For five weeks in November and December 1995, the filmmaker followed life at the Paul Vaillant-Couturier junior secondary school at Champigny sur Marne. Although it is a standard shool, it also has a special SEGPA section (General and Adapted Professional Education Stream), as well as a class for non-French-speaking children, known as the "NFs". Twenty seven nationalities were present in the school at the time of shooting. Filming school activities, lessons in the different sections, professional guidance interviews, the search for training courses, the annual cross country race and administrative jobs, the filmmaker gives a direct uncommented account of the current challenges facing state schools.
