← Back to the rankingI Liceum Ogólnokształcące z Oddziałami Dwujęzycznymi im. Marii Konopnickiej w Suwałkach
Suwalki, Poland · est. 1835 · State
Illustration · Suwalki
I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Marii Konopnickiej is a public high school in Suwałki and the oldest operating school in the town: it traces its history to 1835, when a gymnasium opened in Sejny, moved to Suwałki in 1839, and has been in its present building since 1846. In 2026 the school celebrated its 190th anniversary. It is a four-year high school following the Polish curriculum towards the matura. Since 2019 it has been an IB World School: class 1A (oddział międzynarodowy) has two preparatory years in English, after which students can move into the two-year IB Diploma Programme taught in English. The other classes are taught in Polish: economics and management, medical, humanities and the Cyber.MIL cyber class with a cryptology focus, one of 16 such classes in Poland. The school also offers German under the DSD II programme (6 hours a week, up to level B2/C1) and Erasmus+ exchanges. The school says it has been in the top ten schools of the Podlaskie region for a decade.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Polish, English
Languages taught
German, Spanish, French, Russian
About the fees A public high school, tuition is free for all students; the school is run by the city of Suwałki.
Admissions Admission to grade 1 follows the general Polish rules for public high schools: the total score (maximum 200) from the egzamin ósmoklasisty and primary school certificate grades in Polish, mathematics and the two best subjects decides, plus points for a certificate with distinction, olympiads and volunteering; olympiad laureates and finalists are admitted first. The international class 1A additionally requires a positive result in an English language competence test (in 2026 an online test at school on 28 May, second date 23 June); laureates and finalists of olympiads in that language are exempt. The cyber class requires at least 150 points and at least good grades in mathematics, physics and computer science. Applications to the international class are accepted from 11 to 27 May, to other classes from 11 May to 23 June (for 2026). The website does not say anything specific about admitting foreign students.
Stages and year groups Grades high school grades 1-4. A four-year high school following the Polish podstawa programowa towards the matura. Class A is international (oddział międzynarodowy): English 8 hours a week, extended subjects of choice, and after two preparatory years the two-year IB Diploma Programme (6 subjects, 3 or 4 at higher level, TOK, CAS, Extended Essay). The school lists IB subjects: Polish A, English A and B, German B, Spanish B, French ab initio, history, business management, philosophy, psychology, digital society, biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, sports exercise and health science, mathematics (analysis and applications), music. The school received IB authorisation in 2019. Class B is economics and management, C medical, D humanities, Cyber.MIL cryptology; these are taught in Polish. German under the DSD II programme prepares for a B2/C1 level exam.
Address ul. Mickiewicza 3, 16-400 Suwałki
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmePASCH · takes part in the programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Diploma Programme. The IB track runs in the international classes of a Polish liceum: the Diploma in grades 3-4, alongside the Polish curriculum leading to the matura. The school is part of the PASCH network.
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
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
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: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
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 →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 hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The historic school building was erected in the 1840s to a design by the architect Antonio Corazzi; in 2001 a new wing with modern lecture rooms was added, and in 2006 a sports hall opened behind the school. There are chemistry, physics and biology laboratories, a modern computer room for the cyber class and a library with a reading room: about 40000 volumes collected since the 19th century, which the school calls the largest school library in the Podlaskie region. It is a day school.
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 staff page names teachers with their subjects, including teachers of IB subjects (computer science, psychology, business management, TOK, CAS, sports exercise and health science), a German DSD teacher, the psychologist, school and special needs pedagogues and the librarian.
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 school has a psychologist (room 108, available every day) and pedagogues, including a special needs pedagogue. It publishes child protection standards (Standardy ochrony małoletnich) and a prevention and education programme; for the IB class, admission, language, inclusion, assessment, academic integrity and complaints policies.
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%)82 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 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