The specialization in humanities, literature and philosophy aims to provide students in Première and Terminale with a solid general education in the field of literature, philosophy and the humanities. Bringing together disciplines that are both different and strongly linked, it offers them a new approach to major cultural issues and an initiation to personal reflection. It develops all the skills related to reading, interpreting works and texts, expressing themselves and analyzing complex problems and objects.

Like all courses, this specialty contributes to the development of oral skills, particularly through the practice of argumentation.

This program is intended for all students who wish to acquire a humanistic culture that will enable them to reflect on contemporary issues from a broad perspective. With a plurality of aspects, and in direct contact with a certain number of societal issues, this training will constitute a valuable contribution to studies in the sciences, arts and literature, philosophy, law, economics and management, political science, medicine and the health professions. It will be particularly recommended to students wishing to enter teaching and research careers in the humanities, culture and communication.

The four main dimensions of this course are:

• speech, its powers, functions and uses (The art of speech – the authority of speech – the seductions of speech) ;
• the various ways of representing the world and of understanding human societies (Discovery of the world and plurality of cultures – Describing, figuring and imagining – Man and the animal);
• the relationship of human beings to themselves and the question of the self (Education, transmission and emancipation – expressions of sensitivity – the metamorphoses of the self);
• the questioning of the Humanity on its history, on its characteristic experiences and on its future (Creations, continuities and ruptures – History and violence – the human and its limits)

The specialization in history-geography, geopolitics and political science provides students with the keys to understanding the past and contemporary world in terms of social, political, economic and cultural relations. By adopting a convergent historical and geographical approach to the situations, events and contexts it examines, it provides an opening onto subjects little explored in the students’ schooling and deepens the common history-geography curriculum in the first and final year of high school. The course also offers a political treatment, on a national and international scale, of major issues with a historical dimension. As such, it is linked, in a flexible and coherent manner, with the specialization program in economic and social sciences. The examination of political issues, linked to their observation on a territory, the interest given to international relations, the study of the history and characteristics of supranational institutions such as the European Union or the UN, give geopolitics a central place in this program.

A multidisciplinary specialty

The history-geography, geopolitics and political science specialization develops a multidisciplinary approach which, in order to analyze and elucidate the complexity of the world, mobilizes several points of view, as well as various concepts and methods. This specialization allows high school students to better master the specificities of the disciplinary approaches and to measure, on the occasion of the treatment of a theme, their fruitful complementarity.

• History grasps each question in its temporal depth. The use of the long term, the putting into perspective of events and contexts belonging to different periods, makes us attentive to continuities and ruptures, to differences and similarities. History sheds light on and contextualizes the role of the actors.
• Geography allows us to identify and understand the logics of spatial organization as well as the influence of actors on territories. Through the continuous practice of changing scales, through the creation and analysis of maps, through the interest shown in nearby or distant territories, it allows for comparisons and critical reflection.
• Political science studies phenomena in their political specificity. It is approached here from its main fields: the study of international relations, concepts, regimes and political actors (including international organizations) in a comparative approach.
• Geopolitics considers rivalries and power issues between territories considered in their historical depth, as well as the representations that accompany them.

The specialization in mathematics in the Première class is designed with the following intentions

• to allow each student to consolidate the knowledge acquired in the second year
• to develop interactions with other specialty courses
• to prepare students for their choice of courses in the final year of high school: in particular, the choice of the specialty course in mathematics, possibly accompanied by the optional course in expert mathematics, or the choice of the optional course in complementary mathematics.

In the Terminale class, this course concerns students who have confirmed their choice of one of the three specialties taken in the Première class. In this respect, within the framework of the six hours per week and in a logic of disciplinary requirements and preparation for higher education, students are encouraged to deepen their knowledge and develop a solid level of skills.

As a continuation of the previous cycles, the six major skills are worked on:

• researching, experimenting, in particular with the help of software tools ;
• modeling, simulation, validation or invalidation of a model
  represent, choose a framework (numerical, algebraic, geometric, etc.),
• change the register
• reason, demonstrate, find partial results and put them into perspective;
• calculate, apply techniques and implement algorithms;
• communicate a result orally or in writing, explain an approach.

