Lycée High School
CURRICULUMln Lycée, students study the national curriculum in French in addition to the Anglophone Section subjects. Our students will obtain the Baccalauréat Français International (BFI) at the end of their school career.
This qualification is composed of three subjects taught in English in addition to the students’ two spécialités (majors) and option subjects taught in French:
- ACL (Approfondissement Culturel et Linguistique), the Language and Literature component
- DNL (Discipline non-linguistique) composed of History and Geography
- Connaissances du Monde “Knowledge of the World”, a subject in which contemporary social issues are explored
As of September 2022 Première students started studying for the BFI which replaced the OIB (Option International du Baccalauréat) that was created in 1985. The rationale behind this reform is that the Section’s work goes beyond the linguistic ; it deepens one’s understanding of the world and our place in it. More emphasis is also placed on oral presentation and argumentation.
Compared to the OIB, 40% of a student’s grades in the BFI will now be made up by Section subjects instead of 25%. The novelty is the ‘Connaissances du monde’ subject in which students will leverage their multidisciplinary knowledge and will undertake independent research throughout Première and Terminale. This culminates in a 20-minute presentation of their research project during the final exam. Both ACL and DNL will have a 4-hour written exam and a 15-minute oral.
The Anglophone schedule in Lycée consists of six hours of lessons per week in Seconde, nine hours in Première and eleven hours in Terminale (of which two hours taught in French).
Mr Graeme Arthur, Head of English
The English Department
The English Department at The Anglophone Section is dedicated to the intellectual curiosity, analytical dexterity, and creative thinking of our students; we foster reading, writing, and oral skills through a broad selection of relevant, challenging and engaging texts. Our teachers are all native speakers of the English language, qualified in Anglophone countries and replete with a wealth of experience that enables us to encourage our pupils to reach beyond themselves to attain the very utmost possible to each. We believe in the importance of literature and use it in the way it is meant to be used – to inspire.
More than anything we want the young people we teach to finish their time with us having enjoyed themselves, having learned something that they will take with them wherever they go, having become somehow finer than they would have become without meeting us. Above all, through the guidance we provide, we want them to realise that they belong in the world.
At the Anglophone Section we know that learning English is the main reason that your children are with us. We want to make that learning experience enjoyable and rewarding for the pupils, engaging them with the language through texts as varied as some of the great works of English literature to contemporary news stories in a range of media forms. Our belief is that we can use a range of inspiring texts to stimulate our classes, we can not only develop sophisticated reading skills, but also use our expertise to build the English writing skills of grammar, punctuation, spelling and composition through them.
The English Department at The Anglophone Section is dedicated to the intellectual curiosity, analytical dexterity, and creative thinking of our students; we foster reading, writing, and oral skills through a broad selection of relevant, challenging and engaging texts. We are all native speakers of the English language, qualified in Anglophone countries and replete with a wealth of experience that enables us to encourage our pupils to reach beyond themselves to attain the very utmost possible to each. We believe in the importance of literature and use it in the way it is meant to be used – to inspire.
From Shakespeare to Salinger and Angelou to Atwood, you’ll find your child arriving at table with new and interesting friends to talk about. Our experience with, and love of, great books helps us to know how to guide our students in their appreciation of some of the classic poetry, plays and prose works written in the English language. Our approach to learning is discussion based, encouraging our pupils to articulate their views in each and every lesson. This approach allows them to enjoy their involvement whilst being encouraged to develop their own thinking, which in turn positively influences their writing in both creative and analytical forms.
Throughout the Collège and Lycée years our curriculum are integrated to create progress towards the final outcomes that will ensure our students can adapt to university life. We actively encourage independent learning, provide analytical frameworks for essay writing and model how to be precise, succinct and articulate in oral exams. As all of our teachers have experience of examining, we are well placed to give pupils the best advice for how to achieve in these highly pressurised situations.
And yet exams are only a part of what we aim for. Important, of course, but not everything. More than anything we want the young people we teach to finish their time with us having enjoyed themselves, having learned something that they will take with them wherever they go, having become somehow finer than they would have become without meeting us. Above all, through the guidance we provide, we want them to realise that they belong in the world.
“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald
We believe in the importance of literature and use it in the way it is meant to be used – to inspire.
During the last year of Collège and the first year of Lycée, the pupils follow the Cambridge International IGCSEs in both First Language English and Literature. These challenging qualifications develop both their analytical reading skills and their ability to write effectively. We take the coursework option with both qualifications which enables their teachers to intervene directly in the drafting process and thereby challenge the students to stretch themselves further to push the full limits of their potential. The coursework also means that half the marks for First Language English and a quarter of the marks for Literature are up for grabs – consequently our pupils sit the exams at the end of seconde with a considerable amount of the work upon which the IGCSE is assessed, already completed.
