International schools in Serbia

The shortlist of international schools in Serbia is shorter than most arriving families expect. Belgrade has roughly a dozen schools that serve foreign children in a foreign language; Novi Sad has two or three; everywhere else, foreign families improvise. The good schools are good, the fees are noticeably below most Western European capitals, and the choice is largely settled by curriculum, neighbourhood, and the temperament of the child.

This guide covers what each school offers, what it actually costs for the 2025-2026 academic year, who attends, and the practical questions that come up after the first visit. All fees here are from the schools' own published rate cards or from the standard sector databases (international-schools-database.com, doris.school, ischooladvisor.com), cross-checked against the schools' own sites and recent expat-community reports.

Belgrade

Belgrade carries the entire serious international-school stock in Serbia. The schools cluster in two adjacent districts: Senjak and Dedinje, in the green belt south of the centre. ISB and Chartwell and BISB are all within a fifteen-minute drive of each other. Brook Hill is in Dedinje proper. Anglo-American is in Senjak. The French and German schools sit slightly further out. None of this is accidental. The embassies and the diplomatic residences are concentrated here, and the schools followed.

International School of Belgrade (ISB)

The default choice for diplomatic and corporate-transfer families. Founded 1948 as a school for the families of UN, embassy, and aid-organisation staff. Now around 500 students from 54 nationalities, with US citizens, Serbian nationals, and third-country nationals each a substantial slice of the roll.

Curriculum: full IB continuum from PYP (Pre-K to Grade 5) through MYP (Grades 6-10) to DP (Grades 11-12). Accredited by NEASC, IB, and the Serbian Ministry of Education. Address: Primary at Temišvarska 19, Secondary at Andre Nikolića 19a, both Dedinje, about a five-minute walk apart.

Fees for 2025-2026 (published in dinars, euro-equivalents rounded): Pre-K around €12,300, K-5 in the €20,000 range, Grades 6-8 around €23,000, Grades 9-12 up to €28,300 at the top. Capital fee €3,000 for new students K-12 and €1,500 for returning students. Bus service runs Dedinje, Senjak, the Diplomatic Quarter in Banovo Brdo, parts of New Belgrade, and parts of central Belgrade; routes confirmed once seven or more students cluster on a given line.

Distinctive: the deepest international community in Serbia, the strongest IB Diploma track record, and the only school here that feels like a true UN-style international school rather than a British, American, or local-bilingual one. Class sizes around 15. Strong special-needs support compared to peers. Where it disappoints: the price ceiling is real, the campus is older than the brochures suggest, and the high-school cohort is small (class sizes drop in DP years as students leave for the IB programmes in their home countries).

British International School of Belgrade (BISB)

Founded 1997. The standard choice for British, Commonwealth, and EU families who want a full British-system route.

Curriculum: EYFS, then a combination drawing on the IB PYP framework in primary, IB MYP in middle years, and the IB Diploma in the upper school. Despite the British branding, BISB has moved closer to the IB curriculum over the last decade. Families wanting strict GCSE and A-level should check carefully what the current upper-school track looks like.

Address: main campus at Smetanina 12, formally Dedinje on the Senjak side of the boundary.

Fees for 2025-2026 at the private (non-corporate) rate, from bischool.com: Early Years €12,050, PYP 1-5 €17,250, MYP 1-5 €21,700, DP 1-2 €24,050. Application fee €1,000. Bus €3,200 to €3,600 per year. Corporate rate (where an employer pays) runs €4,000 to €5,000 higher per year per level.

What attracts families: solid academics, a clearer British cultural register than ISB, and a community that skews European and Commonwealth rather than American. Strong sport, decent music. Convenient to most embassies. Where it disappoints: the upper school is smaller than the primary, so families joining at primary may face a step-down in cohort size as they move up. Teacher turnover has been a recurring expat-forum complaint, which is normal at any school that recruits internationally but worth asking about during the visit.

Chartwell International School

The most established mid-tier school. Founded 2002. British National Curriculum, Cambridge IGCSE, AS and A-level, Cambridge International examination centre. Address: Teodora Drajzera 38, Dedinje. Same school district as ISB and BISB but a smaller, more contained campus.

Fees for 2025-2026 (chartwell.edu.rs): Nursery and ECC €8,000; Foundation 1-2 €8,000; Primary Year 1 €10,200; Primary Years 2-6 €11,500; Secondary Years 7-13 €14,500. No application fee, no registration fee, no deposit. Sibling discounts of 10 percent for the second child and 15 percent for the third. A 5 percent early-payment discount if paid in full by 30 April.

The draw: lower fees than BISB by €6,000 to €10,000 per year per child for a comparable curriculum. Smaller cohort, calmer school, more visible family-business culture than the corporate-managed alternatives. Where it disappoints: the secondary is smaller than BISB's, resources are leaner, and a child who wants high-level competitive sport or a wide A-level subject menu will find the options narrower.

