In France, sixième is the first year of collège, the four-year middle school that children enter at around eleven, after the last year of primary school, CM2. Search for how to prepare a child for sixième and you get advice on school bags, independence and timetables. It is sound, but it does not concern families aiming for a selective middle school in Paris. For them, the real preparation happens a year earlier, during CM2, sometimes as early as CM1 (age 9 to 10).
The reason is mechanical: applications for sixième open at the start of CM2, tests take place in winter, answers come in spring. A family that starts thinking about it in March of CM2 arrives after the battle.
Entering sixième at a Paris private school: it all starts in CM2
Each school has its own calendar, but they all cluster in the first term of CM2, with a final deadline in January. We noted the calendars of the schools we follow, from their own websites:
| School | Applications for sixième open | What decides |
|---|---|---|
| Franklin (Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague) | 15 to 30 September of the CM2 year, two weeks only | The file and school reports, with no test to prepare |
| Saint-Jean de Passy | Mid-September of the CM2 year | The file, with a language track to choose on the form itself |
| Collège Sévigné | Mid-October of the CM2 year | Tests on a Wednesday afternoon between December and February, depending on the English track chosen |
| École alsacienne | November of the CM2 year, for about eight weeks | Around sixty places in sixième, about fifteen of them in a music-focused class |
| École Jeannine Manuel | September of the CM2 year, closing in January for families living in France | A first selection on file, then French and maths tests at primary level and an interview |
Each procedure is detailed in our pages on Franklin, Saint-Jean de Passy, Sévigné, the École alsacienne and Jeannine Manuel. The common thread is obvious: a family that discovers Franklin's window on 1 October is a year late.
Example: the round for September 2026 entry. Sévigné opened applications on 13 October 2025 and held its sixième tests on six Wednesdays, from 3 December 2025 to 11 February 2026. The École alsacienne took applications from 7 November 2025 to 2 January 2026 and gave its sixième answers in March. These dates shift a little every year: check each school's website from the start of CM2.
What selective middle schools look at for sixième
School reports, tests and an interview, in proportions that vary from school to school. Reports from CM1 and CM2 first, because they are in every file and some schools decide on them alone. Then written tests, where there are any, almost always in French and maths at primary level. Finally an interview with the child, sometimes with the parents, looking for curiosity and ease rather than a rehearsed speech.
A word on the tests: they do not resemble the national assessments given at the start of sixième, which measure what an average pupil has mastered. A selective school wants to see what the child does with a slightly unusual exercise. To prepare, work on exercises in the same spirit, and on the examples the school publishes when it does.
Preparing your child for sixième in maths
This is my field, and I keep seeing the same weak points in children who nonetheless get good marks in CM2:
- Fractions and decimals. Knowing that 3/4 and 0.75 are the same number, ordering them, placing them on a number line. Tests love this chapter, because it separates those who understand from those who apply a rule.
- Multi-step problems. Reading a five-line statement, spotting what is being asked, chaining two or three calculations. Many children calculate well and fail here, for lack of having learnt to organise.
- Proportionality. A recipe for six people adapted for four, a speed, a price per kilo. It is on the CM2 syllabus and runs through the whole of middle school.
- Mental arithmetic. Ten minutes a day is enough. A child who calculates quickly keeps their attention for reasoning.
- Explaining the method. Writing a sentence that says what you are doing and why. That is what markers look at when two scripts reach the same answer.
The right pace: an assessment at the start of CM2 to spot weaknesses, then one session a week until the tests. Going back over fractions in December, the day before a test, leaves no time to understand them.
Preparing your child for sixième in French
The French papers mainly assess reading and writing. Reading every day, books a little above the child's age, is still the best preparation, provided you talk about them afterwards: what the book is about, which character, why that ending. On the writing side, a child who can write a clear page, with complete sentences and careful spelling, already has a clear advantage. Practise on short topics once a week and reread together. For a child schooled abroad or in English, written French deserves extra time: it is often the gap that tests reveal.
The sixième entry interview
At ten or eleven, an interview is not prepared like a teenager's oral exam. You do not learn answers. Instead, help the child talk about what they enjoy, what they read, what they would like to discover, in simple sentences and without excessive shyness. Two or three calm, low-stakes conversations at home are worth more than repeated mock interviews that make them tense.
How many schools to aim for, and in what order
I recommend three or four applications, chosen for their calendars as much as their reputation: one school that decides on file in September, one or two that test in winter, and the local state collège as the safe option. This plan is best drawn up in June of CM1, so that no window is missed.
That is the work we do with families at Carmine: choosing schools according to the child's profile and the family's plans, keeping the calendar, preparing the tests and the interview. Our page School admissions describes this support, and for maths I take CM1 and CM2 pupils in private lessons.