In Première, students who take the physics-chemistry specialization express their taste for science and choose to acquire the modes of reasoning inherent in an education through the experimental sciences. They thus project themselves into a career path that opens the way to higher education in the fields of experimental sciences, medicine, technology, engineering, computer science, mathematics, etc. Physics-chemistry, a science that is both fundamental and applied, makes an essential contribution to the acquisition of a body of knowledge and know-how that is indispensable, particularly in the context of learning engineering sciences and life and earth sciences, and at the same time constitutes a privileged field of contextualization for mathematics or computer science.

The physics-chemistry program in Première is in line with that of in Seconde, by promoting experimental practice and modeling activities and by proposing a concrete and contextualized approach to the concepts and phenomena studied. The modelling approach thus occupies a central place in order to train students to establish a link between the “world” of objects, experiments and facts and that of models and theories. The proposed teaching is therefore focused on the acquisition of the main elements of this approach. In physics as in chemistry, the themes of the second year are extended. Their study will be continued in the framework of the speciality teaching of the final year of high school, thus allowing the student to progressively study, in continuity and in depth, a deliberately limited number of subjects whose formative virtues are proven to be an effective preparation for higher education. The knowledge and skills worked on complement those used in the scientific education program.

In Terminale, students who take the physics-chemistry specialization have confirmed their choice among the three specializations taken in Première. As such, within the framework of the six hours per week and in a logic of disciplinary exigency, they deepen the content and methods of the discipline, and resolutely project themselves into a path that opens the way to higher education, particularly in the fields of experimental sciences, medicine, engineering, computer science, mathematics and technology.

The themes of the first year are chosen for their formative virtues and are developed in such a way as to ensure that they are well prepared for the demands of higher education.

In keeping with the programs of the first and second year, the program for the final year is structured around four themes: “Constitution and transformations of matter”, “Motion and interactions”, “Energy: conversions and transfers”, “Waves and signals”.

Life and Earth Sciences (SVT) program is divided into three main themes (each of which is broken down into several topics):

The Earth, life and the evolution of living organisms.

Science builds, from rigorous research and analysis methods based on the observation of the Earth and the living world, a coherent explanation of their state, their functioning and their history.

Contemporary issues facing the planet.

Students understand the major issues facing humanity in the 21st century, such as the environment, sustainable development, resource and risk management, etc. To do so, they rely on the scientific approaches of biology and geosciences.

The human body and health

The themes selected allow students to better understand how their bodies function and to grasp how health is defined today in a global approach that integrates the individual in his or her environment and takes into account public health issues.

In these three areas, the exercise of critical thinking is particularly necessary in the face of the growing number of questions raised about the contributions of science.

Like all courses, this specialization contributes to the development of oral skills, particularly through the practice of argumentation. This leads to the clarification of one’s thoughts and the explanation of one’s reasoning in order to convince. It allows each student to develop his or her thoughts, even to the point of questioning them if necessary, in order to progressively reach the truth through proof. While these considerations are valid for all students, they take on a particular importance for those who choose to pursue this specialization in their final year and who must prepare for the final oral exam of the baccalauréat. The work proposed to students should contribute to this as early as the première class.

The specialization Economic and Social Sciences is intended for students who wish to continue the common education followed in Seconde with a view to deepening and diversifying the topics covered. The main objectives of this course are as follows :

• to participate in the intellectual formation of students by reinforcing their acquisition of the concepts, methods and essential problems of economics, sociology and political science
• to prepare students for post-baccalaureate studies and to enable them to make informed choices about their orientation in higher education. There is a wide range of courses of study for which knowledge of economic and social sciences is an undeniable asset (economic and commercial preparatory classes, literature and social science preparatory classes, university courses in economics and management, law, political science, sociology, applied foreign languages (LEA), economic and social administration (AES), institutes of political studies, specialized schools: business and management schools, communication and journalism schools, etc.)
• contribute to the civic education of students through the mastery of knowledge that promotes participation in public debate on the major economic, social and political issues of contemporary societies.

The program aims to progressively provide the tools necessary to understand social and economic phenomena at different scales (micro and macro). Students who have taken the specialization in economic and social sciences in Première will have covered the basic elements of economics, sociology and political science: the Terminale class will allow them to complete and broaden their knowledge.

The following tables specify the knowledge and skills that students should have acquired by the end of each year. Students must be able to define and illustrate the various concepts listed in the learning objectives. In addition to this knowledge and skills specific to the economic and social sciences, students must master a certain number of cross-curricular competencies by the end of the final cycle.