Brook Hill International School

A more recent entrant, now spread across three sites (kindergarten, primary, secondary) in Dedinje. About 200 students total, maximum class size 15. Curriculum is National Curriculum of England and Wales integrated with Cambridge International, leading to IGCSE and A-level. Address: Cara Iraklija 6 and Augusta Cesarca 6, Dedinje.

Fees run roughly €8,000 at entry levels rising to around €14,500 at the top, less publicly transparent than Chartwell or BISB. Confirm directly. The draw is very small class sizes and a tone some families prefer to the larger schools. The risk is a shallow upper-year peer group and a shorter track record, so reference-check with current parents.

PRIMA International School

Cambridge curriculum, Senjak (Dragana Mancea). Preschool through Secondary. Cambridge Assessment International Education centre. Fees not published openly; database listings indicate roughly €6,200 to €14,500 depending on level. Sits between Chartwell and BISB on positioning. Cambridge-only track, which is cleaner than the hybrid IB-British model if you know your child is heading into the Cambridge system.

Anglo-American School of Belgrade

The affordable English-medium option. Cambridge International Centre. Serves ages 11 to 19. Address: Velisava Vulovića 47, Senjak. Fees €3,300 to €11,000 per year with a €750 registration fee. Materially cheaper than the IB and full-British schools.

For whom: families on a single international salary rather than a corporate package, families with multiple children where headline schools become prohibitive, and families who want English-medium without paying for the international branding. The resourcing is leaner, the alumni network thinner, the route into top UK and US universities less worn. For the right family the value is real.

Crnjanski Gymnasium and Savremena International

Two private Serbian gymnasiums with strong international tracks. Crnjanski was the first IB Diploma-authorised school in Serbia (2006) and also runs a Cambridge bilingual programme. Savremena delivers a Cambridge stream in English alongside the Serbian national curriculum. Both teach in English at the international stream and at fees roughly half of BISB or ISB at the secondary level. Crnjanski has historically been in the €4,500 to €6,800 range, though neither school publishes a current public schedule.

For whom: a Serbian-resident family with an academic child who will sit the IB DP or Cambridge A-levels and apply to international universities, but who does not need the wraparound expat community of ISB. Also works for families who want their child to learn Serbian alongside the international curriculum. Not the right fit if the child needs the international peer group from day one.

École Française de Belgrade (Lycée Français)

The French school. Member of the AEFE network, certified by the French Ministry of National Education. Address: main campus at Kablarska 31/35 in central Belgrade, with the maternelle at Sanje Živanovića 10. About 488 students across 16 levels. Fees for 2025-2026 roughly €6,200 to €12,200 in euro equivalent depending on level, with a one-time enrolment fee of €1,081 per child. AEFE-subsidised rates for French nationals; non-French families pay the full tariff. Almost exclusively French-medium, light Serbian exposure, exit to the French Baccalauréat. The standard choice for French families on diplomatic or corporate assignment.

Deutsche Schule Belgrad

The German school. KMK-recognised, designated Exzellente Deutsche Auslandsschule. Located in Senjak. Full German curriculum from Kindergarten through Sekundarstufe (grade 12), with Serbian taught as both a national and a foreign language from grade 1. Fees roughly €6,100 at the youngest levels to €14,500 at the top for 2026-2027, with subsidised rates for diplomatic children of German federal employees. The natural fit for German, Austrian, and Swiss-German families heading back into the Germanic university system.

Novi Sad

The honest position: Novi Sad does not have a full international-school stack. Two private schools present themselves internationally. Clever School (ages 6-19) runs a Cambridge programme alongside the national curriculum, with Serbian and English instruction. International School of Novi Sad on Svetozara Miletića offers the IB PYP and MYP, with the Diploma planned for older students. Both are operating, both smaller than Belgrade peers, both with shorter track records.

For a family planning a longer arc and needing strong university-entrance preparation, the realistic options are: live in Belgrade during the school week and Novi Sad on weekends, place the child at Crnjanski or Savremena with weekly accommodation, or accept Novi Sad for primary years and plan to relocate to Belgrade for secondary. The third route is the most common.

There is no genuine boarding option in Serbia at the international level. None that a foreign family would recognise as boarding in the British or Swiss sense.

What is not in the headline fee

The fee a school quotes is almost never the cheque you write. The typical add-ons:

• Registration or application fee: €750 to €1,500 one-time. Chartwell waives it.
• Capital fee or deposit: ISB charges €3,000 for new K-12 students. Some schools call it a non-refundable enrolment deposit.
• Bus: €3,000 to €3,600 per year if the school runs its own routes.
• Lunch: €600 to €1,500 per year for hot lunch programmes.
• Uniform: €300 to €600 in year one, €100 to €300 annually thereafter.
• Technology fee or iPad programme: €300 to €800 per year in the secondary years.
• External exam fees (IGCSE, A-level, IB Diploma): €1,000 to €2,500 in the exam years.
• Trips: €500 to €2,500 per year in MYP and DP for residential trips and field work.

