International schools in Belgrade

The twenty schools we profile: what each one teaches, where it is, and what it does and does not publish. Compiled from the schools' own websites and from public registers.

Schools' own pages read 24 August to 23 September 2026

All 20 schools, by curriculum

International Baccalaureate

Cambridge and British

French

German

Russian

Serbian national programme

Other

Four things that shape every other decision

Four things are true of Belgrade that are not obvious from any school's own website, and they shape every decision below.

• About half of the schools we checked do not publish fees. Nine of eighteen do. That is not a small detail – it means you cannot build a shortlist from websites alone, and it makes the interview a pricing conversation as much as an educational one. Our fees page sets out which schools publish a schedule and what each fee covers.
• Nine of the twenty schools have no application season. They admit year-round and are gated only on whether a seat exists in a specific year group on a specific date. The École française is the clearest exception, with a published pre-registration window. So at those schools the right question is never "when do applications open" but "do you have a place in Year 7 in January".
• More than half of the schools are in three neighbourhoods. Eleven of the twenty have a campus in Dedinje, Senjak or Banovo Brdo. The other nine are in Novi Beograd, Stari Grad, Voždovac, Vračar and on Ada Ciganlija. If you are choosing where to live before you choose a school, that geography is the constraint.
• Only one school publishes where its support for additional needs stops. Five schools publish something about special educational needs – ISB, Chartwell, BIS, EDUCA and Intellectum – but only ISB states a ceiling: 150 minutes a week included, with anything beyond that funded by the family. That does not mean the others provide nothing; it means you have to ask, in writing, early.

When the shortlist is down to two schools, the comparison pages set each pair side by side on everything either school publishes – curriculum, admissions, what the fee covers – and show the gaps as gaps.

Why some of these schools start at three

Five schools in the table above start at three or younger, and it is worth saying plainly what that is and what it is not, because the number looks alarming and the reality is ordinary.

In these systems, three is a school year, not daycare. The French maternelle is the first stage of the French national curriculum – taught, graded, and ending with Grande Section before a child moves into élémentaire. German Kindergarten is the structured preschool stage that leads into Vorschule and then Grade 1. The IB Primary Years Programme begins at Pre-Kindergarten. A British school's Infant School starts at Nursery and Reception. None of these is a childminding arrangement bolted onto a school; they are the bottom rung of the ladder the school teaches.

The École française is the youngest, at two and a half, and its own preschool page says so, along with the condition that a child must be potty-trained before starting. That is the French toute petite section, and it exists in France too.

What we have deliberately kept separate is the difference between a taught stage and a nursery. Four schools here run a nursery or early-years department below the age their school programme starts – Brook Hill and IPS from one, Chartwell and PRIMA from two. We do not fold those into the school's age range, because "teaches ages 1 to 18" is not a true description of a school whose Cambridge programme begins at five. In the table they appear as a separate clause: 5-18 · early years from 1.

Every age on this page is the school's own published figure. Each school profile quotes the school's wording, links the page it came from, and gives the date we read it. Where a school publishes no age range at all, we say so and label our reading as ours.

What this guide does not cover

This guide profiles 20 schools. It is not a register of every school in Belgrade teaching a foreign curriculum, and we would rather say so than imply otherwise. We know of this one and have not profiled it yet:

• Maarif Schools of Serbia – Turkish Maarif Foundation – one primary school (OŠ Mina Karadžić, Dedinje) plus a network of kindergartens

If you think something belongs in this guide, write to hello@thebridgebelgrade.com.

The state route to the IB

Belgrade also has a state route to the IB Diploma. Deseta gimnazija „Mihajlo Pupin“ in Novi Beograd is an authorised IB World School running the Diploma Programme alongside the Serbian national gimnazija, with IB classes capped at 20 and entry by first- and second-year grades plus an entrance examination.

It publishes nothing about whether the IB stream carries a charge, so we cannot tell you what it costs – only that state education in Serbia is free and this is a state school. What we can say is that no directory lists it beside the private schools, so families comparing IB options usually never learn it exists.

More on Deseta gimnazija

How this guide is made

The Bridge is edited by Eva, a student at an international school in Belgrade. This guide is compiled from what the schools publish about themselves and from public registers, and its records are read again every June, when schools publish the new year. Where a school publishes something, we say where we found it and when we looked. Where a school publishes nothing, we say that instead of estimating – a number with no source behind it is worse than no number, and most of the wrong figures circulating about Belgrade schools began as somebody's estimate.

Where a claim rests on a directory rather than the school, it is labelled. Where a school states something we have not checked against the relevant register, that is labelled too – it means we have not checked it, not that we doubt it.

Everything here is built from what schools publish themselves and from public registers. Where a page ends with open questions, we will put them to the school in writing. We have not sent them yet; when a school answers, its answer will appear on its page, in its own words, with the date we asked.

Every school in this guide has a page here, whether or not it works with us. Our policy on working with schools sets out what can and cannot be bought.

Something wrong or out of date? Write to hello@thebridgebelgrade.com and we will correct it and note when we did.

Questions families ask

Get the next issue by email