← Back to the rankingEuropean School Copenhagen
Copenhagen, Denmark · est. 2014 · State
Illustration · Copenhagen
European School Copenhagen (ESCPH) is a public, tuition-free day school in Carlsberg Byen, Copenhagen, and an accredited European School. It was founded by the City of Copenhagen in 2014 for the children of international employees working in the city. The school started with two nursery and two first-year Primary classes, moved into its own campus in 2018, opened the Europagymnasiet upper secondary in 2020 and in 2023 sent off its first European Baccalaureate (EB) graduates. Today it has over 900 students from the nursery class to the seventh and final Secondary year in three language sections: Danish, English and French. The section language is the child's main language of tuition; the first foreign language (English, German or French) starts in the first Primary year, and from the third Secondary year human sciences, history and geography are taught in it. The school follows the common European Schools curriculum under the Board of Governors of the European Schools, the Danish Ministry of Children and Education and the City of Copenhagen, and is audited for accreditation every three years. It offers the German language diploma exams DSD I and DSD II and has been an accredited Erasmus+ school since 2026.
Key facts
Programmes
European Baccalaureate
Languages of instruction
Danish, English, French
Languages taught
German, Spanish, Latin
About the fees Tuition is free: the school is municipal, and the City of Copenhagen describes it as providing tuition-free education. Paid extras are the After School Care for P0-P3 at municipal rates (income-based reductions possible) and school lunches through a school lunch account. DSD exams are free of charge.
Admissions Admission follows priority categories: children of EU institution staff (by right), then children of international employees who come to work in Denmark, children of returning Danish employees and children from other European Schools; local applicants are offered places only if spaces remain. The child must master the section language at mother tongue level. Required: photo, passport or birth certificate, proof of parental employment and the latest school or kindergarten report. Selected applicants are invited to an in-person language screening (no online screenings), and an admissions committee with a City of Copenhagen consultant decides. Nursery class applications are taken in winter for the following August; Primary and Secondary admit new students twice a year, in January and August. Upper Secondary (Europagymnasiet) admission is through Optagelse.dk like all Danish gymnasiums: Danish STX requirements, a written test in the section language and first foreign language, and a motivation letter; the English section requires C2 English and B1-B2 in the first foreign language (French or German). ESCPH Secondary students and children of European Environment Agency staff are guaranteed a place in Upper Secondary.
Stages and year groups Grades P0-P5, S1-S7. European Schools programme: nursery class P0 (børnehaveklasse, from age 5), Primary P1-P5 (ages 6-11), Secondary S1-S4 (ages 11-15), Upper Secondary S5-S7 (Europagymnasiet, 1.g-3.g, ages 15-19), ending with the European Baccalaureate (EB) exams. The EB is recognised in all EU countries and gives access to Danish universities on the same terms as STX, HHX, HF and HTX. Students learn at least two languages; in S5 they can spend a semester at another European School through the mobility programme.
Address Ny Carlsberg Vej 99, 1799 København V (Carlsberg Byen)
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
European Schools · authorised programmePASCH · takes part in the programmeThe European Schools system lists it as an Accredited European School. It is a municipal school of the City of Copenhagen and free of charge; it teaches in Danish, English and French sections and leads to the European Baccalaureate. The school is part of the PASCH network and holds the German DSD exams itself.
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
European SchoolsThe European Union's European Schools (Schola Europaea)
An intergovernmental system of European Union schools with its own curriculum and its own certificate, the European Baccalaureate. It runs thirteen schools of its own, and national schools gain the status of Accredited European School after an audit with a visit by inspectors. The certificate is recognised for university entry in every EU country.
What the badge means for this school. The school runs the European Schools curriculum, and this can be checked in the system's lists at eursc.eu. The system's own schools are checked by inspectors from EU countries, accredited schools pass an in-school audit, and accreditation is renewed every three years. Whether the school awards the European Baccalaureate, and whom it admits, is stated on its own page. 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 →European Baccalaureate
The European Union's European Schools curriculum from nursery to the final year, with the European Baccalaureate as the leaving certificate. Teaching is in language sections, and a second language is compulsory from primary school.
What this means for this school. The curriculum and the certificate are set by the European Schools system, whose Board of Governors is made up of the education ministers of the EU countries. European Baccalaureate papers are marked by the teacher and an external examiner, and the certificate is recognised for university entry in every EU country and in several others. A school may award it only if it is one of the system's own schools or is accredited for the senior years.
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 hall
✓Laboratories
·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: Art studio · Playground
Clubs and activities: Model United Nations · Student Council · Sustainability Group · School newspaper · School band · International Evening
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
Teachers come from many countries; the school employs them under Danish collective agreements, and all candidates undergo reference, qualification and criminal record checks. Teachers train within the European Schools network and the Danish International Schools Network. The school is led by a Director, a Deputy Director and heads of Primary, Secondary and Upper Secondary; the staff page lists more than 100 people.
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 room
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school publishes separate anti-bullying, discrimination and harassment policies for Primary and Secondary and for Upper Secondary, plus an Upper Secondary code of conduct. The municipal school nurse sees students regularly in the school's health clinic and holds health checks in P0, P1, P5 and S3; dental care for children is free. All staff undergo criminal record checks when hired.
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 data70 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data76 "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