← Back to the rankingEnglish Montessori School
Katowice, Poland · est. 2014 · Private
Illustration · Katowice
English Montessori School in Katowice was founded in 2014 by two mothers, Agnieszka Kocot-Łaszczyca and Canadian-born Bronwen Allen, as a bilingual Montessori preschool and primary school. Since 2025, under the umbrella name English Montessori Education, it has run an English-speaking nursery, a bilingual preschool, a szkoła podstawowa (grades 1-8) and a liceum ogólnokształcące, so children can attend from 18 months to adulthood. The school is private (niepubliczna). The main track follows the Polish curriculum with a native English speaker present every day: full time in preschool and grades 1-3, three-quarter time in grades 4-6 and quarter time in grades 7-8. Since 2022 the school has held Cambridge International Education accreditation and ministry permission for separate international classes, where Cambridge Primary is taught in English and Polish is taught as a foreign language. The school describes its community as one where more than 10% of families come from other countries. In 2026 its grade 8 leavers averaged 81,2% in the egzamin ósmoklasisty, 7th of 65 primary schools in the city. In autumn 2026 the school moved to its own campus on ul. Kościuszki.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $9 916 a year
38 400 PLN
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary · Montessori · National programme
Admits from
18 months · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Polish, English
Languages taught
German, Spanish, Latin
About the fees Fees in the Cambridge international section for the 2025-2026 school year: 38400 PLN per year or 19200 PLN per semester; paying the year in advance gives a 3% discount, 37248 PLN. The school also gives an approximate euro equivalent of about 8170 EUR per year. Fees for the Polish track are not published: the school invites families to learn them during a visit and says they depend on the option (basic, with extra activities, with morning or afternoon care) and can be split into 12 instalments. Fees include daily seven-hour contact with a native English speaker, full catering, insurance and PE. Sibling discounts and full or partial scholarships are available. Fees may rise each year by about the rate of inflation, by no more than 10%.
Admissions Primary admission has several steps: an information meeting for parents with an introduction to the Montessori method and a tour (without children), a 30-40 minute classroom observation by both parents followed by a talk, a Montessori workshop for parents, an adaptation period for the child at school, usually two weeks, when the school and family see whether the child copes in a bilingual environment, and then signing the contract. A trial day can be booked. The nursery takes children from 18 months until they move to preschool; when places are short, age, order of application and attendance at an open day are considered. The liceum admits on the basis of the szkoła podstawowa certificate and egzamin ósmoklasisty results. The Cambridge international classes are designed also for children of families who have moved to Poland: they learn Polish as a foreign language, while Polish history and geography are taught in Polish to Polish citizens.
Stages and year groups Stages: an English-speaking nursery (from 18 months to 3 years), a bilingual preschool following a ministry-approved Montessori programme with Cambridge elements, szkoła podstawowa grades 1-8 with the egzamin ósmoklasisty, and a liceum ogólnokształcące on the Polish curriculum leading to the matura. Cambridge International: the school teaches Cambridge Primary (Stage 1-6, ages 5-11) in a separate international section; five-year-olds in preschool do Stage 1, and grades 1-2 do Stage 2. In grades 1-3 of the international section 9 subjects are taught in English: English as a Second Language, Maths, Global Perspectives, Physical Education, Art & Design, Digital Literacy, Computing, Science, Music, plus Polish as a foreign language. In grades 4-6 Science (biology, chemistry, physics), Global Perspectives, Digital Literacy and Computing are taught in English; technology, history and geography follow the Polish curriculum in English, except Polish history and geography for Polish citizens. The school does not mention Cambridge examinations. The Cambridge page also describes Lower Secondary, IGCSE and AS & A Level as stages of the Cambridge system, but for its own school mentions only Cambridge Primary. In the liceum the first year has no specialisation, then tracks with extended subjects: mathematics, geography and English; history, civics and English; mathematics, English and physics; mathematics, English and computer science; biology and chemistry. The liceum also runs in home-education mode (edukacja domowa). The school plans an international matura.
Address ul. Tadeusza Kościuszki 227, 40-600 Katowice
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary.
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). 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.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Montessori
The pedagogy of Maria Montessori: a child chooses the activity, works at their own pace with special materials, and mixed-age groups are arranged so that older children teach the younger ones. It is used most often in the nursery and primary stages.
What this means for this school. The name Montessori belongs to nobody: any school may call itself a Montessori school, and there is no single body that checks this. There are associations that train teachers and recognise schools, but membership of them is voluntary, and our entry means exactly that the school describes itself this way. This pedagogy has no leaving certificate, so what to look at is what the school finishes with.
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
Exam results Egzamin ósmoklasisty 2026: grade 8 leavers averaged 81,2%, 7th of 65 primary schools in Katowice.
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
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Clubs and activities: Handicrafts · Dance Club · Art Club · School Newspaper · Spanish Language · Swimming Pool · Chess Club · Choir · Physiotherapy · Speech Therapy
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 sizenot stated
What the listings show: Most Polish teachers have completed or are taking the Montessori methodology course of Polski Instytut Montessori (317 hours with examinations); international section teachers take Cambridge subject courses. Each year staff complete compulsory training with Polskie Centrum Edukacji Gordona, Polski Instytut Montessori and the International Montessori Council.
The staff page introduces 49 people by name: the founders, subject teachers, preschool and early-years teachers, native English speakers from Canada, South Africa and Zimbabwe, Cambridge programme teachers, a psychologist, a speech therapist, a physiotherapist and a special education teacher. Native English speakers work full time in preschool groups and grades 1-3, three-quarter time in grades 4-6 and quarter time in grades 7-8.
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 policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school employs a psychologist, a special education teacher, speech and neuro-speech therapists, sensory integration and autism spectrum therapists, an art therapist, a physiotherapist and a dietitian, who step in when a child needs support. Fees include accident insurance. Communication with parents runs through the Librus electronic register.
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 data60 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 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