressure this time, on the contrary, he encourages them to take the time and trust each other. For Grace, the question arises whether or not to go to university.
June is coming: time for philosophy and revisions of the great oral
Wednesday June 15, it left for the test of philosophy, one of the last to be passed in writing. Students prepare for the grand oral, a test born a year ago with the baccalaureate reform. Jérémie Fontanieu must also imagine a method to give them self-confidence.
July: the long-awaited moment of results
It’s time for the verdict after a year of hard work. For many of the students followed this year, the results are up to par: Perateeb won a mention, he whose beginnings in class were timid. But for five of them, you have to stay focused: accompanied by their teacher, they still have to face the test of remedial action.
End of the year: time to take stock… and celebrate
Relief for Grace and Andreï, who didn’t give up until the last minute: here they are, high school graduates! For the fifth year in a row, the results are there for Jérémie Fontanieu. The teacher has decided to thank the families for an end-of-year party, where he congratulates each of his students. For him, the example of Drancy can provide tools to convince students of their ability to succeed. About fifteen teachers, from all over France, are in the game. They came to join the Reconciliations project, which will be set up in around thirty classes at the start of the next school year, double the number of last year.
