What is précoce and how does it work, including the age cut-off and starting mid-year?

Précoce (éducation précoce) is the optional first year of cycle 1 at your local public primary school, for children aged 3 to 4. It gently prepares children for school life and for Luxembourg's multilingual environment. Public school, précoce included, is free.

Age cut-off: your child can start in September if they turn 3 before 1 September of that year. A child born on 31 August 2023 can start in September 2026; a child born on 1 September 2023 cannot join that September intake.

It really is optional: compulsory school only starts for children who turn 4 before 1 September. But once you enrol, you are expected to make sure your child attends regularly.

How to register: every commune offers précoce, and you register with your commune of residence, not with the school. The commune sends parents a letter with an enrolment form. You then enrol at the commune's administration or school department with:

• your family record book (livret de famille)
• your child's birth certificate
• the completed form

The law sets 1 April as the deadline for the written request to the commune, so if no letter arrives, contact your commune's school department in good time.

Starting mid-year: admission normally happens at the start of the school year. The communal council can also decide to admit children at the start of the second and third terms, so whether a mid-year start is possible, and for whom, depends on your commune.

Good to know: if your child also goes to childcare paid with the chèque-service accueil (CSA), the number of CSA hours can change once they attend précoce. See guichet.lu (opens in a new tab) for the official enrolment steps.