← Back to homeGimnazija Kranj
Kranj, Slovenia · est. 1810 · State
Illustration · Kranj
Gimnazija Kranj has been working since 1810 and was the first gimnazija in Slovenia to introduce Slovene as the language of teaching; over 130 years as a full gimnazija more than fifteen thousand people have graduated from it. It is a large four-year school in the city's new business centre on Koroška cesta: 34 ordinary classes and a little more than 900 students according to the school brochure, about 70 teachers, 5 912 square metres of usable floor space, 33 classrooms adapted to the needs of particular subjects, three sports halls and separate rooms for practical work in physics, biology, chemistry and computing; on its English page the school gives its own student number differently - a thousand. The diploma programme has been taught here since 2010, the class is assembled by the start of the third year, and 22 students are admitted to it every year - the results of this class are outstanding and have been published openly for fifteen years in a row: in 2026 all 22 passed, with an average score of 40.41 against a world average of 30.88, fourteen graduates scoring 40 points or more and two scoring all 45. Lessons are in English and Slovene, every single student takes Slovene literature as a first language at higher level, and the second language can be chosen from six - English, German, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese; the school prepares students for and administers the examination for the German language diploma DSD II at level B2-C1 and the French DELF. There are more than fifty extracurricular activities: two choirs, an orchestra, astronomy, research work, debating, chess, the international MEPI programme, and theatre together with Prešernovo gledališče Kranj. Admission to the diploma programme is closed and the narrowest in Slovenia: it requires a completed second year of a Slovene secondary school, a high mark in Slovene as a mother tongue with no alternatives at all, participation in olympiads and a hundred-point competition with an interview, and the school admits only those who live in Slovenia and whose parents live or work in Slovenia.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · German language diploma · National programme
Languages of instruction
English, Slovene
Languages taught
German, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese
About the fees The school says nothing at all about tuition fees, a registration charge, learning materials or examinations - not on the diploma programme pages, not on the enrolment page, and not in the 47-page brochure for prospective students. The programme is a state one. The only things the school calls paid are optional: foreign language courses at 300 euros for 60 hours, and part of the compulsory elective activities, where parents co-finance entrance tickets, travel and accommodation on multi-day trips.
Admissions Admission to the diploma programme is closed. The school publishes the conditions in both Slovene and English. The Slovene page: "Pogoji za vpis: starost od 16 do 17 let; v šolskem letu 2025/2026 končan drugi letnik srednje šole (štiriletni program) z najmanj prav dobrim splošnim učnim uspehom. najmanj prav dobra ocena iz predmeta slovenščina kot maternega jezika, angleščina kot tuj jezik in matematika v drugem letniku; aktivno vključevanje v dejavnosti na področju kulture in športa ter udeležba na različnih tekmovanjih iz znanja (šolskih, regijskih, državnih, olimpijadah) matematike, jezikov, naravoslovja, računalništva in podobno". Italian and Hungarian are not on the list of mother tongues. The English admissions page adds a condition that is not in the Slovene one: "We enrol only students who live in Slovenia and their parents who live or work in Slovenia". Selection is a competition for 100 points: marks in the first and second years 50, extracurricular activities 10, research work and olympiads 10, two written recommendations from the form teacher and a teacher of the candidate's choice 10, and an interview with the candidate 20. The application goes by registered post or to the school office marked "IB" with the school year, the deadline is the middle of March, and it must be accompanied by a copy of the first-year certificate and a statement of marks for the second year; recommendations come in a sealed envelope and run to 500-1 000 words. Incomplete and late applications are not considered. A candidate may apply to only one school in Slovenia with this programme. The decision is taken by the admissions committee after a personal interview in April and communicated by the end of June, when the annual certificates arrive. There is no entrance examination. The intake: "Vsako leto na program v 3. in 4. letniku vpišemo 22 dijakov". The school makes no provision for admission directly from a school abroad.
Stages and year groups Grades Years 1-4 of the gimnazija (ages 15-18); the diploma programme in years 3 and 4. A four-year general gimnazija, years one to four, ages 15 to 18. The first and second years are the same for everyone, following the general gimnazija programme; the diploma programme class takes its final shape by the start of the third year, and that is when its students choose their subjects. So the school runs the diploma programme in the third and fourth years, with two years of general gimnazija before it. Besides the gimnazija the school runs a maturitetni tečaj - one class - and adult education. In 2025/26 there were 203 students in the fourth year of the general programme and 22 in the final year of the diploma programme.
Address Koroška cesta 13, 4000 Kranj
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeZfA · authorised programmeThe school confirms the German language diploma itself, but only inside its brochure for prospective students and not on the pages of its site: "Gimnazija Kranj svojim dijakom omogoča opravljanje izpita iz nemške jezikovne diplome druge stopnje (DSD II). Stopnja DSD II ustreza evropskemu referenčnemu okviru B2-C1". Preparation starts in the second year - one extra hour a week in the second and third years and two in the fourth; the examination is taken in the fourth year. In the same section of the brochure: "Organiziramo priprave in izvajamo izpite za pridobitev mednarodnih jezikovnih diplom iz nemščine (DSD II) in francoščine (DELF)". The word DSD does not appear once on the pages of the site. The school gives its student number as two figures that do not agree: the brochure - "Na šoli je v 34 rednih oddelkih in enem oddelku maturitetnega tečaja nekaj več kot 900 dijakov", the English page - "a four-year grammar school (gymnasium) enroling 1.000 students from 15 to 18 years old".
