14. French School Education Grants

14.3. French Lycée Grants - Bourses de Lycée

Upper secondary school grants are called bourses de lycée.

There are five different grants available for children attending lycée, available either when the child commences at lycée or during different stages of their course of studies.

The grants are also available to those attending an apprenticeship centre (CFA), provided they hold school pupil status.

The grants are only available on a means tested basis. Although the basic grant is increased in line with inflation each year, that is not the case for all grants, some of which have not been uprated for several years.

i. Basic Grant

A basic grant (bourse de lycée) is payable, the amount of which depends on household income and family circumstances.

Perhaps more importantly, the award of the basic grant gives access to a range of other grants.

A complicated points system is used to assess each case, and the number of points awarded to a household corresponds to an income ceiling that determines eligibility to the grant.

The system cannot easily be described here but, broadly speaking, the amount of the grant is determined by the number of 'parts' to which you are entitled (between 3 and 10 parts), multiplied by a the value of a single part.

For 2021/22 the total value of the grant varies between €441 and €936.

As with collège grants the reference period for assessment of your income is the two years prior to the date of application.

So, for the academic year 2021/22 it will be your income for 2019 as advised on your tax notice for 2020. The figure that will be used is your revenu fiscal de référence for that year, as stated on your tax notice.

If you do not think you are eligible on the basis of your income in 2019, but that your circumstances have changed permanently and substantially since this date, then you should still make enquiries to the lycée about your eligibility.

Eligibility to the basic grant gives access to several other grants as summarised below.

ii. Prime d’entrée

This grant is payable at the start of the school year for each year at lycée.

The amount of the grant for 2021/22 is €217.06.

Those who repeat a year do not have a right to the grant.

iii. Prime d’equipement

This grant is payable when the child enters lycée and is designed to meet the costs of purchasing certain items of equipment and materials for pupils undertaking certain specialist courses e.g. mechanics, fashion, industrial engineering.

The amount of the grant for 2021/22 is €341.71.

iv. Prime à l’internat

This is a grant payable to students who are boarding to assist with boarding costs.

The amount of the grant for 2021/22 is €327 to €672 per year, depending on income, payable in three instalments over the academic year.

14.3.1. Application Procedure

To make an application, you can either download an application form or make enquiries direct to the lycée. Applications must be made before 21st Oct 2021 for 2021/22.

14.3.2. Merit Grants

Upper secondary school merit grants are called Bourses au mérite.

This grant is automatically available to those pupils joining lycée who would have already been in receipt (or had an entitlement to) of a bourse de collège and who obtained high marks in the award of the lower secondary school national diploma, the Brevet des Collèges.

On a discretionary basis it may be available to other others who distinguished themselves by their efforts at collège, on application to the lycée in the first instance.

It is also available to pupils in receipt of a bourse de lycée who have demonstrated a good work record at lycée. Thus, it may be attributed after the first term at school

The grant award is made by the Inspector d’academie, but initial enquiries should be addressed to the lycée.

The amount of the grant in 2021/22 ranges from €402 to €1002, payable in three annual instalments each year.

The continued award of the grant is subject to satisfactory progress and results. If the school does not consider the child is progress may have their entitlement to the grant removed.

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