Angelo, a Lebanese orphan adopted by a French family, starts his first school year in Paris

This September, Angelo started school far from Beirut. The 8-year-old Lebanese boy arrived in France on Aug. 12 and has spent the past several weeks settling into life with his new family in Paris’ 17th arrondissement. Just a few streets from his new home, he has joined a CE2 class at a local public school.As soon as a Lebanese court approved his adoption, the school gave him a place in a UPE2A (Pedagogical Unit for Newly Arrived Allophone Pupils), a program designed to help children who have recently arrived from abroad learn French.“On his first day, he was very nervous. He was pretty intimidated and stuck close to us,” said his adoptive mother, Helene Barthelemy. “Then he adapted remarkably well. He went back the second day, all happy, with his big sister, Elise, 17, to take his French test. Now he wants to go every day and really...