The school

Our history

From seventy pupils in a rented building to three campuses and five thousand students. Fifty-six years in nine stages.

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1970
70
Bchara El Khoury Street, Beirut
The school opens in a rented building with seventy kindergarten and elementary pupils in the French section. Fouad Zebian is thirty-six.
1971
111
The second year
One hundred and eleven pupils. The school had survived its first year, which most private schools of the period did not.
1975
1 600
The village that became a school
The civil war forces a move to Mzraat El Chouf, the founder’s birthplace. Its houses become classrooms and its gardens playgrounds, with a boarding wing for teachers from outside the Chouf. Four hundred pupils, then over sixteen hundred the following year — not a school in a village, but a village inside a school.
1977
The hill at Bekaata
In October the school moves to a hill in the middle of the Chouf, at Bekaata on the edge of Semkhaniyeh. A new building, built to last.
1980s
2
Two branches on the coast
A branch opens at Dohat El Hoss in the coastal town of Naameh, and another at Ramlet El Bayda in Beirut. The school becomes Beiruti again without ceasing to be of the Chouf.
1995
Choueifat
The Dohat El Hoss branch moves to Choueifat on the Main Bchamoun Road, into a building of the newest generation. It is the main campus today.
1998
61
The roll of honour begins
The first recorded year of the official roll of honour. Since then, sixty-one national first places and one hundred and twenty-eight at governorate level.
2013
The succession
Fouad Zebian dies after twenty-five years spent preparing his son Haitham to carry the school. Leadership stays in the same family and on the same line.
2026
3
Three campuses, five thousand students
Choueifat, Bekaata and Beirut together hold close to five thousand students and six hundred teaching and support staff, an International Francophone Section, seven university partnerships and a TEDx licence.

1970
Bchara El Khoury Street, Beirut
The school opens in a rented building with seventy kindergarten and elementary pupils in the French section. Fouad Zebian is thirty-six.
1971
The second year
One hundred and eleven pupils. The school had survived its first year, which most private schools of the period did not.
1975
The village that became a school
The civil war forces a move to Mzraat El Chouf, the founder’s birthplace. Its houses become classrooms and its gardens playgrounds, with a boarding wing for teachers from outside the Chouf. Four hundred pupils, then over sixteen hundred the following year — not a school in a village, but a village inside a school.
1977
The hill at Bekaata
In October the school moves to a hill in the middle of the Chouf, at Bekaata on the edge of Semkhaniyeh. A new building, built to last.
1980s
Two branches on the coast
A branch opens at Dohat El Hoss in the coastal town of Naameh, and another at Ramlet El Bayda in Beirut. The school becomes Beiruti again without ceasing to be of the Chouf.
1995
Choueifat
The Dohat El Hoss branch moves to Choueifat on the Main Bchamoun Road, into a building of the newest generation. It is the main campus today.
1998
The roll of honour begins
The first recorded year of the official roll of honour. Since then, sixty-one national first places and one hundred and twenty-eight at governorate level.
2013
The succession
Fouad Zebian dies after twenty-five years spent preparing his son Haitham to carry the school. Leadership stays in the same family and on the same line.
2026
Three campuses, five thousand students
Choueifat, Bekaata and Beirut together hold close to five thousand students and six hundred teaching and support staff, an International Francophone Section, seven university partnerships and a TEDx licence.

From seventy pupils in a rented building to three campuses and five thousand students. Fifty-six years in nine stages.

Our history

Bchara El Khoury Street, Beirut

The second year

The village that became a school

The hill at Bekaata

Two branches on the coast

Choueifat

The roll of honour begins

The succession

Three campuses, five thousand students