← Back to homeDeutsche Schule Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki, Greece · est. 1888 · Private
Illustration · Thessaloniki
The Deutsche Schule Thessaloniki is a private German school abroad, opened in 1888. It is run by a school association (Schulverein), and the German federal government supports it with the building, teachers and funding, so fees are well below those of most international schools. The school calls itself an encounter school (Begegnungsschule): in kindergarten and primary school lessons are taught in German, Greek is taught 5-6 hours a week following the Greek Ministry of Education curriculum, and in the Gymnasium about 60% of lessons are in German and 40% in Greek. Graduates receive the Deutsches Internationales Abitur (DIA, since the 2023-2024 school year) together with the Greek school-leaving certificate (Apolytirion) and may sit the Panhellenic exams, for which the school prepares them free of charge. Most graduates go on to study in Germany, where the DIA lets them apply on the same terms as German applicants.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $4 982–5 544 a year
4 410–4 907 EUR
Programmes
German programme
Admits from
4 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
German, Greek
Languages taught
English, French, Spanish
Registration fee
≈ $1 017
900 EUR
About the fees Price list for 2025-2026: kindergarten 4410 EUR, Grades 1-9 and 12 4607 EUR, Grades 10-11 4907 EUR per year (including the iPad and digital textbooks), plus an annual registration fee of 120 EUR. School bus for Grades 7-12 980 EUR per year, lunch 5.15 EUR. There is a sibling discount. The school does not publish a price list for 2026-2027.
Admissions The school states that any family may register a child for the kindergarten and that German is not required; the child must turn 4 by December of the year of admission, followed by a getting-to-know-you interview, and families living abroad can arrange its timing. Entry to Grade 1 without the DST kindergarten is possible only exceptionally, with sufficient German and free places. The main entry to secondary school is Grade 7: pupils from Greek primary schools take preparatory German courses (optional in Grade 5, compulsory in Grade 6) and an exam, with admission by ranking. Entry to Grades 8, 9 and 10 is by exams in German, English and Mathematics. Parents do not need to speak German.
Stages and year groups Grades Kindergarten - Klasse 12. Kindergarten (two years), Grundschule Grades 1-4, Grades 5-12 (IBS): the Gymnasium up to Grade 9 and the upper school (Oberstufe) in Grades 10-12, where Grade 10 is the introductory phase and Grades 11-12 lead to the Deutsches Internationales Abitur. The DIA requires at least 10 subjects, always including German, Greek, English, Mathematics, History, Ethics, Sport and Music or Art; there are five exams, three written and two oral. From Grade 10 classes are digital with iPads. In Grades 7-9 the school teaches its own subject NWT (Naturwissenschaft und Technik): LEGO Spike robotics, CAD, 3D printing and Arduino.
Address 9. km Thessaloniki - Thermi, 55535 Thessaloniki
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
ZfA · accreditationZfA lists the school among German schools abroad (Deutsche Auslandsschule). Students graduate with the Deutsches Internationales Abitur.
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
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 →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
Exam results DIA 2026: class average 1.8 on the German scale, where 1.0 is the top grade; 10 graduates achieved 1.0.
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
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Playground
Campus: A campus at the 9th kilometre of the Thessaloniki - Thermi road: a kindergarten with its own playground, a library with a librarian, an assembly hall (Aula), a kiosk and hot lunches, school buses for Grades 7-12. Students of the École française de Thessalonique from 5e to Terminale study on the same site.
Summer programme away from campus: Grade 10 students can do a summer internship (Sommerpraktikum) in Leipzig.. The school runs no camp of its own on campus
The school does not announce its own summer camp.
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 sizenot stated
The school states that Germany supports it with teachers among other things; the kindergarten has bilingual educators, and the school has a dedicated team for teaching subjects in German (DFU). The school does not publish the number of teachers or class sizes.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
✓Security staff
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school has a school psychologist and a mediation service, and a gatekeeper (Pförtner) staffs the entrance. The school does not publish child protection documents on its 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%)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 data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data70 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 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