Jeannine Manuel School

"Learning a foreign language is, by itself, important; it is also a means to better understand others, to be able to think like them." That belief, set down by the school's founder Jeannine Manuel, still runs the timetable at the London school that carries her name. Spread across three townhouses around Russell Square and Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, it teaches roughly 700 children from Nursery to Year 13 in a genuinely bilingual French and English community. It is the youngest of three sister schools, joining the original in Paris and a second in Lille, and it has been led since it opened in 2015 by headteacher Pauline Prevot. Sixth-formers sit the International Baccalaureate or the Baccalauréat Français International. Fees run to about £29,736 a year, with around 16% of pupils on means-tested bursaries.

The school carries its purpose in its name. Jeannine Manuel opened her first bilingual school, the École Active Bilingue, in a Paris townhouse in 1954, convinced that mastering two languages was the surest route to understanding other people. The London school opened in September 2015 at Bedford Square, in honour of the years Manuel had spent in the city, and it grew from the youngest classes upward as each cohort moved through, adding middle and upper years in turn until it reached its present shape from Nursery to sixth form. That deliberate, year-by-year expansion gives the place a settled feel rather than the rawness of a new foundation.

Bilingualism is the organising principle, not an accessory. From the early years upward, core subjects are taught across both French and English, while each language and its literature are studied in their own tongue. The model is built to absorb children who arrive speaking only one of the two languages: non-French speakers are welcomed at any stage, and beginners in English are accepted up to Year 7, then brought to fluency through structured support. Around 141 pupils have English as an additional language, and the whole method assumes that switching between two languages is ordinary rather than exceptional. In these bilingual classrooms, pupils take evident pride in working and conversing across both tongues.

Physically, the school sits within central Bloomsbury rather than behind gates. It occupies three separate sites within a few minutes' walk of each other: the primary school at Russell Square, the middle school at Bedford Square, and the upper school, home to Years 11 to 13, close by. Children move between buildings as they progress, and leaders treat safe passage between the sites as a managed part of the school day. The effect is closer to a small, scholarly institute than a sprawling campus, with the museums and university libraries of Bloomsbury on the doorstep.

Jeannine Manuel is academically serious, but it expresses that seriousness through international qualifications rather than the GCSE and A-level measures that fill most English league tables. That makes some standard comparisons inexact, and the school is best read on its own terms.

The clearest published benchmark sits in the sixth form. In 2025 the school's IB Diploma cohort averaged 38 points out of a possible 45, well clear of the global average of about 30.5, and 44% of students scored between 40 and 45 points, against roughly 9% worldwide. Students on the French track, the Baccalauréat Français International, performed comparably: the 2025 group averaged 17.2 out of 20, with 86% earning the Très Bien distinction and 42% the jury's highest commendation, the Félicitations du Jury.

Those results translate into a strong England-wide standing. On the FindMySchool academic measure, the sixth form places 107th of 2,562 schools in England for post-16 results, a top 4.2% position (ranked against every school in England with published sixth-form results, state and independent). That is well above the England average. On the overall measure, which blends results with the FindMySchool inspection score, it ranks 142nd of 2,561, and within Camden it sits third. These are proprietary FindMySchool rankings built from official data.

The picture at GCSE is different, and it needs explaining rather than scoring. Because pupils follow a bilingual curriculum built on the French programme and move onto the IB or BFI track from Year 11, the school does not enter the standard suite of English GCSEs, so it does not feature in GCSE attainment tables in the usual way. Parents should read the absence of a GCSE ranking as a consequence of the curriculum model, not of weak teaching. The primary phase is similarly outside the English Key Stage tables, following the bilingual programme from the start.

What can be said with confidence is that the academic culture is demanding early. Cross-disciplinary projects run through the curriculum so that pupils see the links between subjects, and the language menu is broad: alongside French and English, pupils study Chinese, Spanish, German and Latin at various stages. The school's stated ambition is not simply strong results but genuine biliteracy, and the inspection evidence supports that the programme delivers it.

Teaching here answers two demands at once: the subject and the language it is taught in. Most lessons across the school are well planned and executed, and teachers engage and motivate pupils so that they make good progress. The bilingual method asks a great deal of staff, who deliver rigorous content while scaffolding the language a child is still acquiring. Inspectors singled out the support given to pupils in the process of mastering either French or English as a significant strength of the school.

Oracy carries particular weight. Pupils are expected to speak, present and debate in both languages, and they emerge confident and articulate, proud of their progress even while consolidating a second tongue. Teachers are drawn from both French and English-speaking backgrounds, so a subject may be taught in whichever language is the teacher's mother tongue, and children grow used to receiving instruction naturally in either. The school also draws on its links with the Paris and Lille schools, sharing pedagogy and ideas across the network, which keeps its practice from turning inward.

Support for pupils with special educational needs or disabilities is built into ordinary teaching rather than bolted on. The school has identified 56 pupils with SEND, none currently holding an education, health and care plan, and staff work with parents and outside specialists to tailor support to each child. Booster lessons and small-group interventions help pupils developing English or French, with around 47 of those learning English as an additional language receiving extra small-group support.

