- You go to school, you have no problems, you work, you are sufficiently bright to get by, you are motived = perfect student.
- You go to school, you are not motivated, you are bright but don't work = invisible student.
- You go to school and wreak havoc = visible but pain in the butt student.
For the second, parents are advised to resort to private tuition to fill the knowledge gaps, but no one really cares whether you get it or not as long as you don't make trouble.
The third type are just trouble.
Pastoral care in French schools does not exist. It may be necessary to privately educate my eldest because he is not motivated and no one at school cares if he does his homework or not. No one tries to motivate him and the staff are off as often as possible with no replacement teacher to ensure the programme is followed.
Their solution to any problem is to have private lessons. For the price of private lessons in three subjects, you can send your child to a private school where teachers are expected to ensure the children work properly. I am actually pretty disgusted with the general desire of teachers to have 'invisible' pupils. Children are not robots and teaching is not an ordinary job. You can't just turn up. You have to engage with the kids. Making expectations regarding their work is a minimum. Parents cannot be cracking the whip at home if at school teachers spend half their time off for depression and the rest of the time on strike.
And I live in a nice area!