It receives its name from François Fénelon, a French theologian and writer (1651-1715) who promoted women's education in his writings, notably in his "Traité de l'éducation des filles".

It was initially created as the first high school for girls in Paris,[2] to prepare female students to the École normale supérieure de jeunes filles.

Like other lycées in France, Fénelon functions as an ordinary high school for years 10–12, but also as an institute to teach the “post-bac” (≈undergraduate) academic programs known as Classe préparatoire aux grandes écoles (a.k.a.

[3] In particular, its Humanities (khâgne) students rank just behind Lycées Henri IV and Louis-Le-Grand in their rates of success in the annual entrance competition to ENS (“Concours”).

Initially, the Lycée Fénelon prepared girls to enter the École normale supérieure de jeunes filles located in Sèvres until 1940, and which merged with that of the rue d'Ulm (originally for boys) in 1985.