There is still room to sharpen delivery, and the candour about it is useful for parents. In some junior lessons, planning does not consistently engage or motivate every pupil, and the school is working to make planning and delivery in the primary phase more even and to apply its behaviour policy uniformly across lessons and breaktimes. These are refinements to a strong picture rather than fundamental faults, but they are the live areas of work.

The school's exits fall at three points: the end of the primary phase, the move into the upper school, and university entry at eighteen. Progression within the school is the norm, with most pupils continuing up through the three buildings, so the bilingual programme runs as a continuous journey from Nursery rather than a sequence of fresh starts.

Sixth-form destinations show the school's international character most clearly. Recent leavers have gone to a spread of leading universities at home and abroad. The class of 2021 saw the great majority apply to British universities and secure their first-choice places, with most UK applicants receiving Russell Group offers from institutions including Oxford, the London School of Economics, King's College London and UCL. Individual alumni illustrate the range: one recent leaver combined a technology degree apprenticeship at IBM with study at the University of Exeter, another went to read International Relations at the University of St Andrews, and a third took up a place on the Sciences Po and Columbia dual-degree programme spanning France and New York.

On Oxbridge, the numbers are best read precisely. In a recent year, six students applied to the University of Cambridge, three received offers, and one took up a place. These are small figures in keeping with a small year group, and they sit within a wider pattern of students reaching selective universities across several countries rather than concentrating on two. Of the most recent leaving cohort for whom destination data is available, about 60% progressed directly to university, with others taking international routes or gap years first, a distribution that fits a group accustomed to studying across borders.

The through-line is that leavers are equipped for a global set of choices, not a purely British one. Two languages, an internationally recognised diploma, and a multicultural peer group open doors to universities in several systems at once, and recent destinations spread across the UK, France, Canada, Spain and Switzerland bear that out. To compare post-16 outcomes here against other Camden sixth forms side by side, the FindMySchool local hub sets them out together.

Admission is open at every stage, from Nursery through to sixth-form entry, and the process is unusual because it is built around language acquisition rather than academic selection. No prior knowledge of French is required at any level, and beginners in English are accepted up to Year 7. Older students joining the upper school are expected to have stronger English, given the demands of the IB and BFI, but younger children are brought to fluency from a standing start.

The route runs in stages. Families submit an online application with supporting documents, attend a mandatory presentation given by the leadership team about the school's approach, and then meet leadership staff for an interview. A decision usually follows within about two weeks. Applications are considered individually, with an explicit aim of building a culturally diverse cohort in line with the founding mission, so this is not a test-and-rank exercise. Families whose children already attend the Paris or Lille schools follow a streamlined path and do not need a separate admissions appointment.

Admissions run on a rolling basis, opening the year before entry, so there is no single coordinated deadline of the kind state schools use, and in-year places are considered when they arise. A non-refundable application fee of £275 applies on submission, and a first registration fee of £2,750 falls due when a place is accepted. Because the school is small and its sites compact, demand at the most sought-after entry points can be high, so early enquiry is sensible. The school runs presentations and primary tours through the year and publishes current dates directly, so families should check for the latest schedule rather than rely on fixed timings.

Pastoral provision met all the relevant standards at the 2024 inspection, covering physical and mental health, emotional wellbeing, and pupils' social and economic education. For a school spread across three buildings, the consistency of that care matters, and leaders manage the daily movement of children between sites as a deliberate safeguarding responsibility.

Safeguarding is effective. Leaders, staff and governors share a thorough understanding of child protection, built on regular training, detailed policies and procedures that adults across the school understand and apply. The school takes a clear line on behaviour and bullying, responding swiftly when issues arise, though there is still work to do in applying the behaviour policy with complete consistency across every classroom and during breaktimes.

Wellbeing here is bound up with identity. Many pupils are living and learning in a second language, and often a second culture, and the school is geared to helping children feel confident and valued in that situation. Being multilingual and multinational is the norm rather than the exception, which gives internationally mobile families a built-in sense of belonging. For diplomatic, academic and business families relocating to London, that can be the difference between a child who settles quickly and one who struggles.

The defining enrichment at Jeannine Manuel is language and culture, and it reaches well beyond timetabled lessons. Music starts young: the Nursery and early years follow Music Sparks, a Kodály-based programme through which the youngest children build musicianship and musical literacy by exploring pitch, tone and sight-singing before they can read. Older pupils sing in the school choir, whose 38 members, aged from 7 to 13, join the University College London student choir each December for carol singing in Bedford Square. Music is taught daily to children in the early years, and drama runs alongside it, with pupils devising their own scenes and acting out French fables as an introduction to theatre and comedy.

