Complex of Silesian International Schools
Katowice, Poland · PrivateComplex of Silesian International Schools (CSIS) is a private international school in Katowice teaching in English to Cambridge Assessment International Education programmes: a preparatory preschool group for ages 3-4 (the Winnie the Pooh international preschool), Cambridge Primary for ages 5-11, Cambridge Lower Secondary (Checkpoint) for ages 11-14 and Cambridge IGCSE with external exams at the end. The school gained Cambridge accreditation in 2007. The complex also includes the private Melchior Wańkowicz liceum at the same address: its international classes take a Pre-DP year followed by the two-year IB Diploma Programme taught entirely in English (offered here since 2007, the first authorised in Silesia), alongside Polish four-year classes taught in Polish with profiles (humanities, medical, maths and physics, and a tailor-made profile) leading to the Polish matura. Under Polish law the primary school is a non-public szkoła podstawowa with international classes, where the Polish curriculum runs alongside Cambridge and grade 8 ends with the egzamin ósmoklasisty. Newly arrived foreign students aged 11-19 can take the Foundation Programme, intensive English before joining Checkpoint, IGCSE or IB classes. Polish students learn Polish language, Polish history and geography in Polish, foreign students learn Polish as a foreign language; from Checkpoint a third language, German or Spanish, is compulsory. Every month the school holds a day devoted to a different culture.
Key facts
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeCambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE · authorised programmeWhat stands behind each entry
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 →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), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14), 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. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end. 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 →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.