← Back to the rankingBjørn's International School
Copenhagen, Denmark · est. 1967 · Private
Illustration · Copenhagen
Bjørn's International School (BIS) is a small, independent day school in Østerbro, Copenhagen, established in 1967. It has 175 students of over 65 nationalities and two departments. The English Department teaches in English following Cambridge programmes: Cambridge Primary in Years 1-6, then Lower Secondary in Years 7-10 and Cambridge IGCSE in Year 11; after Year 11 students receive their Cambridge exam certificates. The Danish Department teaches in Danish following the national Fælles Mål curriculum for classes 0-9 and ends with the folkeskole leaving exams; music, art and PE are taught in English, and English is taught from the zero class with roughly twice the standard hours. Each class group combines two year levels, with about 20 students per class. The school is a member of the Danish International Schools Network, the Educational Collaborative for International Schools and the Intentionally Small Schools Group, and marks its 60th anniversary in 2027.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
English, Danish
Languages taught
French, German
Students per teacher
10 students per teacher
Class size
about 20 students per class, 10 per year level
Registration fee
≈ $38
250 DKK
About the fees The fee list carries no year. According to the published fees, tuition is monthly, 12 payments a year: 2300 Danish kroner per month for the first child, 2200 for the second and 2000 for subsequent children; final-year students pay for 11 months. Fees are adjusted to the price index. Families can apply for income-based fee subsidies through Fordelingssekretariatet.
Admissions The English Department primarily welcomes families who reside temporarily in Denmark and expect to continue in an international school; families settling long term are advised to choose the Danish Department. Families complete the application form, submit documents (school reports, transcripts, assessments) and pay the waiting list fee, after which the child joins the waiting list. When a place opens, the school considers siblings, class composition and dynamics, academic and social fit and waiting list seniority; parents and the student meet the school leadership and class teacher, usually with a 3-day trial period. Grade placement follows the year of birth; children start the zero class and the first year in the year they turn 6. Year 11 (IGCSE) requires a separate registration form.
Stages and year groups English Department: classes A, B, C (Years 1-2, 3-4, 5-6) follow Cambridge Primary, Stages 1-6; D (Years 7-8) and E (Years 9-10) follow Cambridge Lower Secondary; Year 11 is Cambridge IGCSE, after which students receive Cambridge certificates. Cambridge subjects: First Language English, English as a Second Language, Mathematics, Combined Science, Global Perspectives, History, Art & Design, Foreign Language French, Wellbeing; from the Danish curriculum: PE, handicraft and Danish as a second language. Danish Department: classes 0-9 following Fælles Mål, folkeskole leaving exams after class 9. The Danish Ministry of Education allows free international schools to offer a final year equivalent to class 10.
Address Gartnerivej 5, 2100 København Ø (Østerbro)
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre: the English department follows Cambridge Primary, with Cambridge IGCSE in Year 11. A Danish department runs alongside.
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
CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
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: Primary (ages 5-11), IGCSE (ages 14-16). Primary is the primary stage, ages 5 to 11: English, mathematics and science to Cambridge syllabuses. At the end of the stage a school may run the optional Checkpoint test, which is marked in Cambridge. IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school occupies a former knitwear factory building in Østerbro near Ryparken station: a large central open space, wooden floors and beams. All classrooms have computers and interactive whiteboards or touch screens, younger classes use a computer lab, and from class C students bring their own laptop. PE for older classes takes place at the Ryparken sports facilities five minutes from the school. There is no boarding.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
According to the school, teachers bring a wide range of international experience; the staff page describes teachers with British and Danish training. The Vice Principal leads the Cambridge programmes and teaches Global Perspectives; he holds a Bachelor of Education and two master's degrees, including a Master's in Education from University College London. The History and English teacher taught for 15 years at a British grammar school before moving to Denmark and was a GCSE History examiner.
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
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school publishes an anti-bullying policy: parent representatives in every class, regular well-being surveys, Circle Time in classes, anti-bullying workshops for students and parents, and meetings with the principal; if bullying continues, the bully is asked to leave the school. The school is mobile-free: phones are handed in every day on arrival.
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%)72 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data60 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 Value for money (6%) scored at the median78 "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.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country