The AEFE, the French government agency for schools abroad, lists ten accredited ("homologué") French schools in the UK: nine in London and one in Bristol. Accreditation means the French Ministry of Education recognises the teaching, so a child can move to a school in France, or to any other French school abroad, without an entrance exam. Only one of the ten, the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, is run by the French state, and its admissions rules are unusual enough to need their own article. The other eight are where many families end up, often after a first refusal in South Kensington, when they could have planned for them from the start.
I sort them first by one plain fact: the age at which each school stops.
Where each school ends
| School | Area | Accredited years | Annual tuition 2026-2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| École Jacques-Prévert (state-contracted) | Brook Green, Hammersmith | Age 4 to Year 6 | £11,198 in primary, lunch included |
| École des Petits and École de Battersea | Fulham, Battersea | Age 3 to Year 6 | £20,682 at ages 4-5 (Fulham); £21,267 from age 4 to Year 6 (Battersea) |
| L'École Bilingue | Paddington | Age 3 to Year 6 | £15,105 plus VAT in primary |
| La Petite École Française | North Kensington | Age 3 to Year 6 | £11,250 plus VAT (2025-2026 rate) |
| École Internationale Franco-Anglaise (Mission laïque) | Portland Place, Marylebone | Age 3 to Year 7 | £29,310 in Years 2 to 6 |
| Collège Français Bilingue de Londres | Kentish Town | Age 3 to Year 10 | £16,805 in secondary, lunch included |
| Lycée International Winston Churchill | Wembley Park | Age 3 to Year 13 | £19,448 (Years 7-10), £20,841 (Years 11-13), £30,713 on the international track |
| Jeannine Manuel School | Bedford Square, Bloomsbury | Age 3 to Year 13 | £30,900 from Reception to Year 11, £36,582 in the IB years |
Sources: the AEFE school directory for the list, status and accredited years; each school's published fee schedule. Termly fees are multiplied by three. For comparison, the Lycée Charles de Gaulle charges £12,556.80 in secondary.
Only three schools take a child all the way to the baccalauréat: Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill and Jeannine Manuel. CFBL stops after 3ème (Year 10), EIFA after 6ème (Year 7), and the rest after CM2 (Year 6). Choosing a small French primary therefore also means a second admissions process a few years later, which parents do not always realise when they sign.
The small primaries, where seniority counts
Jacques-Prévert is London's only state-contracted French school, with tenured French state teachers and fees close to Charles de Gaulle's. It takes most of its pupils at age 3, about thirty places, and in CP (Year 2), about fourteen. Its admissions rules have a feature South Kensington lacks: within each priority group, files are ranked by date, and a file keeps its place on the waiting list. Here, registering early really does help. Its FAQ says most pupils move on to Charles de Gaulle after CM2, and the rest to CFBL, Winston Churchill or Jeannine Manuel.
École des Petits in Fulham works the same way: the rank depends on the registration date, taking into account the child's age when they were registered. At L'École Bilingue in Paddington, places also go to early applicants once priorities are served, but the school no longer tells families their position. On a south-west London parents' forum, one mother described putting her four-month-old on several lists at once, keeping the Lycée's primaries as a fallback; another replied that families usually get what they want if they plan a year ahead and accept a few months of waiting.
The less obvious benefit of these schools is access. A child at any accredited London school gets a reserved window at Charles de Gaulle for entry into CP (Year 2), 6ème (Year 7) and Seconde (Year 11), which opens in October before every other round. The small school becomes a way in.
CFBL, up to Year 10
The Collège Français Bilingue de Londres, on Holmes Road in Kentish Town, has about 680 pupils from age 3 to 3ème (Year 10). It publishes its priority order: staff children, siblings, then children of employees of the companies that back the school's charitable trust, then pupils from an accredited London school, from elsewhere in the UK, and from abroad. The school says places are not first come, first served, and that the panel also weighs each child's language profile and the balance of the class. There is no waiting list as such; an unsuccessful application is resubmitted the following year.
On Mumsnet, parents of primary pupils describe solid teaching without the pressure of London prep schools, but point out that CFBL does not prepare children for the 11+ entrance exams of British independent schools; families who want that option prepare for it separately. Others raise the opposite problem: joining an English sixth form after 3ème is awkward, because GCSEs are taken at the end of Year 11, a year after the French brevet.
After 3ème many pupils go on to Winston Churchill, which offers them a reduced registration fee and a dedicated bursary, or to Charles de Gaulle through the Seconde window.
Example: dates for September 2027.
CFBL: pre-registration 7 to 21 October 2026, panels on 30 November 2026, then 27 January 2027 for primary and 3 March for secondary.
Charles de Gaulle, window for pupils at accredited London schools (CP, 6ème, Seconde): 8 October to 1 November 2026.
Winston Churchill, Jeannine Manuel and EIFA admit on a rolling basis.
Wembley or Bloomsbury, through to the baccalauréat
The Lycée International Winston Churchill opened in 2015 in the former Brent Town Hall, when pressure on French school places was at its peak; a French parliamentary answer at the time spoke of 700 extra places for the city. As a partner school it receives no French state subsidy, which is why it costs more than Charles de Gaulle; parents told the Good Schools Guide as much, while finding the fees in line with London's international schools. What accreditation of a partner school guarantees families, and what it does not, is set out for the whole network in my guide to French schools abroad. It runs two tracks. The French track leads to the baccalauréat and the BFI. The international track, taught in English, follows an English programme to IGCSE and then the IB Diploma, with an average score of 35 in 2025.
The distance puts off families in central and south-west London. The school is five minutes' walk from Wembley Park and twelve minutes from Baker Street on the Metropolitan line, and it started a shuttle bus from Baker Street in September 2026. Admissions run all year, and the Good Schools Guide notes that more places open up from Year 7.
Jeannine Manuel in Bloomsbury is the London branch of the Paris school, accredited from age 3 to the final year. It selects through an interview with a member of the leadership team, plus language and maths exercises for older children, and accepts children with no French at every level, and children with no English up to Year 7. In the penultimate year, students choose between the BFI and the IB. It is the most expensive school on the list.
A French-speaking child, family settled in London
- Charles de Gaulle if the child's priority category allows it.
- Otherwise a small accredited school close to home, then the CP or 6ème window.
- CFBL for a bilingual collège, with Winston Churchill afterwards.
A child from another system, or a family unsure of the next step
- Winston Churchill, to keep both the French track and the IB open.
- Jeannine Manuel if the child has no French yet and is of secondary age.
- EIFA for primary in central London, knowing another move comes after Year 7.
Before you sign
One-off fees vary widely and are easy to overlook. Jacques-Prévert asks for a deposit of £2,660 to £3,800 depending on the class, plus a £240 application fee. CFBL charges £200 to pre-register and £1,980 for first registration from age 4 to Year 9. Winston Churchill takes a £192 application fee, £1,800 to register a first child and a refundable £1,100 deposit. Jeannine Manuel charges £275 to apply and £2,750 to register. Then there is the 20% VAT applied to UK private schools since January 2025, which some fee lists include and others do not.
For French families, the French consulate's means-tested school grant only applies at accredited schools, and only in accredited years: Jacques-Prévert's first nursery year, or EIFA's Years 8 and 9, do not qualify. The process is set out in enrolling in a French school abroad. And for a teenager torn between the French bac and the IB, IB or French baccalaureate matters more to the choice than the postcode.
My advice is to build the map backwards. Start from the school where the child should finish, then work back to the school where they can start, checking at each step which door stays open. At Carmine we help families make that choice, keep track of several schools' calendars at once, and prepare for the tests and interviews; our school entry page explains how we work.