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Location: 35 Cromwell Road, London, England, United Kingdom.
Website: http://www.lyceefrancais.org.uk/
Phone: +44 20 7584 6322
Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle
The Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, usually referred as the Lycée or the French Lycée, is a large French primary and secondary independent school, wholly owned by the French Government, and situated in South Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. It includes three primary schools annexes: André Malraux (Ealing), Marie d'Orliac (Fulham), Wix (Clapham) and The College Francais Bilingue de Londres (CFBL (Kentish town).
History of Lycee Francais Charles de Gaulle:
The school was founded as Lycée Français de Londres (The French School of London) in 1915 near London's Victoria station and provided a full education for 4800 students. In 1920, the Lycée relocated to Cromwell Gardens, opposite the Victoria and Albert Museum. Sustained growth saw it relocate for the third time to its current buildings, located directly opposite the Natural History Museum on Cromwell Road, South Kensington, adjacent to the French Consulate in South Kensington.
In 1980, the school was officially named the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle – a reference to the famous French statesman who had taken refuge in the Lycée whilst in exile from Nazi-occupied France during World War II. Bombing raids on London, perhaps directed at the leader of the Free French Forces, destroyed a wing of the Lycée, which was rebuilt to provide students with modern science laboratories and multipurpose classrooms as well as a spacious lobby at 35 Cromwell Road.
Due to limited room at the South Kensington site, the Lycée expanded by opening two primary school adjuncts, based in Clapham and Ealing, in 1993 and 1995 respectively. Since May 1997, the Ealing adjunct has been known as the École André Malraux, named after the French author, adventurer and statesman André Malraux.
The Lycée caters for some 4,000 pupils between the ages of 3 and 18 and teaches predominantly in French. Usually referred to simply as "the Lycée", the school is an important centre for London's sizeable French community and one of the most academically successful French schools outside of France. Its curriculum and management are overseen by the French National Ministry of Education through the Agency for French Teaching Abroad (AEFE). In addition to serving the French community in London, 9% of pupils at the Lycée are British, placed in the school by parents wanting their children to benefit from a bilingual education. The Lycée has a proud multicultural and international makeup, with a further 9% of pupils making up 48 different nationalities.
The school charges fees, but these are subsidized by the French government:[2] according to the 'Good Schools Guide', in 2013 the French section, which begins at the kindergarten stage paid between £4,185 - £10,791 per annum, while the British section (beginning at the age of 14) paid between £9,093 - £10,791 per annum.
The vast majority of the teaching done at the Lycée is in French and caters to French curricula and indeed, as far as quatrième (at the age of 13/14), all pupils are taught entirely in French. From troisième onwards (equivalent to Year Ten or freshman year), pupils can opt either to stay in the French Section and study for their Brevet and their Baccalauréat or to transfer to the smaller British Section (64 students per year) and work towards their GCSEs and A-levels. The British Section has had a very good reputation and excellent results since it began.
