| Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France | |
| Information | |
| School type | Public |
| Religious affiliation(s) | None |
| Established | 1951 |
| Status | Open |
| Gender | Co-ed |
| Enrollment | 3000 |
| Website | www.lycee-international.com |
The Lycée International of Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a French public school located in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, on the western outskirts of Paris. It is one of the most prestigious schools in France, historically achieving 99% to 100% success rate on the French baccalauréat.[1] Perhaps the Lycée's most unique characteristic is that it affords students the chance to operate in a truly multilingual and multicultural environment.
Students are required to speak French and at least one other language from one of thirteen national sections: American, British, Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian (opened in 2010)[2] and Swedish. The academic curriculum at the Lycée International supplements the French national curriculum in its entirety with the curriculum of one of the thirteen national sections.
The campus contains a preschool (maternelle), a primary school (école élémentaire), a middle school (collège), and a high school (lycée). Due to a large number of students, they may be placed on different campuses in St Germain-en-Laye. Those campuses are public French schools that have an agreement with the Lycée International to have those sections. However, in high school every student goes back to the main campus.
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The curriculum at the Lycée International combines the French national curriculum with the curriculum of one of the national sections. French staff teach subjects to French national standards and foreign teachers – employed in one of the system’s thirteen national sections – are given the freedom and responsibility to teach literature, language and history to their own national standards. These additional classes in the national sections provide (on a weekly basis):[3]
Since the French curriculum requires learning at least one foreign language, many students who graduate from the Lycée International are fluent in three languages.
Students who do not speak French are placed in a French immersion program called Français Spécial. After one year, they are expected to be fluent in French and are required to follow the standard French curriculum along with the rest of the student population.
Most students opt to take the international variation on the baccalauréat, called the OIB (Option Internationale du baccalauréat), in order to take advantage of their language skills. Students who sit for the baccalauréat choose one of three streams (termed séries) in their last two lycée years. Each stream results in a specialization and carries different weights (coefficients) associated with each subject.
| S scientifique (sciences) |
ES sciences économiques et sociales (economics and social sciences) |
L littéraire (literature) |
|---|---|---|
| The natural sciences stream requires a high level in mathematics, physics & chemistry, and biology or, if available, engineering sciences. | The bac ES is balanced between literary and economic and social courses of studies, and students must take an economics and social sciences exam. | The bac L weighs French literature, philosophy, history & geography, and foreign languages heavily. |
Baccalaureat results at the Lycée International de Saint Germain-en-Laye have traditionally fluctuated between 99% and 100%.[4]
| Year | Total | Serie L | Serie ES | Serie S | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # Students | Results | # Students | Results | # Students | Results | # Students | Results | |
| 2011[5] | 281 | 99,6% | 25 | 100% | 120 | 99% | 136 | 99% |
| 2010[6] | 286 | 100% | 19 | 100% | 100 | 100% | 167 | 99% |
| 2009 | 291 | 99% | 29 | 100% | 118 | 99% | 144 | 99% |
| 2008 | 283 | 99% | 34 | 100% | 125 | 99% | 124 | 99% |
| 2007 | 316 | 100% | 34 | 97% | 133 | 100% | 149 | 100% |
| 2006 | 261 | 100% | 28 | 100% | 118 | 99% | 115 | 100% |
| 2004 | 281 | 99% | 33 | 100% | 129 | 99% | 119 | 99% |
| 2003 | 260 | 100% | 28 | 100% | 123 | 100% | 109 | 100% |
The school has thirteen national sections which are, essentially, schools within a school. Students are taught the relevant national curriculum alongside the standard French curriculum. Foreign teachers in each of the national sections give the students lessons in literature, geography and history (generally from six to eight hours a week according to the grade) in their native tongue. However, all other disciplines of the official program are taught in French.
The history of the school to date can be described by three distinct phases:
In 1951, the then-recently established NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation), a grouping of 15 countries, created Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) with the aim of ensuring peace and security in the North Atlantic region, and promising European members the support of the United States in the event of any future aggression.
SHAPE was installed at Rocquencourt, and Saint Germain-en-Laye was chosen as the place of residence for the serving officers and their families. The SHAPE Village Project was built in the grounds of the Chateau d’Hennemont to accommodate 1,500 officers and soldiers from 13 nationalities, and their families.
In January 1952, the SHAPE village school was set up in the chateau under the direction of René Tallard. By the end of the school year, 400 children were on the register, including 200 French children, half of them inhabitants of the town. Two years later, in 1954, the school was officially renamed the NATO International School (l’Ecole Internationale de l’OTAN).
Funding from SHAPE provided the school with equipment and accommodation, including a new flagship building completed in 1960. From 1961, senior students prepared for the Diplôme des Ecoles Internationales and the following year, the school was renamed the NATO International Lycée (Lycée International de l’OTAN). The founding proviseur, René Tallard, retired in 1965.
Not only did 1965 mark the retirement of the much respected M Tallard, it was also the year in which President de Gaulle decided to pull France out of NATO’s military operations. NATO, and SHAPE, were forced to find a new European base, in Belgium, and the Lycée International de l’OTAN lost two thirds of its pupils at a stroke. It was an immediate challenge for the new proviseur, Edgar Scherer. His was the delicate task of working with the remaining two sections – the German and the Dutch – to persuade the educational authorities, both in France and overseas, to rebuild the life of the school which, would from now on need to count on the support of "economic expatriates" to replace those of the original military community.
By 1968, under Scherer’s leadership and direction, the school was building up strength with six sections – German, Dutch, British, American, Danish and Italian. The visionary Proviseur Scherer continued to build, experiment and develop, with the co-operation of all the active partners in the school, to create a solid base for the future of the Lycée International - until his retirement in 1989.
Scherer’s successor, Jean Pierre Maillard, had a different challenge: modernising the infrastructure of a school, which had been expanding again over more than twenty years. Replacing pre-fabricated buildings with more lasting structures was now a priority. The building project took three years, with all the associated judicial, financial and technical implications to manage – and school life, of course, had to continue uninterrupted.
Thanks to state funding, the result was a new campus, including a fine new primary building. Under Maillard, other projects advanced too: the development of the network of partner schools, the drafting of a "projet d’établissement", the creation of the Japanese section in 1993; the embracing of the Option International du Baccalaureate as the final exam for senior Lycée students, and the renovation of the chateau.
In 1997, Maillard handed the baton on to Patrick Charpeil, who focused attention on the administrative complexities of the school, clarifying the legal basis of the Lycée and its component parts. Charpeil continued to oversee the restoration of the chateau and successfully liaised and lobbied with the supervising educational authorities to advance important projects concerning security, major improvements and maintenance.
Yves Lemaire, the current proviseur, took over the helm in September 2001. The challenges are as stimulating as ever: the final stages of renovation and the future use of the chateau; the pressure for increasing the number of classes at Lycée level; nation-wide administration of the OIB; the creation of the Polish section at college and Lycée level (in 2002/3) and the consolidation of the legal status of the school via a new decree.
One last important point concerns the school's academic results. It is listed as the 4th best school in the country according to L'Etudiant.