Most of the sought-after private schools in Paris are "sous contrat": they follow the national curriculum, their teachers are paid by the state, and fees are usually a few thousand euros a year, more at bilingual schools such as Jeannine Manuel, but far from the thirty thousand or more charged by international schools. They also choose their pupils, and their admissions year starts in September, a full year before entry. Some windows last two weeks. Others close before most families have started looking: for September 2027 entry, Notre-Dame de Sion was no longer taking applications for sixième (the first year of collège, Year 7 or 6th grade) by mid-October 2026. There is no shared calendar; each school sets its own, and most publish it only when it opens.
I went through the admissions pages of the schools the families we work with ask about most. What follows describes the patterns that repeat each year; the dates for one specific round are grouped in the table further down.
Four rhythms, not one
Read side by side, those pages show four ways of running admissions.
The short September window. Franklin, the Jesuit school Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, only opens sixième from 15 to 30 September of the last year of primary school. Saint-Jean-de-Passy and Sainte-Marie de Neuilly open sixième the same day, 15 September. Neither shows a closing date, which does not mean there is time: with no deadline, the limit is the day the places are gone.
The autumn-to-winter round. The École Alsacienne takes applications from mid-November until the end of the Christmas holidays, with no late requests. Jeannine Manuel closes in mid-January for families living in France. Notre-Dame de Sion takes seconde (the first year of lycée, Year 11 or 10th grade) from early November to early February, and Saint-Jean-de-Passy opens seconde in mid-November. Sévigné opens in mid-October and holds its sixième tests between December and February. For families aiming at a bilingual school, the state international sections add their own calendar, on a platform open from January to March; I set them beside Jeannine Manuel, the EIB and Sévigné in my guide to bilingual schools in Paris.
Rolling admissions. Stanislas publishes no dates at all: files are read as they arrive, from the moment the application fee can be paid, in September. Fénelon Sainte-Marie also uses an open online form and replies within a month. At these schools, the closing date is the day the classes are full.
Spring for the in-between years. For the second, third and fourth years of collège and for première, places come from pupils leaving, and many schools only open in January or even March: Saint-Jean-de-Passy on 18 January 2027, Notre-Dame de Sion from 15 March to 15 May 2027. Franklin takes the second and third years of collège from mid-September to 31 March.
Example: application windows for September 2027 entry, checked on the schools' websites on 20 October 2026.
| School | Sixième (Year 7 / 6th grade) | Seconde (Year 11 / 10th grade) | Other years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franklin, Paris 16th | 15 to 30 September 2026 | From 15 September 2026, no end date | Second and third year of collège until 31 March 2027 |
| Saint-Jean-de-Passy, Paris 16th | 15 September 2026 | 16 November 2026 | Other collège years and première: 18 January 2027 |
| Sainte-Marie de Neuilly | 15 September 2026 | 15 September 2026 | Other collège years, première and terminale: December 2026 |
| Stanislas, Paris 6th | No dates published; application fee open from September 2026, files read on arrival | ||
| Notre-Dame de Sion, Paris 6th | Closed as of 20 October 2026 | 2 November 2026 to 1 February 2027 | Other collège years, première and terminale: 15 March to 15 May 2027 |
| École Alsacienne, Paris 6th | Mid-November 2026 to the end of the Christmas holidays, all years, no late applications | ||
| Jeannine Manuel, Paris 15th | Closes 12 January 2027 for families living in France; no deadline for families relocating from abroad | ||
For comparison, the previous round: the École Alsacienne was open from 7 November 2025 to 2 January 2026, and Sévigné opened on 13 October 2025. Dates change every year, and some pages keep showing the previous round for weeks: always check the page for the year group you want.
Between the file and the answer
The steps themselves vary little from one school to the next, and they almost always come in the same order.
The step that costs families most is the second. Schools that read files as they arrive ask for reports "as they come": a file sent in October with last year's reports will be followed by the first-term report, then the second. A weak term halfway through is read as clearly as a strong one. Fénelon Sainte-Marie tells families on its waiting list exactly that: keep the file up to date, and start applying elsewhere at the same time.
Siblings, alumni, parish: what is actually written
Families talk a lot about priorities. The official pages say little, and that little is worth reading as written.
The École Alsacienne publishes an unusual figure: 38% of sibling applicants were admitted to its collège and lycée. A sibling helps; it does not guarantee a place. Franklin says siblings are favoured in nursery, where places are very few. Fénelon Sainte-Marie lists its criteria: places available, grades measured against its own class councils' standards, the balance between girls and boys, and travel time. The Catholic schools all ask, one way or another, for families to sign up to their educational charter, and Stanislas makes it a written condition of enrolment.
On none of the pages I read did I find a written priority for children of alumni or for parish membership. If someone tells you otherwise, ask the school how it works for the year group you want, rather than relying on talk at the school gate.
On forums for English-speaking parents in Paris, those who went through admissions after moving tell a different story from the regulations. One parent warns that Paris schools are so oversubscribed they rarely hold a place for a family that hesitates: an offer is usually accepted on the spot. Another, arriving in spring, found the Catholic schools' classes full. A third notes that getting their child into sixième was far easier than getting a place in an English-speaking primary section.
Arriving mid-year, or late
For a family moving in February or June, the picture changes entirely. The École Alsacienne accepts neither late applications nor mid-year entry. Jeannine Manuel, on the other hand, sets no deadline for families arriving from abroad, and the École Internationale Bilingue takes pupils during the year, subject to places. Stanislas and Fénelon Sainte-Marie, which read files on arrival, remain possible until a class is full. The in-between years, which open in spring at Sion or Saint-Jean-de-Passy, are often the only realistic door for a student entering the second or third year of collège.
Plan a state school place in parallel as well. A family moving to Paris over the summer files an allocation request by mid-August, reviewed by a panel at the end of August; I describe that route in choosing a lycée in Paris after living abroad. Better to start it and withdraw than to have nothing on 1 September.
A countdown that starts in June
If I were advising a family aiming for sixième or seconde in a Paris private school, I would work backwards. The shortlist is drawn up in June, fifteen months before entry, so that September does not bring the discovery of a window that has passed. The summer goes on gathering reports, reading each school's educational charter and writing the letters, which should answer each charter rather than be copied from one school to the next. In September, files go in on opening day wherever they are read in order of arrival. Tests and interviews then fall between December and March, and that is when the child's preparation counts.
Portraits of each school are in the best schools in Paris, and the more unusual procedures have their own articles, such as Franklin or Stanislas.
Keeping track of six different calendars, writing six letters that do not read alike, and preparing a child for tests and interviews that are not alike either: that is the work we do with families at Carmine. The school entry page describes how.