In the context of the struggle against academic failure, this study, conducted in Beirut and Paris with a mixed methodology using direct and indirect observation as well as questionnaires and focus groups, shows that, to succeed academically, a significant portion of the 602 middle school pupils consulted expect a holistic approach that takes in account their personal development. Furthermore, the pupils under study list the attitudes on the part of educational agents they consider beneficial and put others in question as detrimental to their progress. In this context, do school life services play their role fully and is personal development sufficiently taken in account? The official texts defining these services, which promote greater cooperation between teachers and school life officers, as well as the paradigms represented by ecology and complexity, can enable the necessary changes. Furthermore, the research highlights the fact that the departitioning of school life services observed by young Lebanese pupils encourages a more favourable attitude towards these services than in their French counterparts. The study thus recommends promoting school life services to the point of fusing them with teaching and adapting the pedagogical practices of both systems.