Lycee Francais International Theodore Monod
Abu Dhabi, UAE · est. 2006 · PrivateLycee Francais International Theodore Monod has been running in Abu Dhabi since 2006, stands on Saadiyat Island and teaches more than 1,750 children of 59 nationalities. It is a French school: the curriculum is French, the institution is recognised by the French Ministry of Education and is a partner establishment of the agency for French education abroad, belongs to the AFLEC network and is affiliated to the Mission Laique Francaise. At the same time it is a recognised Cambridge international school and an official British Council examination centre, so its pupils prepare for and sit the Cambridge English examinations KET, PET and FCE, the IGCSE and IELTS, and on leaving they take the French international baccalaureate, the BFI. The stages run from the youngest kindergarten group through to the lycee. The kindergarten day runs from 8:00 to 14:30, after which a mini club runs until 16:30 alongside extracurricular activities. The Abu Dhabi regulator has rated the school Very Good. The main thing a parent should know: admission is split into four streams - new families, siblings of current pupils, transfers from Lycee Louis Massignon and re-enrolment - and it opens early, in November of the preceding year.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
AEFE · accreditationCambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeAFLEC · school is part of the networkWhat stands behind each entry
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 →Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: IGCSE (ages 14-16). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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.
AFLEC is the Association Franco-Libanaise pour l'Éducation et la Culture, a non-profit association («association à but non lucratif«) founded in 2000. Its site says it «gère des établissements français homologués« — it runs French schools accredited by the French ministry. School counts differ on the site: the «Qui sommes-nous ?« page gives seven schools in four countries (Lebanon — LFIE Tyr, LFIE Beyrouth, LFIE Bchamoun; UAE — LFI Théodore Monod in Abu Dhabi, LFI Dubaï, ICE Dubaï; Tunisia — LFI Victor Hugo Djerba), while the list on the homepage adds LFBI Malte in Malta, making eight schools and five countries. In the UAE the network has three schools — two in Dubai and one in Abu Dhabi. No student figures are given.
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.