In 2015, the Departmental Assembly of Yvelines voted for the rehabilitation-extension of the international school of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Between May 2017 and December 2020, under the project management of the Department of Yvelines, several work operations were therefore carried out. Cost of the operation: €67 million including tax (including €28.7 million for the Department of Yvelines).
On the campus flanked by 14 flags, resounds a symphony of foreign languages. This high school is unique in Europe. It offers, from kindergarten to terminale, 14 international sections that prepare for the baccalaureate with an international option. It is not enough to have foreign or bi-national parents, you must have a good academic level and a great open-mindedness.
“Tolerance, humanism, openness to others is in the DNA of this establishment”
insists France Bessis, principal.
Addressing the students present at the inauguration, ambassadors of 14 sections including the Russian section which welcomes refugee students from UkrainePierre Bédier, President of the Department, touched the young people:
Universalism is peace, prosperity, happiness. It’s a permanent fight for tomorrow to be better. Here, you learn civic engagement, you learn to live it in society through tolerance, through intelligence and not through violence.
More than 2 years of work
This flagship of western Paris had been “forgotten” in the modernization plans.
Created in 1952 at the request of General Eisenhower to accommodate the children of NATO officers, it had become dilapidated and even very degraded in places..
The Department of Yvelines had to challenges the Region (in charge of high schools) and mobilizes to ensure that funding is released and renovation undertaken.
The high school suffered from a lack of rooms, too few refectory surfaces and the dilapidated state of certain installations..
It includes a kindergarten, an elementary school, a college and a general education high school. On a daily basis, 2,300 students are welcomed (including more than 600 middle school students and 900 high school students) and around 800 external students.
• Between 2017 and 2020the work carried out under the project management of the Yvelines Departmental Council concerned in particular: the construction of a new gymnasium and an adjoining sports ground with 70 parking spaces, on land adjacent to the establishment in the town of Fourqueux,
• the construction of 8 apartments on the land located at 23 rue du Fer à Cheval,
• the reconstruction of a kindergarten,
• the reconstruction of half board,
• the reconstruction of a underground car park,
• the restructuring of the college-high school day schooland the construction of an extension to the day school,
• the restructuring of the Agora building,
• the primary school rehabilitation,
In total, in 2 and a half years of rehabilitation-extension of the establishment, nearly 25,000 m² of floor space has been added to the existing.
In addition, the site has also been the subject of a security through the implementation of 34 video protection cameras, work carried out by Seine & Yvelines Numérique in 2020.
Retrospective: The school is 70 years old
This year celebrates the 70th anniversary of the international high school built on the hill where the castle of Hennemont stands. Festivities are organized (conferences, shows, art exhibitions, workshops, etc.).
The destiny of this castle is transformed during the year 1951 thanks to General Eisenhower. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is settling in western Paris through the “Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe” (SHAPE) (Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Forces in Europe).
A “SHAPE village” of “allied” officers was built around the castle: the village of Hennemont. The architectural feat, in terms of modernity and speed, is a landmark: it is one of the pilot sites for one of the very first large, industrial, quality complexes.
General Eisenhower asks the treasurer of SHAPE, theAdmiral Guillaume Le Bigotfrom to create an international school in order to unite the military of twelve different nationalities. General Eisenhower then pronounces a mythical formula for the place, related by Guillaume le Bigot: “a village, a chapel, a school”. Professor René Tallard becomes the first director of this international school which opens the Thursday, January 17, 1952.
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