About Us: Our Students

Enrollment at the French International School of Philadelphia has grown rapidly since the school’s founding in 1991. It is expected to continue growing by an average of 20 students per year over the next decade. Our co-educational school opened its doors with eight students; today, it enrolls over 350 students from preschool to eighth grade.

Our students come from diverse cultural backgrounds. One third of them come from American families, one third from French families and one third from international and bilingual families. There are 48 nationalities represented at the school, and many of our students speak another language at home. When they enroll at French International School, our students have different language abilities in English and in French, ranging from being fluent in both languages to being monolingual in either language. Most of our non-French speaking students enter in preschool, pre-kindergarten or kindergarten and a few of them are admitted in first grade.

This admissions policy ensures that all of our students maintain a good ability level in French at all levels. Our non-English speaking students, helped by their English speaking environment, receive support instruction in English and are able to fully participate in their regular English classes by the end of their first school year.

To capitalize on our cultural differences and to foster a sense of community in our school, we also created a Parents Welcoming Committee which ensures that each new family is welcomed to our school community and introduced to a family who is already familiar with our school. The committee tries to pair families of different cultural origins who live in the same geographical area when setting up this "buddy system.”