Lycée Louis Massignon (United Arab Emirates)

Lycée Louis Massignon (also referred to as LLM) is one of two French language schools in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - the other being Lycée Théodore Monod. It was established in 1972 as the École des Sociétés Françaises and grew out of an initiative of the Société des Pétroles. In 1982, the school was renamed in honour of Louis Massignon, a noted French scholar of Islam. From 1992, it has been managed by the Agence pour l’Enseignement Français à l’Etranger (AEFE), the agency within the French Foreign Ministry charged with overseeing French language education abroad.

The Lycée's structure and curriculum are based on the French educational system. It comprises the "Maternelle" and the "Primaire" (essentially kindergarten ("Petite section") through fifth grade ("CM2"). As well as the collège (junior high school) and the lycée (senior high school/sixth form college), essentially sixth grade ("Sixième") through twelfth grade ("Terminale"). In 2022, the school had more than 2,100 students.

History
The school was established in 1972. Its initial location was a residence in the Corniche area. Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan had donated the land for the first location.

Its current campus, which replaced the former one, opened in 1980. Jean-Claude Guisset, the ambassador of France to the UAE, facilitated a land swap which allowed for the new campus.

In 1981, the enrollment was 650. 20% of the students had backgrounds of languages other than French.

At some point the school began to admit non-French nationals, and it also established gender segregation as well as Arabic classes for senior high/sixth form students; some parents complained about the requirements to take Arabic classes. In 1982, there was a dispute between the French and UAE over the UAE legal system causing the dissolution of the parents' association.

In 2019 it had 1,760 students. That year, a 300000 sqm addition was built.

Curriculum
Instruction is almost entirely in French; 3 hours a week of Arabic language classes are compulsory and English is taught from the 1st grade, an SIB course is available from the first grade onto the ninth. A third language is introduced in the sixth grade: Spanish or German. Latin and Russian are optional additional languages.

Headmasters and direction
Lycée Louis Massignon has had many headmasters since its establishment. The current headmistress is Anne-Sophie Gouix, and the co-headmaster being Frédéric Chanut.