The French School of Sydney took the name Lycée Condorcet in 1988 on the eve of the bicentenary of the French Revolution of 1789. Marie Jean Antoine Caritat, marquis of Condorcet, was born in Ribemont in 1743 and died in Bourg-la-Reine in 1794. He was the father of French public education.

As a scientist and politician he was a member of the French Academy, elected to the Legislative Assembly (the precursor to the French parliament) in 1791 and to the Convention in 1792. It was there that he introduced his ambitious scheme for the creation of a public system of education, designed to instruct and nurture the citizens of a newly formed nation. Accused by the authorties in the very darkest hours of the Revolution, he fled into hiding. He remained hidden for eight months during which time he penned his Historical Sketch of the Development of the Human Spirit- his personal consolation of philosophy. Once arrested, he committed suicide.

Condorcet was the author of many scientific and philosophical works . He collaborated with others such as Diderot in the writing of The Encyclopaedia. His ashes were transferred and laid to rest in the Paris Pantheon in 1989, the year the Lycée Condorcet took up residence in Maroubra.