Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles

Since our founding in 1964, our mission is to develop the minds and character of our students. Children start at three years of age and we are truly blessed to watch them grow intellectually into fine young men and women on their way to college after their senior year. We are one of the only schools in Southern California to offer a full program from preschool to the 12th grade.

Our international student body and teaching staff, along with our superlative and challenging curriculum, make Le Lycée a very special place. At Le Lycee, we encourage and nurture the personal growth of our students and create in them a sense of responsibility and the skills necessary to make a difference. Our students enjoy a wide range of classes. They are immersed in a program that opens doors and allows for opportunities all over the world. The school has grown by leaps and bounds in the last ten years and has fine-tuned its excellence.

At this point in time, we are the proudest we have ever been of our new curriculum, which allows children from all over the world to benefit from the classic European education as well as important current issues. Our emphasis on the arts, sciences, and languages is unsurpassed. We can definitely state that the International School Program is every bit as challenging as the French Program, and culminate with either the Classic Baccalaureate, the Franco-American Baccalaureate, and/or the Capstone.

Our state-of-the-art new high school campus, The Raymond and Esther Kabbaz High School in West Los Angeles, named for our founders, opened in the Fall of 2009. This incredible space includes multiple new openings for good students from prominent middle schools in our area. Our school is perfect for your children and this is definitely the most exciting moment in the life of this extraordinary institution.

Over 50 years ago, Le Lycee’s founders, Esther and Raymond Kabbaz, saw that to truly equip a child for the modern world, a school needed to provide each child with the ability to learn, to think, and to make decisions based on a sound foundation of logic, knowledge, and character. In this ever-shrinking world, they saw the advantage of teaching children within a microcosm of the worldwide community. They understood the value of a International Education adapted for a modern world. They viewed the children as not just students to process through an educational system, but as whole people in need of a life of purpose and meaning. The school continues their vision to this day.

It is also a mistake to think of Le Lycee as a school for French nationals or those of French ancestry only. Most of our students come from homes where French is not, never has been, nor ever will be spoken. As part of the school’s inclusive philosophy, there is an International program as well as a French program so that Le Lycee can welcome people from all parts of the Los Angeles community and the world. Some like to say that Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles is “the most American French school in the world”. Typically, 96% of Le Lycee students go to American colleges and universities upon graduation. While Le Lycee is proud of its mission to be a bi-lingual school, offering an international education, the school’s philosophy is more about developing students who can excel in a modern world.

Students will leave the school fluent in at least two languages. However, if the language emphasis was not there at all, Le Lycee would still be a preferred place for students to gain the tools they need for college and the world beyond college. The school’s students often return and report that classes at any university are a “piece of cake” because they “learned how to learn at Le Lycée”. The challenging discussions of college are on par with the challenging discussions in Le Lycee’s high school classrooms. Le Lycee is not simply a language immersion school, but a rigorous college prep school with a deep respect for learning the languages and cultures of others.