Six years, from Year 1 to Year 6. This is where everything else is built: reading fluently, writing correctly, calculating without hesitating, and getting into the habit of working.
Primary school in Morocco lasts six years and follows the official programme of the Ministry of National Education. That is our foundation: we do not invent a parallel curriculum, we apply ourselves to teaching that one well.
What makes the difference is not the programme — it is the same everywhere — but the attention given to each pupil. A child who has not understood subtraction with carrying in Year 2 will drag that gap along for years if nobody notices. Our job is precisely to notice.
The cycle moves forward in stages. Each one has its own purpose — and its own risk, if it is missed.
The decisive stage.
Decoding first, then reading that flows. Handwriting taking shape. Numbers, addition and subtraction. And one invisible but decisive thing: becoming a pupil — sitting down, listening to an instruction, keeping a tidy exercise book, handing in finished work.
This is when falling behind costs the most, so it is when we watch most closely.
Consolidation.
Children move from “reading the words” to “understanding the text”. Grammar and verb forms become serious, in Arabic as well as in French. In mathematics: multiplication, division, first multi-step problems. Science and history and geography take their place.
It is also the age at which pupils learn to write out an answer, not just to give a result.
Preparation.
Fractions, decimals, geometry, proportion. Longer texts and structured pieces of writing. Above all: method — keeping a diary, preparing for a test several days ahead, revising without being asked.
Year 6 ends with the end-of-primary examination, which opens the way to middle school.
The official Moroccan national curriculum, taught in Arabic and in French, with English added during the cycle.
Reading, written and spoken expression, grammar, verb forms, spelling and recitation. It is the main language of instruction and the backbone of the cycle.
Present from the start of the cycle. Reading, vocabulary, grammar, verb forms and writing — with a great deal of speaking, because a language you do not speak never really takes hold.
Introduced during the primary cycle, first through speaking, everyday vocabulary and songs, before moving on to writing.
Number and calculation, measurement, geometry, and above all problem solving — knowing which operation to choose matters as much as knowing how to set it out.
The human body, animals and plants, water, air, matter, the environment. Pupils observe, experiment and record what they saw — the method matters as much as the answer.
As set out in the official programme: the Qur'an, the principles of faith and worship, and a large part devoted to values — honesty, respect for parents, helping one another, cleanliness.
Placing yourself in time and in space: Morocco, its history, its regions, the world. And citizenship education — rights, duties, life in a community.
Drawing, painting, collage, music and drama. At Les Écoles Melrose it is a subject in its own right — everything displayed in the corridors comes out of those lessons.
Team games, athletics, coordination, the rules of the game. Pupils also learn to lose, to play with others and to respect a referee.
The worst situation for a parent is to discover in June a problem that has been there since November. We organise assessment so that this does not happen.
Assessment in primary school rests on continuous assessment: regular exercises and pieces of homework in every subject, marked and handed back, which feed into the averages and the end-of-term reports.
But marks do not tell the whole story. A teacher who knows their pupils can also read what is not marked: the pupil who never asks a question, the one who copies without understanding, the one who has understood but hands in careless work. Those are the observations we pass on to you at our meetings.
And in the other direction: if something worries you, you do not have to wait for the next meeting to ask for an appointment.
No child moves forward in a straight line. What counts is what is done when they stumble.
A pupil almost never falls behind overnight. The signs show up in exercise books, in participation, in how long it takes to get started on a task. The teacher sees them and reports them.
We do not re-explain the same thing in the same way: the idea is taken up again in a small group, starting from something concrete, with exercises matched to where the block really is rather than to the current chapter.
We tell you exactly what to do — and what not to do. Ten minutes of reading aloud each evening is worth more than an hour of fraught homework.
Homework is there to fix what has been understood in class. It increases gradually from one year to the next: a few minutes of reading in Year 1, a proper organised working session in Year 6.
It should not be used to teach, in your place, what the school did not have time to cover, nor to turn your evenings into a battlefield.
Year 6 ends with the standardised end-of-primary examination, which leads to the primary school certificate and opens the way to middle school. We prepare pupils for it throughout the year — without making it the only horizon of those twelve months.
The real change is not the examination, it is middle school itself: one teacher per subject instead of a single class teacher, a timetable to manage, tests to plan for. That is why Years 5 and 6 insist as much on how to work as on what to learn.
Our pupils go on to middle school in the same establishment, with the same landmarks and a team that already knows them.
Through three channels: continuous assessment, whose results reach you regularly; the end-of-term reports; and meetings with the teacher.
Above all, we want nothing to surprise you at the end of the year. If your child falls behind in October, you hear about it in October — not in June.
The quantity increases gradually from one year to the next. The principle we follow is simple: homework is there to consolidate what has already been understood in class, not to do the school's teaching for it.
If your child spends far longer on it than their classmates, that is a signal. Tell the teacher rather than making up for it alone at home.
First identify precisely where the block is — it is not “he is bad at maths”, it is “he has not mastered carrying” or “he cannot choose the right operation”. Then deal with it: going over it again in a small group or one to one, adapted exercises, and regular updates with you.
We tell you as soon as the difficulty is spotted, and we explain what you can do at home without turning your evenings into a second school.
Yes, provided there is a place available in the year requested. Depending on the year, we arrange an interview and, in most cases, a placement test — not to sort pupils, but to know where we are starting from, particularly in languages.
If some catching up is needed, it is better to know in September than in January.
Yes. At the end of Year 6, pupils in Morocco sit the standardised end-of-primary examination, which leads to the primary school certificate and opens the way to middle school.
We prepare pupils for it throughout the year, with regular practice in the format of the paper — without making it the only horizon of Year 6.
A question that is not here? Write to us or call 05 23 37 16 14.
Tell us your child's age and the year you are after: we will call you back to arrange a visit and give you the list of documents to provide.