There are three pieces of coursework for the First Language English IGCSE, two of which are creative and one more analytical. The two pieces required for the Literature IGCSE are both analytical essays, one in response to a Shakespeare play and the other a response to a prose text; in both cases the class teacher selects a text which s/he feels will be motivating, engaging and stimulating for the youngsters in the class.
There are three IGCSE exams early in May – one for First Language English; one closed book exam based on the study of a prose text and a poetry collection; and one open book exam based on the study of a modern play.
Students who join the Anglophone Section in Seconde, and hence half way through the programme, are expected to catch up on the First Language English coursework but not the literature coursework – instead they sit an additional paper responding to ‘unseen’ texts at the end of seconde.
If you wish to peruse the syllabi for these exams please find them at:
The last two years of Lycée is devoted to the International Option of the French Baccalauréat. Whilst studying for this demanding qualification, the students start to become more sophisticated in their analytical and interpretive skills and thereby mature into the kind of scholars they will need to be at university.
The exam is at the end of terminale and is split into written and oral components. The four hour written exam requires the pupils to write three essays – two based on texts they have studied and one on an ‘unseen’ text. The thirty minute oral exam involves a discussion with two examiners, firstly about a Shakespeare text and then about a synoptic topic. The texts studied – a Shakespeare play, a prose text, a poetry collection, a drama text and a collection of texts for the synoptic topic – are chosen by the teachers from a range of texts offered by Cambridge Assessment International Education in cooperation with the Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale. The preparation for this exam begins at the end of seconde when the students are given one of the texts to read over the summer and continues unabated until June of their terminale year.
If you wish to consult the handbook for this exam you can find it here:
https://www.asiba.fr/documents_-2/#1454311673987-5ec7eb6f-54f7
Curriculum Presentation
Mr Will Rennie, Head of History-Geography
The History-Geography Department
The History department at the Anglophone Section are passionate about their subject, highly motivated, and keen to engage students and support them to reach their full potential.
The study of History involves so much more than just looking at events from the past; it lets us understand why changes took place and why these changes matter to us today. History is the story of how people have lived and thought at various times throughout the past. It involves the study of both ordinary and extraordinary people who lived in exciting times.
We believe that History is interesting in its own right but is also useful as it teaches students valuable skills that will support them in their other subjects and almost all professions. In studying History, students learn how to collect and analyse evidence. They learn how to think critically, identifying bias and evaluating arguments. History also teaches Anglophone students how to communicate clearly in English, formulating their own arguments, presenting them persuasively in both written and oral assignments, and supporting them with evidence. We also aim to complement the French programme of histoire-géo in Collège and Lycée and lay the basis for future study at BFI level and beyond.
History involves the study of both ordinary and extraordinary people who lived in exciting times
The two units studied in Seconde are ‘A divided union: civil rights in the USA, 1945–74’ and ‘The Middle East: conflict, crisis and change, 1917–2012’. All seconde students will have to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the four historical periods they have studied, as well as their ability to explain, analyse and make judgements. They will also be expected to use a range of source material and comprehend, interpret and cross-reference them.
- The ‘memorialisation of history’ using a case study of Britain’s collective memory of the Blitz in the Second World War. We examine the ways that collective memory is shaped, and how and why it can change through time.
- The political, economic, social and cultural history of ‘Britain between 1945 and 1990’. This includes an in depth study of the reforming Labour government of 1945-1951, the extent to which there was a political and economic consensus in Britain between 1951 and 1979, as well as considering whether this was a period of British decline. Students will also study the extent to which
- Britain changed socially and culturally in this period, including topics like immigration, race relations and the changing role of women. Finally, students examine Thatcherism and the changes that happened to Britain in the period 1979 to 1990.
- ‘The USA and the world 1917 to the present’, examining the changes and continuities in the USA’s role in the world from the First World War, through the Second World War and the Cold War, all the way to the more recent ‘War on Terror’.
- ‘Modern China from 1949 to 1990’, examining China’s changing relations with the world and how China has developed into the global superpower it is today.
- ‘France from 1945 to the present’, including understanding the important role of Charles de Gaulle in modern French history.
- The ‘Middle East from 1948-1993’, looking at the causes of the modern conflict and what factors have caused instability in this crucial region of the world.
- ‘European integration from 1945 until 1992’, as well as examining Britain’s changing attitudes towards Europe
- ‘World economic governance’, from Bretton Woods until the present day.
In Geography, students study a wide range of topics relating to ‘human geography’. These include globalisation, urbanisation, development and sustainability, global inequalities, international and regional migration and demographic issues. We look at a variety of modern case studies and students are also expected to be able to produce a ‘croquis’, a detailed, annotated map relating to a geographical issue.