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MANY EXPAT MUMS AND DADS ARE SCHOOL GOVERNORS. IF you have children in French schools, why not consider standing as the French equivalent of a parent governor - a member of the conseil

d'école (primary level) or conseil d'administration (secondary)? Jean-Jacques Hazan, secretary general of FCPE, the biggest federation of parent's associations, said: "We

have many members who have become school governors and are not of French nationality - anyone who is a parent of a child at the school is eligible." Mr Hazan said it was not necessary

to be a member of an association such as theirs but it could help. "We think that it means you will be better trained and informed for the task," he said. Elections to the

governing bodies take place in October, about seven weeks after the rentrée des classes each year. Those elected are selected from lists, which must be presented to the headteacher 10 days

before the elections. For a conseil d'école, there is one parent governor per class, and one stand-in, in case the main governor cannot make a meeting. In conseils d'administration

both parents and pupils are allocated a certain number of seats, with more parents than pupils in collège (pupils aged 11 - 15) and more students than parents at the lycée level. Each list

needs to present enough people to fill all the places, and the names have to be placed in a priority order - those at the top will be allocated places first, with main governors’ posts going

to those nearest the top, and then the stand-in ones. Lists can be presented either by parents' associations or by groups of independent parents in agreement with each other. The

election consists of one round, with places allocated to each list in proportion to how many votes the list gets. Every parent of a child can vote - for example a mother and father can both

vote separately. Voting is usually either in person at the school, or by postal votes, and parents should be sent information about voting and about the different lists a week before. Mr

Hazan said: "There are a lot of advantages. Firstly there are personal ones - it is good to play a part in your own child's school. “Then there are community reasons - it is

important that parents play a role in the councils which control the school's regulations and what goes on - everything apart from the nitty-gritty of the teaching methods. “In the case

of a conflict between parents and the administration or teachers, parent governors are natural mediators."