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →ZfACentral Agency for German Schools Abroad
A German federal agency. It recognises a school as a German school abroad, funds it and grants the right to award the German leaving certificate. Quality is examined by a state inspection about once every six years, and schools that pass receive the mark of an excellent German school abroad.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →German language diploma
The Deutsches Sprachdiplom, the German language diploma. The federal agency ZfA grants a school the right to prepare pupils for this examination and to sit it; the conference of state education ministers oversees the work, and Germany signs the diploma. There are two levels: DSD I is B1, DSD II is C1, and the latter admits a holder to a German university without a further language examination.
What this means for this school. This is the right to run one language examination, not a school programme: the other subjects follow the national curriculum of the school's own country, and no inspection of the school as a whole stands behind the DSD. It does not lead to a German leaving certificate; that is awarded only by recognised German schools abroad, which hold a different recognition from the same agency.
National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Average IB score
40.41 (world average 30.88)
Exam results The school publishes its diploma programme results in a table covering fifteen years in a row, alongside the world figures. 2026: 22 graduates, all 22 successful, 100 per cent, an average score of 40.41 against a world average of 30.88, fourteen graduates with 40 points or more and two with all 45. The school has held a hundred per cent pass rate every year since 2012, and over those years the average score has ranged from 32.86 to 41.64. The English results page is a year behind and ends with 2025, where the average score is 37.95, and for several past years its figures differ from the Slovene table - for 2021, for example, the English page gives 13 graduates with 40 points or more, while the Slovene one gives 16. On the state matura for 2026: 202 candidates sat it, all 202 were successful, 100 per cent against 95.51 in Slovenia, an average score of 21.86 against a Slovene 20.54, and 21 gold graduates.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school stands in the new business part of Kranj by Koroška cesta: to the west it is bounded by Slovenski trg, to the south by the "Creina" hotel and the city library, and to the north by the city municipality building. The present building was put up to a design by the architect Vilem Treo: construction began on 27 April 1896 and the keystone was laid on 18 September 1897. In its own figures the school describes itself like this: "Šola ima 5912 m2 uporabne površine, kamor štejemo 33 učilnic, ki so prilagojene potrebam posameznih predmetov, 3 telovadnice. V posebnih učilnicah za fiziko, biologijo, kemijo in informatiko se izvajajo vaje". There is a conference hall, used among other things for chess tournaments, and a Confucius room. The library holds more than 20 000 items on open access in four sections - prose, poetry, drama and literature in foreign languages - subscribes to more than 50 magazine and newspaper titles and is open from Monday to Friday from 7:00 to 14:00. Lessons are in the morning only, from 7:10 to 13:05-13:55, with one school period for a snack. There is a three-dimensional virtual tour of the school, but in words the school describes what its premises consist of only through the figures quoted above.
Clubs and activities (50): Girls' choir · Youth choir · Orchestra · Chess · Astronomy · Research project · Mathematics · Physics olympiad preparation · Chemistry olympiad preparation · Science competitions · Debating · Philosophy essay competition · Literary anthology · Journalism · Art workshops · Theatre · Confucius Classroom · MEPI, Duke of Edinburgh's International Award · Erasmus+ · EPAS, European Parliament Ambassador School · Volleyball · Basketball · Athletics · Sport climbing · Spanish course · French course · German course · Russian course · DSD II diploma preparation · DELF diploma preparation · Volunteering in charity projects · Science research camp
Teaching staff from the school's official website
✓Teachers listed by namepublished
✓Teacher qualifications
✓Number of teachers75
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
What the listings show: The teaching staff are set out in a table: 75 named members of staff with addresses, rooms, subjects, official titles and consultation hours listed separately for parents and for students. The head teacher is mag. Aljoša Brlogar, the assistant heads are Barbara Kušar and Gašper Markič, and the diploma programme coordinator and adviser on studying abroad is Nataša Kne. Foreign teachers and trainees appear in separate sections of the table.
The school brochure gives a rounded figure: "Na šoli uči približno 70 profesorjev". On the staff page there are 75 named members of staff with addresses, including the librarian, foreign teachers and two trainees. Teachers have their state teaching titles listed - mentor, svetovalec, svetnik, višji svetnik. The school does not publish its student-teacher ratio.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
✓CounsellorThe school counselling service consists of three named specialists with rooms and consultation hours: Tanja Varjačič, a pedagogue and sociologist, mag. Tina Kaltenekar, a pedagogue, and Katja Pegam, a psychologist. Consultation is every day from 9:00 to 11:00, plus afternoon hours on Wednesdays. The psychologist's room is on the ground floor next to the main entrance. The service itself publishes telephone numbers and addresses of outside help for students - the TOM helpline for children and young people on 116 111, the "To sem jaz" community, the POSVET psychological counselling centre for young people aged 14-18, and mental health centres.
✓Child protection policyThe school publishes a safety statement with a risk assessment, a safety plan for activities outside the school, fire safety rules, a risk register, rules on educational measures and how they are imposed, rules of school order for teaching outside the school and on international exchanges, a notice on the processing of personal data for the video surveillance system, and rules on the internal reporting channel with a form and information on the protection of those who report. For the diploma programme there is a separate special educational needs policy, along with assessment, admission, language and academic honesty policies.
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)82 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data90 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 Value for money (6%) scored at the median80 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 7 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
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