Outings and extracurricular activities at the Maison d’education of the Legion of Honor of Saint-Denis help in developing the teenage girls’ full potential, enhance their sense of civic responsibility and provide a break from school life and exam preparation.
Civic engagement
The school's unique status offers its students many opportunities to meet new people and take part in official ceremonies.
Delegations of students take part in major symbolic events in French national life, such as speeches at the start of the academic year, the taking up of arms at Les Invalides or the rekindling of the flame under the Arc de Triomphe.
Music
The traditionally high level of musical life at the Maisons d'education offers the opportunity to learn how to play an instrument or to sing, and to take part in various group activities (choir, orchestra or chamber music).
Individual, fee-paying lessons are given by music conservatory teachers in music studios that are made available to the students. Students can then work on their instruments in their free time. Several common rooms are also available for group practice.
Both choir members and instrumentalists perform regularly in official concerts, including the French president’s concert in the spring, which brings together music classes and vocal and instrumental ensembles from both Maisons d'education.
Visual arts
The success of this artistic activity among the school girls owes much to the beauty of the visual arts studio, adorned with superb 19th-century plaster casts and located in the oldest wing of the cloister. In turn, the students' works are regularly exhibited in the building.
Cultural activities
The film club and the drama club organize programs and workshops for students, which give rise to shows that put on and presented at the end of the year: plays, contemporary ballets or poetry competitions.
Cultural outings are also regularly organized to the Paris Opera, the Comédie Française, museums and temporary exhibitions.
Sports
A source of self-fulfillment, camaraderie and equilibrium, the practice of a sport as part of the sports association is strongly promoted to encourage students to discover an activity and learn to surpass themselves.
A wide range of activities are on offer: badminton, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, bodybuilding, basketball, fitness, etc… Some can be practiced on the grounds of the maison d’education.
Depending on the activity, practice takes place on Wednesday afternoons or weekday evenings.
Travel and student exchanges
Every year, we organize trips and language study stays with foreign schools with which our Maisons d'education have close ties, such as Gymnasium Max-Josef-Stift, Uppingham School and the Hewitt School in New York City.
The usual destinations are Germany, the UK, the US, Spain and Portugal, as well as occasional trips elsewhere, defined according to the program and the relationships forged by the teaching staff or management.
In exchange for the hospitality offered to its students, the Maison d’education of Saint-Denis welcomes exchange students from abroad who stay at the boarding school.