In France: ELA Paperwork

Summary of topic: your first test of professional French!

As an ELA you will be asked to go to the education centre to get all of your paperwork sorted when you arrive. For me, it was the DSDEN in Lyon as that is where I was placed.

It seems quite daunting as you have to go to quite an official place and get everything organised and obviously, you'll have to speak in French. Don't worry though you'll be surprised at how much you know, and for the most of it you're just listening to them anyway!

Getting there

The only advice I would have is to plan your journey well in advance. For example, I had to take the train so I bought my ticket the day before and planned everything out in google maps.

Thing is, I relied way too much on google maps because on the day - the whole of google crashed for about 20 minutes and it happened to be as I was getting on the train.. just my luck...

I knew it was the whole of google because my gmail didn't work either and neither did the search engine, however things like Instagram and WhatsApp were working so I knew it wasn't my phone. 

I did have a wee panic, I restarted my phone and everything... I don't know why I never took screenshots of the map or bought a paper map. The good thing was it did end up working just before I got on the train. But just be prepared for scenarios like this. It is very unlikely but screenshots or a paper map are good backups!

Me on the train after having sorted my maps disaster..!

Reception

When I got there, I introduced myself at the desk and asked for the woman who had asked me to come in for the appointment. For formality, you should ask for them and say Madame/Monsieur ... and then their last name. Even if your emails are informal, I'd advise you do this at the desk.

For example: Bonjour, je m'appelle Ramya et j'ai un rendez-vous avec Madame/Monsieur...

They were really nice and guided me where to go. You can also specify you are an English Language Assistant, that helps.

The Meeting

As for the actual meeting it went smoothly. All she did was photocopy some of my documents and give me information about my actual job role and admin stuff. She was really nice and welcoming. She spoke slowly for me and was very reassuring and happy. She wasn't just the admin representative she was also my "advisor". That means if I have any questions or problems then it's her I go to. She was pretty informal in the sense that we talked through WhatsApp and she replied out of regular hours. If you do have any worries you will be able to go to your advisor. They can give you resources for teaching, help with school teachers or just general advice about settling in.

Tip: at the centre they will have a printer/photocopier. If possible, ask them to give you extra print outs of things you might need. For example, I only got my flat once I arrived in France so I wasn't able to print out my flat contract in advance (you need this for setting up a bank account*). You could bring all your documentation you'd like printouts of on a USB stick or email them through to your advisor beforehand. 

That's pretty much all you need to know, feel free to ask anything not mentioned in the blog! x

*Please note that all hyperlinks are in the colour red.