Lycée Alexandre Ribot

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The Lycée Alexandre Ribot is a school located at 42 rue Gambetta, in the town of Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais département), France. Founded as a Walloon Jesuit college in 1565 (another Jesuit college was founded nearby by English Jesuits in 1593), it has been a lycée since 1848 and has borne the name of its former student Alexandre Ribot since 1924.

The main courtyard of the Lycée Alexandre Ribot.

After the Jesuits were forced to leave France in the mid-eighteenth century, another religious order continued the tradition of religious education in the town. Following the French Revolution, during which the Saint Omer schools had remained closed, a new school was founded on the former Jesuit site. Until 1946 it was the only state-run lycée in the entire Pas-de-Calais département.

Some of the school buildings date back to before the twentieth century, including the building housing the female students' boarding quarters which dates back to the seventeenth century and which was formerly an episcopal seminary. The Lycée's post-Baccalauréat students follow classes in the 'Bâtiment Coste', the former English Jesuit College and also a former military hospital which was used by the German occupying forces during the Occupation of France and which dates back to the 18th century.

The current Proviseur or Principal of the Lycée Alexandre Ribot is Monsieur Pierre Molléda. The school roll currently stands at around 1400 students who prepare for either the General or Technological forms of the Baccalauréat or vocational post-Baccalauréat qualifications. Some students (about 100) are part of the Lycée's 'European Section', in which one hour per week of the History-Geography programme is taught in English. An exchange link with Emmanuel City Technology College, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England was established in 2000.