For BISB MYP with full extras, a realistic all-in figure is around €26,000 to €28,000 per child per year. For ISB DP at the top of the range, comfortably over €32,000. For Chartwell secondary, an all-in number in the low to mid €15,000s. These are the numbers to put in a family budget, not the headline tuition.

Language of instruction and the Serbian question

None of the English-medium international schools in Belgrade require Serbian on entry. A child arriving in PYP 3 with no Serbian sits in an English-language classroom from day one. Some schools (ISB, BISB) offer Serbian as a second-language strand for residency-track families. Some require it lightly, others not at all.

The French and German schools instruct in their respective languages. The Serbian gymnasium programmes (Crnjanski, Savremena) offer English-medium streams within a Serbian institutional framework, which means some administrative interaction with the school will happen in Serbian even if the child's classes are in English.

For a family planning Serbian residency, exposure to Serbian matters less than parents often think. The children pick it up from the city, from playmates, and from media; the formal SSL classes at the international schools are a nudge rather than a serious language programme.

Admissions timeline and waitlists

The standard September-start timeline:

• October-November of the prior year: open days, visits, initial enquiries.
• December-January: application submitted with documents (passport, prior school reports, sometimes a writing sample).
• January-February: assessment or interview. ISB runs more formal entry assessments; BISB and Chartwell are usually interview plus prior school reports.
• February-March: offers.
• March-April: registration fee paid, place confirmed.

ISB and BISB both maintain waitlists for year groups where single-class cohorts fill, typically Reception through Year 6 and Year 7. The waitlist resolves through spring and summer as families withdraw. Chartwell and the smaller schools rarely turn families away outright, though specific year groups can be full at particular moments. Mid-year arrivals are usually accommodated at ISB on a rolling basis and at the other schools subject to space.

Transition support for mid-year arrivals

One of the unspoken differentiators. ISB has the deepest experience with mid-year arrivals because of its diplomatic clientele; it is set up for a child arriving in November with three weeks' notice. BISB and Chartwell handle it but with less institutional muscle. For a non-English-speaking child arriving mid-year, the practical question is whether the school runs structured EAL (English as an Additional Language) support. ISB and BISB do. Chartwell offers it on a smaller scale. The Serbian gymnasium programmes do not, in practice, support a non-English-medium child arriving mid-year.

How school choice intersects with neighbourhood

Families in Dedinje or Senjak can walk or drive to ISB, BISB, Chartwell, Brook Hill, and Anglo-American in under fifteen minutes. The highest-density school neighbourhood in Serbia, and one reason these districts trade at the prices they do. Families in Vračar, Dorćol, or central Stari Grad use the school buses; most schools cover the central districts, ISB explicitly covers Banovo Brdo and parts of Novi Beograd. Bus times run twenty-five to forty-five minutes each way. Belgrade Waterfront or upper Novi Beograd: forty-five minutes to an hour. Surčin and the western suburbs: families increasingly choose the school whose bus stop is closest to home, which is a practical reason Senjak and Dedinje remain the housing preference for school-age families.

Where families end up disappointed

Three patterns recur.

First, expecting a Western private-school experience at every level. Teaching is competent, the infrastructure is good, but facilities (sports halls, auditoriums, science labs) sit a step below top schools in London, Paris, or Geneva. The Belgrade schools spend their budgets on teachers and curriculum, not on capital plant.

Second, underestimating the cohort-size issue in upper school. A child can have a comfortable primary experience and then find the IGCSE or DP cohort is twelve students. For sports teams, drama productions, and advanced electives, that is a real constraint. Ask year by year how many students are in each cohort.

Third, the moving-on question. Children who start at Chartwell or Brook Hill sometimes need to move to BISB or ISB later for the cohort or curriculum. This works, but the transition is an event. If you know from the start you want your child to finish in the IB Diploma, starting at the school that runs the DP is more efficient than starting cheaper and switching later.

Teacher turnover and class size

Teacher turnover in Belgrade runs the typical international-circuit range: two to four years per teacher. Normal for the sector, not a sign of dysfunction, but worth knowing. Class sizes at the top schools sit at 14 to 18 in primary, 12 to 16 in secondary, dropping to 6 to 12 in some DP and A-level subjects. The Serbian gymnasium programmes are larger, closer to 22 to 25 even in their international tracks.

One name confusion worth clearing: Brookhouse is a Nairobi school, not a Belgrade one. The Belgrade school sometimes confused with it is Brook Hill International. Different organisations.

Working with us

Yelen Properties does not place children in schools, but most of our family clients ask early which neighbourhoods make which schools workable. Senjak and Dedinje for the schools you have heard of. Vračar and Dorćol if you accept a daily bus. Novi Beograd or Belgrade Waterfront if your school of choice has a route there. Novi Sad if your children are young enough that local options work for the next few years. Tell us roughly where your child sits in the system and which curriculum you want them to exit on, and we can help draw the school catchment around the property search. The contact form at the bottom of any page reaches us directly.