International engagement is the second thread, and it is more than a slogan here. Students run a Model United Nations programme, taking a team to the London Youth MUN, where members have picked up awards across several committees, and the school's links with the Paris and Lille schools sustain shared projects and exchanges across the Channel. Sustainability has become a genuine pillar: the student-led Eco-Committee won a Green Flag for its work, which includes a Middle School greenhouse and vegetable garden, a Nature in London photography competition celebrating urban biodiversity, and Earth Day activities. Many older students take on the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, adding expedition, service and skills to the mix.

Sport and the arts are handled through partnerships that suit a central-London school without playing fields of its own. For physical education and games the school holds arrangements with the local YMCA for its 25-metre pool and gymnasium, a short walk from Bedford Square, uses the Astroturf pitches at nearby Coram's Fields, and accesses University College London's Energy Base for further pool and gymnasium time. In the sixth form, IB Visual Arts students work in a dedicated space with Mac workstations and Adobe Creative Suite, building a body of work towards their final exhibition. The primary site adds three outdoor playgrounds, including a rooftop play area, and two large halls double as space for physical education and whole-school gatherings.

The IB framework builds enrichment into the qualification itself. Every diploma student completes the programme's core: an Extended Essay of independent research, Theory of Knowledge, and Creativity, Activity, Service, so scholarship, reflection and service count towards the diploma rather than sitting outside it. University guidance is a strength in its own right, with counsellors and advisers running workshops, aptitude testing and interview preparation to ready students for applications across several national systems at once, from the UK to France and beyond.

Fees for 2025-26 are published as annual amounts. From Reception through the middle school the fee is £24,780 before VAT, or about £29,736 with VAT included, and it holds at that level for the French-track BFI year. For the IB Diploma the fee rises to £29,340 before VAT, or about £35,208 inclusive. A non-refundable application fee of £275 applies on submission, and a first registration fee of £2,750 falls due when a place is accepted. Lunch and the optional school bus are charged separately. For Nursery fee details, families should consult the school directly.

Financial aid is entirely means-tested. Around 16% of pupils receive a bursary, and on average those awards cover about two-thirds of the fees, which can be transformative for a qualifying family. Support is open to pupils of all nationalities and assessed against household income, with the school publishing guidance on the income levels at which help becomes likely. These are need-based bursaries rather than merit scholarships, so they exist to widen access rather than to reward attainment; French nationals may separately apply for French government assistance. Families should apply for aid alongside the main application and, because awards are reviewed annually, reconfirm each year.

The school runs across three sites within a short walk of one another in Bloomsbury: the primary school and Nursery near Russell Square, the middle school at Bedford Square, and the upper school close by. That central setting puts it within reach of several Underground lines and the mainline termini at Euston, King's Cross and St Pancras, which makes it accessible across a wide spread of London. An optional, chaperoned school bus service runs on several named routes, JM-1 to JM-6, serving south-west, north-west and north-east London, though the buses serve the primary and middle schools rather than the upper school. The school holds Gold accreditation under Transport for London's STARS travel scheme and provides secure bicycle storage near its sites, encouraging pupils to walk, cycle or use public transport.

The compact, urban footprint means outdoor space is limited compared with a suburban school, something families used to large playing fields should weigh. For the early years, places begin in the Nursery. For Nursery fee details, see the school website; government-funded hours may be available for eligible families, and you can consult our guide to nursery funding. Wraparound and holiday care arrangements are not prominently published, so families who need extended hours should confirm the current provision directly with the school.

Cost is the central barrier. With fees of roughly £29,736 a year and rising above £35,000 for the IB Diploma once VAT is included, this is a significant commitment. The 16% of pupils on means-tested bursaries, covering on average two-thirds of fees, softens this for qualifying families, but for most the headline cost will be the deciding factor.

It is a specialist choice, not a default. The whole proposition rests on full French and English bilingualism. Families who do not want their child immersed in two languages, or who are not committed to that path for the long term, will find the model a poor fit. It is designed for those who actively want a bicultural education.

The qualifications differ from the English mainstream. Students leave with the IB Diploma or the French BFI rather than A-levels, and the lower school follows a bilingual French-based curriculum rather than the English Key Stage framework and standard GCSEs. These are well-regarded, internationally portable routes, but parents are choosing a different system, and the school does not appear in GCSE league tables as a result.

Space and consistency. The three central-London townhouses are characterful but compact, with limited outdoor space, and the most recent inspection asked the school to make lesson planning in the junior years and the application of its behaviour policy more consistent. Both are active areas of work rather than serious failings.

Jeannine Manuel School does something rare in London: it makes full bilingualism and a bicultural identity the foundation of everything, then backs it with strong outcomes. An average IB score of 38 in 2025, a top 4.2% standing in England for sixth-form results, and university destinations spread confidently across the UK, France, Canada and beyond all point the same way. Teaching is rigorous and language-aware, pastoral care holds up well across three sites, and the international ethos is lived rather than advertised. It is best suited to families who want their children to grow up genuinely at home in both French and English, who value an international qualification and outlook, and who can meet the fees or qualify for the school's fairly generous means-tested aid. The main caveat is exactly that specialism: this is a deliberate, distinctive path rather than a conventional English independent school, and it rewards families who choose it on purpose.