Lycée Français Théodore Monod – Abu Dhabi

Created in 2006 in order to respond to a growing French-speaking community in Abu Dhabi, the Al Bateen school was only intended to accommodate primary classes.

It is quite naturally that the name of Théodore Monod, whose friendship with Louis Massignon (a great French academic and Islamologist) was forged in a great Orientalism and humanism, was chosen.

Théodore Monod is a French scientist , naturalist, biologist, explorer, scholar and humanist. He is the great French specialist in deserts, one of the greatest specialists of the Sahara in the twentieth century and many of his 1,200 publications are considered as works of reference.

After many trying crossings of the Sahara desert in Africa, Theodore Monod devoted himself to the Libyan desert. In 1993, at the age of 91, he embarked on a last expedition in the Majabat al Koubra, the desert of deserts. At the end of this Theodore Monod got off his camel for the last time.

The establishment by adopting as a symbol a caravan of camels crossing the desert pays homage to him for eternity.

Inaugurated by Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, future President of the French Republic, the French Lycée Théodore Monod opens its doors, a former Emirati villa. Gradually the numbers increase and the acquisition of the campus site, in front of the villa allows to separate the students while keeping the TPS and the PS on the villa and all the other classes on the campus.

In 2013, the first college students were welcomed and the campus site was gradually enlarged. In June 2017, the first promotion of students awarded the National Diploma of the Brevet was celebrated. This is the first step that will lead our students to the baccalaureate in 2020.

Thanks to AFLEC, the Elite management group and diplomatic services, the Lycée FrançaisThéodore Monod has built a solid foundation for the future of all French speakers in Abu Dhabi. The vision of the LFTM also goes further. In 2016, the school acquired land on the cultural island of Saadiyat which will host all classes from the PS to the terminal at the start of the 2020 school year in ultramodern infrastructures.