Secondary Admissions and Testing

Please read this guidance carefully before applying for a place. It explains priorities and other important issues which you need to know before applying.

General Points:

The English National Programme (ENP) is a private international section within the Cité Scolaire Internationale (CSI), a French public school. Pupils must therefore be accepted for a place in the school to be admitted to ENP. Admission to the Programme is not automatic. If fundamental decisions about coming to the 'Pays de Gex' or the Geneva area (or about your children's educational future) depend upon a place in the Programme, you must enquire about the likelihood of gaining a place before taking these.

Students in ENP have a native or near-native English level in all aspects of the language. Our principal aim is to provide tuition in English, History-Geography (and the option of Mathematics), working in the context of, and in co-operation with, the French educational system within the CSI, Ferney-Voltaire. This tuition generally occupies six to eight hours in the secondary timetable each week. All other hours and subjects are taught in French following the French state curriculum.

The English National Programme is governed and financed by the ALA-ELP Association; an association registered under French law. Parents of children admitted to the Programme are required to become members of this Association, to abide by its statutes and rules and to pay promptly the membership and tuition fees on receipt of invoices. Fees are set at the beginning of the academic year, in late September or early October. The fees change from year to year due to inflation and fluctuations in the number of students enrolled.  Before requesting admission to the Programme, Please consult our tuition fees page for further information about the Association and current tuition fees.

Corresponding School Years

Admission Testing:

All places in the Programme are awarded based on admission test performances. For all Collège and Lycée levels the test will consist of a reading comprehension exercise and a piece of continuous writing by the candidate. An oral test will also take place. Our tests are designed to assess the student’s level of spoken and written English. The complexity of the test increases with the age of the student.

For the academic year 2025-2026 the first testing session for admission to ENP in secondary will take place in the afternoon on Friday the 4th April 2025. We will offer the opportunity of online testing for families living too far to travel for in-person tests. The date will be communicated to families on request. 

The deadline to register for the April in-person admission test is Monday 24^th March 2025.

If there are still places available in the College/Lycée, a further testing session can be held just before the school re-opens in September for families new to the area. However, we strongly recommended that children attend the earlier (April) testing session if possible.

Places and Admission Priorities:

Many pupils joining the Secondary section of the English National Programme in 6ème come from our Primary section, however admission is not automatic. All pupils for 6ème, both those in the Primary section and new pupils, take the same type of test and results are compared in what is, in effect, one testing session.   

The final decision regarding admission rests with the administration of CSI Ferney-Voltaire and not with the English National Programme. The English National Programme passes the results of all tests to the CSI’s Proviseur who, reporting to the French authorities, is responsible for offering places in the school and in all International Sections. The number of places available within the Cité Scolaire Internationale is managed by the Rectorat and the DSDEN (French Education Nationale authorities in Lyon and Bourg-en-Bresse).

In the event of oversubscription in the collège, places in ENP are awarded as follows:

• to students living in the Ferney-Voltaire catchment area (as the collège is the "collège de secteur").
• children of CERN employees (that is, those who are employed directly by CERN).
• Students who live outside the Ferney-Voltaire catchment area, "hors secteur", but joining from French public schools in the Pays de Gex.

A further selection criterion may be applied by the Proviseur based on the test score, particularly for the collège.

Final decisions about the main testing session in April are sometimes not made until June or early July.

Application for Admission

All requests for enrolment in the school and testing for admission to the Programme are processed by the school administration and not by ENP. You must therefore contact the Proviseur's secretary, Mme Cretenoud - sec.prov.0010072y@ac-lyon.fr, to register your child. Please copy ENP’s Admission Officer, Mrs Gwen MARY, administration@enpferney.org, who will then contact you with details of how to register your child for the admission test.

An administrative fee will be charged for each application to take our admission test. The fee is non-refundable and applicable to all applicants, including those who have applied to, or been part of, the Programme previously. The fee for secondary applications is €150 which will be payable on registering your child for the test.

If you have any further questions then please contact Ms MARY, by emailing administration@enpferney.org or calling the ENP office on 0033(0)749315529.