Choosing a French-system school in London: a parent's field guide
Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Collège Français Bilingue, Wix and the rest — what each does best.
London's francophone schooling network is older than most parents realise. The Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in South Kensington was founded in 1915. Today there are five AEFE-accredited establishments and a growing tier of private bilingual schools below them.
The Lycée remains the prestige choice and the hardest to enter mid-year. CFBL in Kentish Town is increasingly the practical choice for families settling north of the river. Wix Primary in Clapham handles the youngest end with a charm that the larger institutions cannot match.
Fees range from £8,000 to £25,000 a year. Bursaries exist but are oversubscribed. Apply, in every case, eighteen months ahead.
Further Reading
Oxford's international student fees are quietly catching up to the US
Why a place at Magdalen now costs more than one at Yale — and what families are doing.
Cambridge's new applied-language master's, and why French students are flocking to it
A nine-month MPhil in language industries that bridges UK and EU markets.
McGill, Concordia, UdeM: the bilingual undergraduate strategy nobody talks about
How French-speaking European students use Montréal as a back door into North American careers.