The Guide
Wed, 24 June 2026

Cities / Shenzhen / École Française Internationale de Shenzhen

École Française Internationale de Shenzhen



  • A small parent-founded school in Shekou, opened 2018 with around 18 pupils and growing to roughly 40 across multi-level classes from kindergarten to collège. Run as a non-profit association linked to AEFE.
  • Founded explicitly as a cheaper alternative to the Shekou International School French section, with French families noting EFIS is roughly half the cost of SIS at primary level.
  • Intake is mostly Franco-Chinese and Francophone, with a small minority from Russian, Canadian and Israeli families. Mandarin sits in extra-curriculars rather than the core day, with four hours of English per week alongside the French national programme.
  • No independent parent reviews surface publicly beyond the founding announcements. Parents discussing Shenzhen French options lean negative on QSI's CNED-only French stream and on SIS's high capital fee, which is part of why EFIS exists.
  • No public parent commentary has surfaced for this school. The day-to-day picture sits inside the Shekou parent network rather than any public corpus.

Positives

  • Affordability vs Shekou alternatives. Parents value EFIS as a more affordable French-curriculum option compared with SIS and full QSI fees

Considerations

  • School scale. Small intake with multi-level classes; suits some families and rules out the breadth a larger lycée would offer
  • Public review depth. No independent parent reviews, Mumsnet or schools-database aggregators