While the start of the new academic year at the country's primary and secondary schools is scheduled for the week of 16 September, several European and international schools in Luxembourg will be resuming classes the week of 2 September. The International School of Luxembourg already restarted classes on Monday 26 August. In France, the start of the new school year is scheduled for the week of 2 September, and on the Belgian side, more specifically the Walloon side, the start of the new school year took place on 26 August.
At the French-language Vauban international school, in Gasperich, the new school year begins on the afternoon of Monday 2 September. Marguerite Poupart-Lafarge, headmaster of the lycée (high school) and school director, said in an interview on Thursday 29 August: "We always carry out a pre-course for new pupils from sixième to terminale", the first and final years of secondary education, respectively.
In total, for the year 2024-2025, the school will have 2,625 pupils, Poupart-Lafarge stated, "a figure that will no doubt rise to 2,640 depending on last-minute enrolments. This compares with 2,610 last year. In primary school, we have over 1,000 pupils in 42 classes, including 12 nursery classes. That doesn't happen in France, for example. This proves that there was a real need in the country."
280 teachers at Vauban
Also at Vauban, the official start of the school year for sixième (year 7) students takes place on Thursday 5 September, followed in the afternoon by year 12 (premières) and year 13 first and final (terminale) students (in the French school system). On Friday 6 September, all other levels of secondary school will be back in session. At primary level, the start of the school year will be staggered "to welcome all pupils individually on Thursday and Friday for nursery and elementary schools". The school has a total staff of 350, including 280 teachers. The number of staff also increases every year, because "we have opened new classes and set up additional support systems for pupils, such as remedial work, levelling, tutoring, etc.”
Due to the number of classrooms, we can no longer open new classes, we are at the limit of our capacity.
"We feel that many families are arriving in Luxembourg, and demand is increasing every year. Our priority is to provide schooling for children who don't have a school," explained Poupart-Lafarge, this being her fifth year at the helm of Vauban. "Because of the number of classrooms, we can't open any more, we're at the limit of our capacity.”
Vauban is a public school, part of the AEFE network (Agence pour l'enseignement français à l'étranger). "We have partner status, which means that we are totally independent; we are approved by the AEFE, but we receive no funding from France. On the other hand, we do receive subsidies from the Luxembourg government." The school boasts a 100% pass rate in the French baccalauréat almost every year.
Other schools already starting their school year in the week of 2 September include Deutsch-Luxemburgische Schengen-Lyzeum (2 September), the two European schools in Kirchberg and Mamer (3 September) and St George's International School (4 September). But there is also the EIDE in Differdange and Esch-sur-Alzette, which, unlike its five counterparts among the country's accredited European schools, which are aligned with the Luxembourg start date, will be staggering the start of the school year for its pupils from Thursday 5 September until 10 September. The private French school Sainte-Sophie will be back in session on 16 September.
EIDE: 97.8% European baccalaureate success rate
"We are the first accredited European school in the country to have presented students for the European baccalaureate, and we had to have the same teaching volumes as the other accredited European schools in the EU, which is why we had made the collegial choice within the management to return a week earlier than in the Luxembourg system,” Gérard Zens, director of EIDE, an international school with campuses in Differdange and Esch-Alzette, said in an interview on Friday 30 August. “But generally, for the 2025-2026 school year, our return would be in mid-September like the other accredited European schools in the country". New arrivals are always possible during the year, but for the moment, the number of students registered at EIDE is 2,235, including 384 new registrations, with 251 teachers (162 for secondary and 89 for primary). For the second year in a row, EIDE students (90 of them) sat the European baccalaureate exams. Eighty-eight students, or 97.8% of the total number of candidates, passed. "We are very proud of our students and teachers who made these results possible. What's more, out of the 88 baccalaureate holders, twelve started in the reception class, and even three later on the preparatory track, meaning they were new arrivals, so without the approved European school they might not have been able to access this level in the traditional Luxembourg system," said Zens.
Separately, 28 students from the Lënster Lycée International School (LLIS) also sat the European baccalaureate exams for the first time in June 2024, and they achieved 100% success.
When asked by Paperjam about the number of pupils who will be returning to school in Luxembourg for the 2024-2025 school year, the Ministry of National Education explained that "the figures… are currently being worked out and will be published in the week of 9 September", during the traditional back-to-school press conference of the Minister of National Education, Children and Youth, (DP). At the start of the previous academic year, in 2023, there were 113,416 pupils in public and private education (60,901 in basic education and 52,515 in secondary education). In public schools, 12,202 pupils started the new school year last year.
Read the original French-language version of this report