With the financial support of the Jeannine Manuel Foundation, which funds programs at École Jeannine Manuel in Paris and Lille, our Lille campus has decided to launch a new program for students entering the 6th grade. These income-based scholarships will cover registration fees as well as part of, or all, of students’ tuition fees. The program’s key objective is to give students access to a bilingual education regardless of parental income.
As Jérôme Giovendo, Director of École Jeannine Manuel Lille, points out, “We are pursuing our goal of greater social diversity by awarding a significant proportion of scholarships to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. With this initiative, the school seeks to attract high-achieving who lack the financial resources to pursue this kind of education. We will prepare them for the French Baccalaureate with International Option (OIB), a challenging exam taken by only one percent of French high school graduates in the world. Our goal is to give these students access to our bilingual, bicultural and challenging curriculum. 6th grade is really the last year in which non-English speakers can enroll and become truly bilingual by the end of their studies. In 2015, our students achieved a 100% success rate in the Baccalaureate exams and 90% of the students who sat the Baccalaureate with International Option obtained a commendation.”
Students will be recruited on the basis of their academic skills and achievements. Our selective and rigorous admissions procedure ensures that students will be able to follow the the school’s challenging curriculum. It will include a review of the student’s school records as well as a verbal and numerical skills test. Candidates’ families are required to attend a school presentation and a school visit. A meeting with one of the school directors will also be organized. The commitment of candidates’ parents is essential.