Knowledge and skills that students must have acquired by the end of the Première class:

• mobilization of knowledge ;
• numerical and graphical resolution of simple exercises
• collection and processing of information ;
• analysis and mobilization of data;
• analysis and mobilization of documents of various kinds;
• construction of an argument / rigorous reasoning;
•  mastery of written and oral expression.

Knowledge and skills that students should have acquired by the end of the Terminale: (in addition to the cross-curricular skills acquired at the end of the Première) :

• construction of a problematic ;
• construction of an essay.

The specialization in digital and computer science aims to appropriate the foundations of computer science in order to prepare students for further study in higher education, by training them in the practice of a scientific approach and by developing their appetite for research activities.

The objective of this non-professionalizing course is to appropriate the concepts and methods that underlie computer science, in its scientific and technical dimensions. This teaching is based on the universality of four fundamental concepts and the variety of their interactions:

• Data, which represents in a unified digital form very diverse information: texts, images, sounds, physical measurements, sums of money, etc.
• Algorithms, which specify in an abstract and precise way the treatments to be carried out on the data from elementary operations.
• The languages, which allow to translate the abstract algorithms into textual or graphic programs so that they can be executed by machines.
• The machines and their operating systems, which allow to execute programs by chaining a large number of simple instructions, ensuring the persistence of the data by their storage, and to manage the communications. Connected objects and networks are included.

This teaching is an extension of the computer science courses taught in elementary school, in secondary school in mathematics and technology and, in secondary school, the common course in digital science and technology. It is also based on the algorithms practiced in mathematics in the second year. It allows the development of skills :

• analyze and model a problem in terms of information flow and processing
• break down a problem into sub-problems, recognize situations that have already been analyzed and reuse solutions
• design algorithmic solutions;
• translate an algorithm into a programming language, specify interfaces and interactions, understand and reuse existing source code, develop program development and validation processes;
• mobilize the concepts and technologies useful to ensure the functions of acquisition, memorization, processing and dissemination of information;
• develop abstraction and generalization skills.

More information here : Spécialité NSI (Numérique et Sciences Informatiques) – Lycée Claudel | L’école française internationale d’Ottawa Lycée Claudel | L’école française internationale d’Ottawa

The specialization in film and audiovisual studies engages students in a process of discovery, development and deepening of a cinematographic and audiovisual culture and practice. In this specialization, students acquire cultural, historical and theoretical knowledge related to the main benchmarks in this field, the ability to analyze images and sounds, and the skills of writing in images and sounds. This course is designed to give students a thorough understanding of the artistic issues involved in film and audiovisual creation in their social and economic contexts.

In the course of this specialization, students acquire knowledge (aesthetic, cultural, historical, technical) and develop skills (reflective, analytical and methodological, artistic, critical) that foster the affirmation of their judgment and their creative practice, whether individual or collective.

This knowledge and skill set can be organized into the following four areas:

• Understanding the meaning of a film or audiovisual work in relation to its context and audience its context and its audience;
• Appreciate the specificity of an artistic gesture in the cinematographic and audiovisual field audiovisual field;
• Determine the choices that make up a creative project and implement them.
• Analyze film and audiovisual productions in a precise and reasoned manner audiovisual productions;
• Choose the tools and methods of analysis relevant to the media and the specific
• Choose relevant tools and methods of analysis according to the media and specific writing contexts;
• Mobilize their analytical skills in the service of their own writing practice
• To mobilize analytical skills in the service of one’s own film and audiovisual writing practice.
• Understand the main landmarks in the history of cinema and audiovisual media in relation to other arts with those of the other arts;
• Understand the relationships between technical innovation and cinematographic and audiovisual creation and audiovisual creation at different times;
• Mobilize their knowledge to nourish their experience as spectators and their artistic practice.
• To experience one’s own aesthetic choices through discovery and exchange;
• To affirm the values specific to their responsibility as spectators and creators;
• Present and defend one’s artistic project and the choices on which it is based.

The specialization in film and audiovisual arts is intended for all high school students who are interested in writing in images and sounds, and who wish to strengthen and deepen their culture and practice in this field. This course encourages cross-disciplinary learning through its cross-fertilization with numerous disciplines.