International schools in Nice and along the Riviera

One kind of school is private, teaches in English or in two languages, and follows an international or British programme. Another kind is a French public school with an international section: the children are in the French system, with extra teaching built with the partner country, and the diploma at the end is a French one with an international mention.

Both can be the right answer. They do not feel the same on a Monday morning, and the commute is not the same. The private campuses I have checked cluster in Nice and around Sophia Antipolis, Mougins and Valbonne. The public international lycée most families mean, when they mean a full set of language sections, is in Valbonne. Nice has a public lycée with two international sections, not a whole international school from nursery upward.

I have not listed a school in Monaco, Cannes or Antibes town on this page, because I had not verified one there on its own site when I wrote it. If you have a name, send it. I will read the site before I add it. Fees stay on the school's admissions page. I won't copy a number that will be wrong by next September.

The International School of Nice describes itself as a private, co-educational day school on the Riviera, for students from 3 to 18, offering the International Baccalaureate. Its site puts the campus at 15 Avenue Claude Debussy, 06200 Nice.

Primary, on their page, is an English-language international curriculum. Middle school is for ages 11 to 14 and leads toward IGCSE and the IB Diploma. High school is for ages 14 to 18 and follows IGCSE and the IB Diploma Programme. They also mention a school bus along the coast from Monaco to Cannes. I have not copied their results statistics. If a number matters to you, read it on their site, where they can correct it.

Mougins British International School is in the woods above Sophia Antipolis, at 615 Avenue Maurice Donat, 06250 Mougins. The site says it offers a British international education for students aged 2 to 18, following the National Curriculum for England, then IGCSE, and after that A Levels. The secondary page also mentions BTEC as a route after IGCSE.

This is the school I point people to when the brief is "British, and not only a bilingual hour inside a French week." It is not in Nice itself. The drive, or the bus, is part of the decision, which is why the apartment and the school have to be chosen together. Neighborhoods is the town sketch. I'll find your place is where I look for the home.

ICS Côte d'Azur calls itself a bilingual international primary school. It is a co-educational day school for children from 2 to 11, early years and primary, at 245 Route des Lucioles, 06560 Valbonne. The site describes a 50/50 French and English week, and a curriculum based on the IB Primary Years Programme.

It stops at 11. Families who start here still have to decide where the child goes for secondary, which is a conversation worth having before you sign a three-year lease. Mougins, the International School of Nice, and the public international sections in Valbonne are the names I would put on that list, and only those, until I have checked others.

The Campus International de Valbonne is public. Its own site describes a campus in the pines of Sophia Antipolis, with international sections from sixième, the start of middle school, through to the end of lycée. The languages it names for that range are German, English, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and Russian.

The collège page says the middle school takes only students in an international section, with programmes set jointly by the French authorities and the partner country. At the end of troisième, students sit the national brevet with the international option.

The lycée page lists six international sections: German, American, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and Russian-speaking. It also has an Esabac section, which awards the French baccalauréat and the Italian Esame di Stato together, plus French sections that are not international. Students who finish an international section take the Baccalauréat Français International.

This is the serious public answer on this coast if you want a French school with a real international section, rather than a private English school. Places are applied for. I am not going to invent a deadline. Use the campus site.

Lycée Masséna is a public lycée in Nice. On its own seconde-cycle page it lists classes called "Section internationale arabe ou portugais", with a candidacy file for seconde and notes on entering première or terminale. That is Arabic or Portuguese, not a general English international school.

I am not repeating the headcount on that page, which is years out of date. What I will say is the part a family needs: this is a French public lycée in the city, with those two international sections, not a standalone international school from age three. If you need English-medium teaching, look at the International School of Nice or Mougins instead, and read their sites.

ABC International is a private bilingual collège and lycée at 12 Rue Gioffredo, 06000 Nice. The site says the teaching follows the French national curriculum, in a bilingual setting, with Cambridge English exams through a partnership with the University of Cambridge. It describes classes capped at 16, and more than 30 years of the school. It also describes a school bus between Monaco and its buildings.

I include it because families searching for a bilingual school in Nice find it, and because it is not the same offer as the IB schools above. Your child would be aiming at the French bac, with a strong English side, not at the IB Diploma. If that is what you want, good. If you thought every school with "international" in the name taught the IB, this paragraph is the correction.

A beautiful flat in the old town of Nice is the wrong flat if the child needs to be in Valbonne at 8. I look at homes with that in mind: which train, which bus, which morning. The rental file, if you are not buying, is in Renting an apartment in Nice as a foreigner. The whole move, if you are coming from the US or Canada, starts at Moving to the French Riviera.

Write with the ages, the language you want the day to be taught in, and whether you need a school that goes all the way to 18. I will tell you which of these names is even in the conversation.