Guide · Questions
Questions families ask about Belgrade international schools
Short, direct answers to the questions that come up again and again – including the ones about cost, support and outcomes that are hardest to get a straight answer to.
Schools' own pages read 24 August to 23 September 2026
The questions below are the ones families actually ask about Belgrade international schools, collected from expat forums, school FAQ pages and our own inboxes. Where the honest answer is "nobody publishes that", we say so – several of the most important facts about schooling in Belgrade, including special educational needs provision and university destinations, are simply not in the public domain.
Cost
How much does an international school in Belgrade cost?
There is no standard figure. Nine of the eighteen fee-paying schools we have checked publish figures – seven a current schedule, one a schedule whose most recent year has already passed and one on a page its own menu does not link to. The other nine release them at an interview or by email. The bigger problem is that the schools are not charging for the same thing: some fees include lunch, uniform, textbooks and examination entry, others cover teaching alone. Ask each school for its schedule and its exclusions in writing, and compare those.
Why is international school so expensive in a country where living costs are low?
Because the cost base is not local. International schools recruit teachers internationally and pay accordingly, run small classes, and pay examination and authorisation fees to bodies abroad in euros. Fees track the international market rather than the Serbian one. Whether that is worth it is a fair question, and it is worth asking each school what class size and teacher retention it actually achieves.
Is there a cheaper option than an international school?
Serbian state schools are free, and foreign nationals have the same right of access as Serbian citizens under Article 23 of the Law on the Foundations of the Education System, which also obliges schools to arrange Serbian-language support for children who do not speak it. Deseta gimnazija Mihajlo Pupin in Novi Beograd is a state school authorised to teach the IB Diploma – it publishes nothing about whether that stream carries a charge, so we cannot tell you what it costs, only that it exists and that no directory lists it.
What is not included in the fee?
Most often: the school bus, lunch, uniform, examination entry and trips. The pattern varies a lot. PRIMA includes lunch, books and Cambridge examination fees. Ruđer Bošković includes lunch and uniform. Chartwell excludes meals. The École française charges separately for canteen, supplies and each examination. Always ask for the exclusions in writing.
Are there sibling discounts at Belgrade international schools?
Commonly, and the scales differ a lot. Deutsche Schule reduces for a second child and more steeply for a third. Chartwell and Crnjanski both reduce for a second and third. International School runs the most generous scale published by any school in this guide, reducing for the second and third child and waiving the fee entirely for a fourth where enrolments overlap. Several schools also discount for paying the year upfront, and two charge more for paying monthly.
Choosing
Are international schools in Belgrade worth the money?
That depends on what the alternative is for your child, and it is a fair question rather than an impertinent one. What you are buying is teaching in a language your child already has, a curriculum they can carry to the next country, and a class of children in the same situation. What you are not necessarily buying is a better building, a smaller class or a stronger result – only five schools in this guide publish a class size on their own pages, only one of them an average, and none publishes where its leavers go, so nobody can show you that. If your child will finish school in Serbia and speaks Serbian, a state gimnazija or a bilingual private school may serve them better for a fraction of the cost. If you will move again in three years, curriculum continuity is worth more than anything else on the list.
How do I know an international school in Belgrade is legitimate?
Three checks, in order. First, an accreditation claim – IB, Cambridge, CIS, NEASC, COBIS – is testable: ask for the school or centre number and the year it was granted, and treat a logo with no words behind it as a claim, not a credential. Second, ask how long the school has operated under its current name and management, and whether the founding year it states is one it publishes itself – two schools in this guide carry a founding year that comes from a directory or is contradicted on their own site. Third, if your child will need a Serbian certificate, our certificate-recognition page sets out when one is recognised and when it is not. Every profile in this guide records what each school claims, where we read it, and whether we found a register that confirms it – including where we could not.
Which is the best international school in Belgrade?
There is no answer to that question that is true for every family, and any source that gives one is selling something. The useful comparison is narrower: which schools teach the curriculum your child will finish in, have a place in the right year group, sit in a neighbourhood you can live in, and can support your child's particular needs. Our guide is built to let you answer those four questions rather than to rank schools.
Chartwell or the British International School?
The most-asked question in Belgrade, and the honest answer is that they are more alike than different: both Cambridge schools, one in Dedinje and Savski Venac, the other in Voždovac. Neither publishes a student roll, so we cannot compare them on size – we do not use the figures that circulate on directories. Chartwell publishes a fee schedule on its own site, but the most recent one covers an earlier school year; BIS publishes none. BIS includes examination fees and ESL in tuition, and offers the University of Nebraska curriculum in the final two years as an alternative to A Levels, which Chartwell does not. Visit both – on curriculum they are close, and what differs is scale and atmosphere.
