Want your kid to study at the same school as Victor Hugo or Jean-Paul Sartre? What it takes to get into France's elite schools
Paris’ prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand schooled Jacques Chirac, Charles Baudelaire and Victor Hugo, while philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and René Descartes both went to Lycée Henri-IV – but following in these footsteps won’t be easy
In France, children must attend school between the ages of six and 16. There are three levels: primary level (école), middle school (collège) and high school (lycée). More than four in five French children either attend state schools or are home-schooled, and the rest (17 per cent) have a private education.
The number of public primary schools in the country has been steadily decreasing, from 50,668 in 2005 to fewer than 45,000 in 2018, while the number of private schools has been relatively stable. Unusually, private schools are heavily funded by French taxes, which goes some way to explain why numbers haven’t been decreasing along with those of the public schools.
At the time of writing, the average cost of private schools in France is between US$550 and US$1,660 annually. However, there are some notable outliers: the Ermitage International School of France is the most expensive school in the country, with an annual tuition fee of US$39,388.
Students as young as two attend, all the way up to age 19. They are exposed to a variety of activities, including rowing, horseback riding, fencing and tennis. Boarders live in quaint historic homes, surrounded by forests and gardens, and its relative proximity to Paris (19km, or 12 miles, away) means that there are multiple opportunities for shopping and sightseeing trips. On average, there are only 13 students per class, and these classes are conducted in both English and French, producing bilingual students. Once they have mastered both languages, they have the option of studying a third, such as Mandarin or German.
The British School of Paris, which accepts students as young as age three, boasts a 90 per cent rate of pupils going on to attend top-ranked universities. It costs between US$24,000 and US$31,135 annually, and lies in the suburbs of Paris. The campus includes a 19th-century manor house and multiple scientific laboratories; its curriculum is based on the British system.
The Notre-Dame International High School costs US$27,686 per year, and only accepts students between the ages of 14 and 18. Its students come from all over the world, and its vast facilities include two outdoor soccer fields and two gymnasiums.
Many of the French state schools have a long history. Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris was founded in 1563, and some of its most notable students include the French president Jacques Chirac, along with Charles Baudelaire, Victor Hugo and the French revolutionaries Maximilien Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins.
Its 1,818 students must weather rigorous academic demands and fast-paced lectures, where a pause in note-taking means you will soon fall several pages behind. Its rival school is Lycée Henri-IV, also in Paris, whose graduates include the philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and René Descartes. Lycée Henry-IV is also known for churning out a large number of French politicians.