← Back to the rankingInstitut Sankt Joseph
Copenhagen, Denmark · est. 1858 · Private
Illustration · Copenhagen
Institut Sankt Joseph (ISJ) is a Catholic private school in Østerbro, Copenhagen, founded in 1858 by the Sisters of Saint Joseph as a girls' school; boys have been admitted since 1968, and since 1976 the school has been independent. It has nearly 800 students from the zero class to class 10. The school stresses that it is a Danish school: teaching is based on the Danish national curriculum Fælles Mål, with FP9 exams after class 9 and FP10 after class 10. Since 2014 it has an international bilingual department (classes I and Y): English, Mathematics and Science are taught by native English-speaking teachers combining Fælles Mål with Cambridge Primary and Cambridge Lower Secondary standards, and after class 9 students may take optional IGCSEs in English, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Other subjects in the bilingual classes are taught in Danish together with the Danish parallel classes. There is also an international class 10 with part of the subjects in English. School life follows the Catholic calendar: morning assemblies in the church, retreats and a study trip to Rome in class 8.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $5 230 a year
3 460 DKK a month
The year is counted as ten payments: the school does not say how many payments it takes.
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary · National programme
Languages of instruction
Danish, English
Languages taught
German, French
Registration fee
≈ $302
2 000 DKK
About the fees Fees for the 2026-2027 school year are paid in 12 equal instalments from August to July. Bilingual department (classes 0-9): 3460 Danish kroner per month, 41520 per year. Danish department: classes 0-9 2060 kroner per month (24720 per year), class 10 3220 kroner per month (38640 per year, including class 10 trips); the Danish department also pays 3000 kroner in advance for a study trip. The second child gets 25% off, the third 50%, the fourth attends free. After-school SFO for classes 0-2 costs 1750 kroner per month for 12 months, for class 3 1750 kroner for 9 months; morning SFO 570 kroner per month; the majbørn group in May and June 3200 kroner per month. Mandatory retreats, camps and study trips are charged separately. State fee subsidies (fripladstilskud) can be applied for from class 0 to 9.
Admissions For the Danish department, families register online on the waiting list; when a place opens, parents and child are invited to a talk, and all communication in the department is in Danish. The bilingual department admits when places are available: the zero class is for children who turn 6 in that calendar year; for classes 0-2 the child must have native-level English or Danish, for classes 3-9 the child must be bilingual and fluent in speaking and reading both languages. The school considers available places and the child's sex to keep an even balance of boys and girls; zero class screening interviews take place in November of the previous year, other classes have an interview with the Head of Department. The bilingual application form asks for nationality and accepts children without a Danish CPR number (date of birth is given instead). The bilingual waiting list fee is 2000 kroner. The bilingual zero class for 2026-2027 is already full. Once admitted, students cannot switch between departments.
Stages and year groups Grades 0-10. Danish national curriculum Fælles Mål: zero class (børnehaveklasse), classes 1-9, compulsory FP9 exams after class 9 and FP10 after class 10; a pre-start majbørn group runs in the spring before the zero class. Bilingual department (classes 0-9): English, Mathematics and Science follow Fælles Mål and Cambridge Primary and Cambridge Lower Secondary standards, with optional IGCSEs in English, Mathematics and Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) after class 9. International class 10: Mathematics and Physics/Chemistry in Danish, Global Perspectives, Health and Wellness and Philosophy mainly in English.
Address Dag Hammarskjölds Allé 17, 2100 København Ø (Østerbro)
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre: in the bilingual line English, maths and science follow the Cambridge curriculum. The school is built on the Danish curriculum for grades 0-10.
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), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14). 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. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end.
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
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Clubs and activities: Skoleavis (school newspaper) · Debatklub (debating club) · Skak/Backgammon-turneringer (chess and backgammon tournaments) · Bogklub (book club) · Legepatrulje (playground patrol) · DISNAC sports · Kælder-jam & Karaoke (basement jam and karaoke) · Musikskolen ISJ (music school: choir, instruments, ensembles) · Elevråd (student council)
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
In the bilingual department, English, Mathematics and Science are taught by native English-speaking teachers working closely with Danish colleagues. The zero class has one class teacher, from class 1 every class has two class teachers; each zero class has its own pedagogue, and classes 1-3 have a pedagogue working both in school and in SFO. The school has Danish, mathematics and reading advisers; it is led by the head of school, and the bilingual department has its own head.
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 policy
The school publishes an anti-bullying strategy: yearly class rules of conduct, yearly well-being surveys and a procedure for suspected bullying with deadlines for investigation and an action plan. The resource centre runs behaviour and well-being work (AKT), supplementary teaching and Danish as a second language; the school employs its own school psychologist and an inclusion pedagogue and works with the municipal psychological service. An appointed inspector supervises the school every year.
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 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