Cracow International School (CIS) is a private international school in Kraków teaching in English to Cambridge International programmes, from preschool to high school graduation. The preschool for children from 2.5-3 to 6 is English-speaking, with two teachers per group, one speaking only Polish and the other only English; the Cambridge programme starts in the reception year. The primary school (grades I-VIII) follows Cambridge Primary and Cambridge Lower Secondary, with all subjects in English; Polish citizens also study Polish language, Polish history and geography in Polish, foreign students take Polish as a second language, and from grade IV all learn Spanish. The high school has operated since 2018, and since 2022 in a separate building near Błonia: two years of Cambridge IGCSE with a Science or Humanities and Social Sciences track, then two years of AS and A Level in three or four chosen subjects. The school is a Cambridge exam centre, and the high school also holds Oxford AQA accreditation and is a Pearson Edexcel exam centre. There is an English summer day school for ages 6-12 and a language centre with Cambridge English courses and exams.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $9 038–10 329 a year
35 000–40 000 PLN
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE, A-Level · National programme
Admits from
2.5 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Polish, Spanish
Class size
about 22 students per class, up to 25 children per preschool group with two teachers
About the fees Fees for 2026-2027 for new students. Primary: 36000 PLN per year in 10 monthly instalments, plus a one-off administrative fee of 4200 PLN. High school: IGCSE 35000 PLN per year, AS and A Level 40000 PLN per year, in 10 monthly instalments, plus a one-off administrative fee of 6200 PLN for the whole course. Preschool (no year given on the price list): youngest group 22500 PLN plus a 2200 PLN administrative fee, reception year 25000 PLN plus 1700 PLN; the preschool operates 11 months, September to July. Uniform, textbooks, meals, clubs, day trips and residential trips and additional Cambridge Pathway subjects are extra.
Admissions Admission to all stages runs all year subject to places. Preschool takes children from age 3, exceptionally from 2.5 if the child is out of nappies during the day; staff are prepared for children who speak neither Polish nor English. Primary: enquiry, last year's reports, a school visit, documents; no English is required for grades I-III, an English test and sometimes subject tests may be required for grades IV-VIII; grade I requires a paid meeting with a pedagogue to assess school readiness. High school: reports (for Polish schools grade 7 and the first half of grade 8, for foreign schools the previous year's report), a paid English test or interview, in person or online (students of the school's own primary are exempt), and for grade 1 in the main intake from March to May written qualification tests. Polish is not required; documents are accepted in Polish or English. Partial and full scholarships are available for families in financial difficulty.
Stages and year groups Grades przedszkole, zerówka, I-VIII (Year 2-9), liceum 1-4 (Year 10-13). Preschool (ages 2.5-6) with Jolly Phonics, with the first Cambridge year in reception. Primary: Cambridge Primary (Years 2-6) and Cambridge Lower Secondary (Years 7-9), grades I-VIII, with Global Perspectives; students may sit Cambridge Checkpoint at the end of Year 6 and Year 9; the Polish curriculum (podstawa programowa) runs alongside Cambridge. High school: a non-public school with public school rights with international classes: Cambridge IGCSE (Years 10-11, Science or Humanities & Social Sciences track) and Cambridge AS & A Levels (Years 12-13, 3-4 subjects: Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Economics, Psychology, Computer Science, Digital Media & Design, Polish under Oxford AQA). The home page mentions both the Polish and international matura. The language of instruction is English.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary, Cambridge Lower Secondary, Cambridge IGCSE, AS and A Level.
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), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14), IGCSE (ages 14-16), A-Level (ages 16-18). 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. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
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
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Playground
Clubs and activities: Science Club · Coding Club · Art Club · Debates · Student Council · Charity Space · General Gymnastics with Acrobatics · Zumba · Ceramics · Robotics · Erasmus+ (international exchanges) · eTwinning
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
What the listings show: Experienced early years teachers and subject specialists with many years of practice in an international English-speaking environment, highly qualified and with strong language skills; experience in different systems in Poland and abroad.
Each preschool group has two teachers, one Polish-speaking and one English-speaking.
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
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The preschool and primary school publish Standards for the Protection of Minors; the school provides psychological and educational support. Under the high school statute the operator and head are responsible for safety, teachers are on duty during breaks and first aid kits are kept on the premises.
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%)95 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 data78 "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 8 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
Krakow, Poland · Private