← Back to homeDeutsche Schule Lissabon
Lisbon, Portugal · est. 1848 · Private
Illustration · Lisbon
The oldest German school on the Iberian peninsula and the third-oldest German school abroad in the world: lessons began on 1 August 1848 with six children, and the school was opened by an evangelical pastor so that the German language would not disappear from the local community. It closed in 1916 and again after the Second World War, and in 1952 opened afresh with 151 pupils, of whom 96 were not German nationals. In the nineteen-seventies it became a bicultural encounter school for German-speaking and Portuguese-speaking children and remains one: a private German-Portuguese Begegnungsschule where the language of lessons is German and Portuguese runs alongside as the school's second language; the pages for parents are kept in German and in Portuguese, and German is also taught as a subject - for children who do not command it there is a separate preparatory course. There are three stages, all on one site in the Telheiras district at Largo Willy Brandt: a three-year kindergarten, a primary school from Grade 1 to Grade 4 and an eight-year Gymnasium from Grade 5 to Grade 12 which ends with the German International Abitur. The school is marked as an excellent German school abroad, holds the MINT and digital school marks and works with the Goethe-Institut and in the PASCH network. Admission is open to pupils of all nationalities, but German children whose guardians do not live in Portugal are not taken as regular pupils; admission and year group are decided by the head and an applicant has no entitlement to a place. The annual fee runs from 8385 euros in the kindergarten to 8615 in the upper grades, paid in ten instalments; enrolment of a new pupil costs 1000 euros, and a second child in the family is given a 10 per cent discount, a third 25, a fourth and beyond 40.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $9 741–10 008 a year
8 385–8 615 EUR
Programmes
German programme
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
German, Portuguese
About the fees The annual fee is named by stage and is paid in ten instalments: kindergarten 8385 euros, primary school Grades 1-4 8495, middle stage Grades 5-9 8506, upper stage Grades 10-12 8615. The kindergarten fee includes a morning and an afternoon snack. The discount is calculated on the pupil in the highest stage in the family: 10 per cent for a second child, 25 for a third, 40 for a fourth and beyond, and it is not given if the fee is paid by an employer or another institution.
Admissions The school speaks of admission plainly: it is open to pupils of all nationalities. One restriction is stated just as plainly - German children whose guardians do not live in Portugal are as a rule not taken as regular pupils. Admission and the year group a child is placed in are decided by the head, where necessary together with a committee of teachers, and an applicant has no entitlement to a place. There are two routes: one for children who speak German and one for those who do not; for the latter there is a preparatory course costing 605 euros, which is not refunded and is not credited against tuition. A guest pupil staying longer than five days is admitted for a separate fee.
Stages and year groups Grades a three-year kindergarten (ages 3-6), Grades 1-4 of the primary school, an eight-year Gymnasium Grades 5-12. There are three stages: a three-year kindergarten, a primary school from Grade 1 to Grade 4 and an eight-year Gymnasium from Grade 5 to Grade 12, which is divided into a middle stage from Grade 5 to Grade 9 and an upper stage from Grade 10 to Grade 12. The path ends with the German International Abitur at the end of Grade 12. All three stages stand on one site in the Telheiras district of Lisbon.
Address Largo Willy Brandt, 1600-891 Lisboa
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
ZfA · accreditationPASCH · takes part in the programmeschool 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
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 has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →PASCHSchools: Partners for the Future, an initiative of the German foreign ministry
More than two thousand schools in about 120 countries. A school cannot apply for itself: participants are chosen by German agencies in agreement with the embassy. Very different schools sit under one mark - full German schools abroad, and ordinary national schools that simply teach German well.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to a German support programme. By itself the mark means neither a German curriculum nor the right to award a German certificate: of the two thousand PASCH schools, about seventeen hundred hold no such right. Look for a ZfA status next to it - that is the one that is about this. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →German programme
The German school programme. Recognised German schools abroad award the Deutsches Internationales Abitur, the German leaving certificate used for entry to universities in Germany. Behind the recognition stands the federal agency ZfA.
What this means for this school. ZfA recognition comes at levels: a school that takes pupils through to the German leaving certificate is one thing, a school with the DSD language diploma, where German is taught as a subject, is another. Which level this school holds is not stated here.
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
The school does not describe its premises on its website.
Teaching staff
The school publishes neither the number of its teachers nor their qualifications.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
The school says nothing on its website about security, medical care or pupil support.
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 data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 "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