Originally, the lycée and collège sections were no more than annexes of the lycée Montaigne, known as "Annexe des Cordelières" due to the convent of the Poor Clares located next door. In 1956, the courses moved to prefabricated buildings and temporary installations. The current lycée was built at the start of the 1960s. It is built to resemble a bird spreading its wings. There is a residential tower inside. For the school's name, Saint-Exupéry was proposed and refused, as another lycée had also proposed this name. The question was then asked again and Rodin was eventually preferred, due to the fact that he was born and raised in the area.
Layout
The lycée Rodin, which also contains a college, can hold around students. It is a general lycée, and prepares for ES, L and S. There are clubs, covering the socio-educational needs. This includes clubs for chess, cooking, English-language theatre, photography, yoga and cinema. Sports clubs for AS, college, and lycée include badminton, football, badminton, basketball, gymnastics, and climbing. Some participants take part in competitions. The "History of Arts" option was launched for the first time for L in 1993 and at secondary level in 1994. The lycée Rodin has been a pilot lycée for interdisciplinary teaching. The new reforms have removed old-style deterministic teaching, but the lycée Rodin maintains this teaching in the form of "workshops". This allows all students to attend lectures on methodical readings of works of art, and for future students from the first to final years to better approach their speciality programme.
Lycée ranking
In 2015, the lycée was ranked 73rd out of 109 at départemental level on quality of teaching, and 962nd at national level. The ranking was based on three criteria: the level of bac results, the proportion of students who obtain a baccalauréat having spent their last two years at the establishment, and "added value".
From 1968 to the present day, the lycée Rodin has been known in Paris for its student and extreme-left politics. In the 1970s, they went on strike every year. They took part in many strikes involving lycées, most recently in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. During the 2005 movement against the Fillon law, they were one of the most active establishments. Again, strongly active against the CPE in 2006, they reacted in 2007 against the LRU under the impetus of SUD Lycéen activists, and took part in a strike of several months in 2008 against cuts in education posts. The newspaper Le Monde cited the school as an example of one of the most active. Aurélien Boudon, head of national student coordination in 2009, and federal secretary of SUD Étudiant studied there between 2005 and 2008. The influence of Jeunesses communistes révolutionnaires militants, then the "youth section" of the Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste, remains relatively important. During the 1990s, many militants of the Lutte ouvrière came to talk and debate in front of the school entrance.
The lycée is built on built on a bed of coarse fossiliferous limestone, visible in the basement. During its construction, the workers collected very beautiful specimens of Cerithium giganteum, a characteristic fossil of the Lutetian era. Fossils can be seen in the natural science laboratory.
