ph-b (X) Apr 4, 2023:

sixth form college If you don't want to get too technical, "sixth form college" is probably the nearest thing to a lycée (polyvalent), depending on how precise you want your translation to be. The former has only two years while the latter has three, but both have entry requirements, they're roughly the same age band and they teach a wide range of subjects.

ph-b (X) Apr 3, 2023:

"ph-b is wrong" (2)
Is there any dictionary that says that comprehensive schools are for students between 11 and 18? Cambridge, Collins, R&C and Larousse don’t. R&C does translate “comprehensive” by polyvalent (I would question that) but it doesn’t mention lycées (one of the terms to be translated). French students don’t start attending them until they’re 16 or so. If there is such a thing as an “11-to-18 comprehensive”, how can it be the translation of a (16-to-18) lycée?

Indeed, what about the other schools mentioned in the source text? What then is the translation of the (11-to-16) collège (de 502 élèves) in English?

L[ycée] PO[lyvalent] is a specialist term used in an official document. It needs to be translated accordingly. Not doing so could have consequences for the student’s application, career, whatever. Specialists refer to sixth form education as Key Stage 5 and this could be part of the answer. (I'm not keen on advertising my answers in the discussion box, but the confidence level shows I'm not entirely happy with it anyway).

If she thinks that lycée polyvalent can be translated as “comprehensive school”, Jennifer White is wrong.

ph-b (X) Apr 3, 2023:

"ph-b is wrong" (1) According to Jennifer White, I’m wrong because comprehensive schools are mostly for 11 to 18 students.

English and Welsh comprehensive schools may have a sixth form section, but that section is not comprehensive under the 1964 and 1996 Education Acts (roughly “all students of school age, i.e. 11 to 16, can attend irrespective of their abilities”). Getting into a sixth form requires that academic criteria are met, which is the exact opposite of “comprehensive” as defined by the Acts.

People will talk about “11-to-18 comprehensive schools”, which can also be found in newspaper articles, but I haven’t been able to find any official document that uses
this term. School websites, whether or not they’re vetted by the DfE or the school’s county council, use this phrase, but they’re written by the management of the school and are essentially PR jobs: “trust us with your kids, we’re a good school because we have a sixth form”. What they don’t say is that come Year 12, students had better show they’re able to get a place in the upper school. Again, there’s nothing “comprehensive” here. In fact, a lot of county councils talk about “secondary schools with a sixth form (section)".

Conor McAuley Mar 26, 2023:

Another point is that readers in the UK and the US won't know the school in question from...Hogwarts or, for older readers, Grange Hill!
And they're not interested in the French education system either.

Lara Barnett (asker) Mar 25, 2023:

@ Conor Thank you.

Conor McAuley Mar 25, 2023:

There you go.

Lara Barnett (asker) Mar 25, 2023:

@ Conor Yes, good idea. Are you going to post that?

Conor McAuley Mar 25, 2023:

I would take the view that LPO is part of the school's name and also that it is too complicated to gloss neatly anyway, and thirdly, that it is not really relevant to the qualification obtained (presumably a Bac of some sort), see:

https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/LPO

So just leave it as LPO, would be my advice

Emmanuella Mar 25, 2023:

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/lycée-polyvalent.273...
Not sure.