The French speaking part of Switzerland recently experienced major school system reforms. Not only research and development studies brought up thoughts in this area but also generated a strong interest towards the implementation of those innovative changes. Although these changes were first met with enthousiasm, unexpected opposition aroused. Politics, parents and teachers became quite doubtfull and critical. Considered as an epiphenomenon within the overall project, the abolishment of numerical marks got excessive media and political coverages. Consequently, some traditional policies (numerical marks) were reintro duced. In this paper, we tried to describe these reforms such as their goals, their implementation steps and their known impact on teaching practices. on one hand, we showed that our school system is complex and full of contradiction. on the other hand, we underlined the positive aspects of such a period when moves and thoughtfull exchanges led to further attempts to improve our schools.