← Back to homeÉcole française de Thessalonique
Thessaloniki, Greece · est. 1906 · Private
Illustration · Thessaloniki
The École française de Thessalonique is a French school of the Mission laïque française network, founded in 1906; the school says it was the network's first school in the world, and locally it is still known as the «Lycée». It is the only French school in Northern Greece: secular, following the French Ministry of National Education curriculum, in a 1971 building shared with the Institut français. Lessons are taught in French; Greek is taught from kindergarten in level groups and English from the early years too, with additional Greek language and culture lessons so a child can switch to the Greek system. Children are admitted from age two: the maternelle (TPS-GS) and the elementary school (CP-CM2) run in the school's own building. Since 2025 the school also runs secondary education through the CNED: 6e is taught in the school building, and from 5e to Terminale students study on the Deutsche Schule Thessaloniki site under the EFT@DST agreement. The school is self-financed and receives no subsidies.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $5 180–6 541 a year
4 585–5 790 EUR
Programmes
French programme
Admits from
2 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
French
Languages taught
Greek, English
Registration fee
≈ $667
590 EUR
About the fees Tuition for 2026-2027: maternelle 4585 EUR, elementary 5790 EUR, collège via CNED 5235 EUR, lycée via CNED 5490 EUR per year, paid in three instalments (40%, 30%, 30%). Extra: CNED registration 1290 EUR for 6e-Terminale, insurance 33 EUR, lunches for TPS-6e 1200 EUR per year, bus for students on the DST site 1070 EUR; the school itself has no bus. Discounts: 5%, 10% and 15% for the second, third and fourth child, 5% for paying the year before 18 September, 5% for referring a new family.
Admissions The school states that it welcomes students of all nationalities; most children come from Greek or Franco-Greek families. Registration is through the EDUKA platform, and places per class are limited. Students of French nationality can apply for a school bursary through the Consulate General of France in Thessaloniki. The school says nothing about entrance tests or French language requirements.
Stages and year groups Grades TPS - Terminale. Maternelle: TPS, PS, MS, GS (cycle 1), from age two. Elementary: CP, CE1, CE2, CM1, CM2. From 6e the school operates as a CNED classe réglementée (the French Ministry of Education's distance learning centre) with tutors: 6e in the school building, 5e-Terminale on the Deutsche Schule Thessaloniki site. Final exams are French: the diplôme national du brevet in 3e and the baccalauréat. The school states that its teaching is recognised by both French and Greek authorities.
Address Leoforos Stratou 2A, 54640 Thessaloniki
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
AEFE · accreditationMission laïque française · school is part of the networkThe AEFE register gives the school partenaire status; it is a Mission laïque française school. Only the nursery and primary years (Petite section - CM2) are homologated; collège and lycée follow CNED distance courses.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
AEFEAgency for French Education Abroad
It runs the network of French schools worldwide, while the accreditation itself, the homologation, is granted by the French education ministry and inspected by French state inspectors. A leaver from a homologated school moves into a school in France without an entrance examination. Homologation is granted stage by stage, so it sometimes covers only part of the year groups.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →French programme
The state programme of France. A school is homologated by the French ministry of education, and a leaver may move into a school in France without entrance tests. Homologation is granted stage by stage, so it sometimes covers only part of the year groups.
What this means for this school. Which year groups of this school are covered by homologation - only the primary ones, or all the way to the final year - is not stated here. The difference matters: it decides whether the school takes a child through to the French baccalaureate or hands them on to another school halfway.
Mission laïque françaiseschool network
Mission laïque française (MLF) is a French non-profit association founded in 1902; its school network is called Réseau mlfmonde. The network gives different figures on its own pages - 108 schools in 38 countries on some, 107 schools in 37 countries on another, with more than 61,000 students in both cases - and we quote both. In Spain the network lists 10 lycées, in Alicante, Murcia, Palma, Reus, Seville, Telde (Gran Canaria), Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Valladolid, Villanueva de la Cañada (Madrid) and Zaragoza. In a notice dated 21 September 2026, MLF writes that since 1 September 2026 the day-to-day management of its Spanish schools has been entrusted to the association AFLEC-GEE under a management mandate, refers to 9 schools, and says the legal transfer of each will be completed by 31 July 2028 at the latest. The notice does not say which of the ten schools is not among the nine. The network's site is mlfmonde.org.
What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Playground
Campus: The school occupies part of the Institut français building at Leoforos Stratou 2A, built in 1971, and students take part in the institute's cultural programme. There is a school canteen with a monthly menu and a courtyard for breaks. Students in 5e-Terminale study in the Deutsche Schule Thessaloniki building and use its facilities and buses.
Clubs and activities: STEAM · French cooking · Modern dance in English · Art · Journalism in Greek · Football · Table tennis · Board games · Comics · Philosophy club · Climbing · Conversation club (English, German, Greek) · Creative writing · Drama studio · Poetry club · TV5MONDE · Webradio · Trilingual choir
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
The school says its team consists of French and Greek teachers trained in French methods, and that classes are small. It does not state the number of teachers or class sizes; from 6e the CNED courses are supported by tutors.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
✓Access control
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school rules (Règlement intérieur) forbid outsiders from entering the school and the courtyard during school hours, and every break is supervised by adults. Bullying, including cyberbullying, is forbidden and every staff member must report it to the management; the school network filters harmful content. Fire, attack and earthquake drills are held regularly. The Greek organisation The Smile of the Child (Το Χαμόγελο του Παιδιού) ran prevention sessions with the students.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)72 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data70 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data65 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country