Should I judge a school by its building?
Several Belgrade international schools operate from converted villas and residential buildings rather than purpose-built campuses, and split across several addresses – Brook Hill lists four and Chartwell three, with a fourth reported elsewhere that the school does not confirm. That is a fact about the city's property market, not about teaching quality. What is worth checking is whether the split affects your child specifically: how far apart the buildings are, whether facilities are shared, and how the day works.
How big are the classes?
ISB publishes an average of 15 and a student-teacher ratio of 8:1. Ruđer Bošković publishes a range of 10 to 20, Brook Hill a maximum of 15, Young Sparrows a maximum of 14 and Intellectum Academy a maximum of 18. Figures circulating for EDUCA (average 12), Green School (average 16) and International School (average 18) come from directories rather than the schools themselves, and we flag them as such wherever they appear. Chartwell publishes no class size at all. Others describe class sizes as "limited" without a number, which is worth pressing on.
Language
Does my child need to speak Serbian?
Not to attend an English-medium international school. Serbian law requires institutions to organise Serbian-language instruction for children who do not know the language. How much Serbian is actually on the timetable is a different question, and only Deutsche Schule Belgrad publishes an answer – it teaches Serbian from Grade 1. Ask each school directly. For daily life outside school some Serbian helps a great deal, and children generally pick it up faster than their parents do.
What if my child's English is not strong?
Most schools have EAL or ESL provision and many children arrive with little English. Read the limits carefully. ISB includes up to 150 minutes a week of additional EAL or learning support, and charges a separate one-time EAL fee; beyond 150 minutes, an offer may depend on additional support the family pays for. The British International School states that ESL is included at no extra charge. We could not find a published statement of how much English support the other schools provide, or what it costs – which makes it a first question rather than a detail.
Can we choose a French or German school if we are not French or German?
Yes – neither has a nationality requirement. Both have language requirements instead. Deutsche Schule Belgrad requires non-native German speakers to have completed a year of kindergarten before Vorschule and two years of preschool before Grade 1, plus a language assessment. The École française tests children arriving from a non-French system.
Practicalities
Where do international-school families live in Belgrade?
We can tell you where the schools are rather than where the families are, because school addresses are published and household data is not. Eleven of the twenty schools in this guide have a campus in Dedinje, Senjak or Banovo Brdo, which is why those three names come up first. Vračar has three. Novi Beograd has modern family housing but only three schools from this guide – Westbridge, the state Deseta gimnazija and the Russian Embassy school – so living there usually means a commute.
Is there a school bus?
At most schools, optional and charged separately. Only ISB publishes its coverage: Dedinje, Senjak, the diplomatic area in Banovo Brdo, parts of Novi Beograd and parts of downtown, with a new route created only when at least seven pupils live in the same area, and a monitor on every bus. Two schools publish a transport price – Chartwell and EDUCA, both per day; no other school in this guide publishes one. Ask about your street specifically, and ask early – ISB plans routes at the start of the year from applications received.
How long is the school day?
We have not collected school hours, so we will not give you a range that turns out to be wrong for your child's year group. Several schools publish their exact hours on their own sites. Ask for the timetable for the specific year group, since primary and secondary often finish at different times, and ask separately what after-school care costs – it is charged on top almost everywhere.
Is there a uniform at Belgrade international schools?
It varies, and it is worth asking because a uniform inside the fee and a uniform you buy are different amounts of money. Ruđer Bošković and International School include uniform in the fee. The British International School requires one to the end of Key Stage 2 and has a casual dress code in secondary. ISB states there is no uniform. The other schools publish nothing about uniform either way, so ask.
Support and outcomes
What support is there for special educational needs?
Five schools in this guide publish something about it – ISB, Chartwell, BIS, EDUCA and Intellectum – but only ISB publishes where its support stops. ISB includes up to 150 minutes a week of additional EAL or learning support; beyond that, families fund an additional teacher the school employs on their behalf, and applications from students with limited mobility are difficult to accommodate because of accessibility on the Lower School campus. EDUCA is the only school that publishes prices for individual support. The rest publish nothing we could find. If your child has identified needs, make this your first question to every school, in writing, and ask what happens if needs change later.
Where do graduates go to university?
We could not find published destination data for any school in this guide, which is itself worth noting when you are comparing. ISB's most recent published IB results date from 2016. PRIMA cites Yale, Harvard, Boston University and NYU in the context of A Level recognition generally, not as its own leaver destinations. Ask each school directly for last year's actual destinations and average results, and treat a reluctance to answer as information.
How much do teachers move between schools?
We have not found a school in this guide that publishes it, and it is one of the most useful things you can ask about. A practical version of the question at an interview: how many teachers in my child's year group were here last year, and how many the year before?