Lycée Claudel

Our goal is to nurture curious spirits, which is why we value a multilingual instruction style that encourages both French immersion and cultural exchange simultaneously. Lycée Claudel is affiliated with the Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE, Agence pour l’enseignement français à l’étranger), an international network with nearly 500 French high schools around the world. This partnership allows French-speaking students from any countries to pursue their education without interruption no matter where they are in the world.

At Lycée Claudel, students are our number one priority. For this reason, we strive to offer an unparalleled learning environment. Every single day, our students are supported by a dynamic team of more than one hundred teachers and staff. In addition to promoting inclusiveness and community spirit, we make sure to pay special attention to all of our students in order to provide them with exceptional guidance and give them opportunities to participate in innovative educational projects.

Lycée Claudel organizes educational visits and field trips for both primary and secondary school students. We also encourage our students to sign up for a variety of school clubs and extracurricular activities. Lycée Claudel offers secondary school students opportunities to take on new challenges with a variety of uncommon course offerings, such as: Film and Audiovisuals, Spanish, and Latin—which is highly valued by American universities. We also recommend an English-language option, the American College Board’s Advanced Placement English Literature program.

Lycée Claudel features a number of specially-designed spaces to accommodate every aspect of school life, from discussion and rest to sports to reading. Most notably, we have a large auditorium with retractable bleachers designed to accommodate up to 400 people, several computer labs with Apple and Windows PCs, and classrooms equipped with whiteboards and interactive video projectors. In addition, we also offer portable iPad laboratories.

Lycée Claudel’s mission is to create enlightened, engaged, open-minded, and worldly citizens. We are committed to nurturing our students’ curiosity, developing their general knowledge, and providing all the tools they need to change the world through exchange, discourse, and critical thinking.

In 1912, Ontario Prime Minister Sir James P. Whitney passed Regulation 17, which prohibited French-language teaching in schools. Although Regulation 17 was heavily contested, nothing truly changed until the 1960s. The regulation was overturned, but so-called “French” schools in Ottawa were still essentially bilingual. To circumvent this issue, the Franco-Ontarian elite and French-speaking diplomats posted to Ottawa often opted to send their children to Montreal to ensure they would receive a quality French education. It is in this context that the Cours Claudel was created.

Throughout the year and their academic journey, Lycée Claudel students forge a humanistic culture, open to the world. The excellence of the teachers and their pedagogy, as well as the close relationship with the French Embassy, ensure that each student benefits from a solid academic content and a rich cultural contribution.

This humanistic culture contributes to the development of judgement, preference and sensitivity. It opens the mind to the diversity of human experiences and invites to reflection. By providing common points of reference for understanding, humanist culture helps in the formation of well-reasoned opinions and prepares the young ones to build their own. Through reading, performances, museum visits, cultural, artistic or physical activity, humanist culture makes us curious about our personal approach to culture and cultivates an attitude of openness.

In the spirit of cultural and interpersonal openness, our students are encouraged to study three languages other than French. Lycée Claudel offers a wide selection of language courses, most notably English, Spanish, and even Latin.

Not only does this multilingual approach give students the opportunity to discover different cultures, it also helps to prepare them for their future journeys through university and professional life. Their intellectual arsenals will be reinforced with rare skills that will help them stand out in competitive environments.

The student’s citizenship education is part of the student’s overall educational project. It is aimed at aspiring citizens who are gradually becoming aware of their rights, duties and responsibilities. Backed by all forms of teachings, in particular moral and civic education, media and information education, and as part of the common foundation of knowledge, skills and culture, the citizen journey contributes to the transmission of the values and principles of the Republic and of life in democratic societies. The citizen path brings the student’s education into line throughout his or her education, from primary to high school, but also with all the student’s educational time, in school, after-school and extracurricular activities.

The maternelle is not a day care service, but rather an educational program run by skilled certified teachers. Our program complies with the standards set by the Agency for French Education Abroad (Agence pour l’enseignement français à l’étranger, or AEFE) and features several specialized learning modules designed to accommodate the needs of young children. Our program aims to prepare children to learn the fundamental skills they will be taught in elementary school, and teaches them the basic principles of living in a society. It is designed to cultivate curiosity and enjoyment of learning in young children in order to help prepare them for their future as students.

Our adapted teaching environment enables kindergarten students to reach their fullest potential. The school is organized in such a way to stimulate young children’s imaginations and meet their fundamental needs—most notably play, movement, rest, and discovery. Every aspect of the program is designed to maximize the number of opportunities for sensory, motor, interpersonal, and cognitive experiences, all in a safe environment.

Junior high school is the first four years of secondary school where students are expected to further their learning and continue to develop their thirst for knowledge. The collège curriculum becomes more diverse over time. When students complete their collège-level studies, they are awarded a first diploma, the National Diploma (Diplôme national du Brevet, DNB).

When students complete their senior high school studies, they are awarded a high school diploma (the French baccalaureate), which allows them to attend universities all around the world.

In addition to pursuing standard subjects, students at the lycée level must select one of nine different specializations in order to focus their education onto more specific subjects. Lycée students attend special orientation sessions designed to help them select a profile that aligns well with the university program of their choice. The curriculum is designed to empower students to reach their personal goals and achieve the level of academic success required to open doors in the future.

Lycée Claudel is proud to announce a 100% baccalaureate success rate. Our graduates have pursued their studies in the most reputable universities in Canada and around the world.