← Back to the rankingInternational Bilingual School Munich
Munich, Germany · Private
Illustration · Munich
International Bilingual School Munich (IBSM) is a private bilingual all-day primary school in Munich for grades 1-4. Since 2010 it has been a state-approved school (staatlich genehmigt), and since 2017 an IB World School. The school fully combines the IB Primary Years Programme with the Bavarian LehrplanPLUS curriculum: six Units of Inquiry a year cover all subjects of the Bavarian curriculum, and after grade 4 children can move on to a gymnasium (after a successful trial period or entrance exam) or to an IB school worldwide. Each class has about 25 children and two native-speaker teachers, German and English, following the one person, one language principle; there are no grades, only regular individual feedback. Children of more than 38 nationalities attend. In autumn-winter 2026 the school moves to a new campus in Moosach, with a nursery and kindergarten on site.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $15 760 a year
1 395 EUR a month
The year is counted as ten payments: the school does not say how many payments it takes.
Programmes
IB · PYP · National programme
Languages of instruction
German, English
Students per teacher
about 25 children per two teachers in each class
Class size
about 25 children per class
About the fees Fees depend on the family's gross annual income; the exact amount is set from proof of income, and the site has a calculator. According to the calculator table until 31 January 2027: free for incomes up to 20000 EUR, from 215 EUR per month for incomes up to 30000 EUR to 1395 EUR per month (16740 EUR per year) for incomes above 250000 EUR. From 1 February 2027: from 235 to 1535 EUR per month (18420 EUR per year). The card shows the full rate. Partner employers can subsidise fees for their employees' children. Lunch, the bus and clubs are paid separately.
Admissions Admission to grade 1 starts early: an online application (placement on the waiting list), documents including mandatory proof of family income and kindergarten reports, an information evening or visit in autumn, a trial morning in January with play-based activities in German, English, maths and movement, and in mid-February a decision and an offer of a place. The focus is on school readiness rather than prior knowledge; children without English can complete all activities, and openness to a new language is assessed. Grades 2-4 admit all year round when places are available: application, documents with proof of income and previous school records, three trial days in class; if the child is not yet in Munich, an online interview comes first, with a provisional offer until the trial days. Children of more than 38 nationalities attend.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-4. A primary school for grades 1-4: the IB Primary Years Programme fully combined with the Bavarian LehrplanPLUS curriculum. All Bavarian subjects (German and English, maths, science, social studies, art and music, sport) are linked to six Units of Inquiry a year. Teaching is in German and English at the same time: each class has a German-speaking and an English-speaking teacher; in grade 1 they often teach together, in grades 3-4 there are German-only, English-only and bilingual lessons. After grade 4 children move to a state or private gymnasium via a three-day trial in German and maths, which the school prepares for, or to IB schools. No other foreign languages are taught as subjects; Chinese is offered only as a paid after-school club. IBSM has no secondary school.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP · authorised programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Primary Years Programme.
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: PYP (ages 3-12). PYP is the primary stage, ages 3 to 12. It is not a set of subjects but a frame for the whole school: learning is built around lines of inquiry, and there are no exams 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 hallnot stated on the website
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Art studio
Campus: The school currently operates on Lerchenauer Straße in a small building with a family atmosphere. The new campus in Moosach, on the site of a former traditional clothing factory, is designed as open learning landscapes with central marketplaces: an assembly hall with a stage and a parents' café, classrooms with height-adjustable desks, two children's restaurant areas, an art and IT zone, a STEM lab and a media library with books in both languages; a nursery and kindergarten are on the same site. Lunch is provided by a caterer. A school bus runs several routes in Munich with no more than 7 children per vehicle. Free morning care from 8:00, after-school clubs until 17:45.
Clubs and activities: Football · DesignLab · Kids Yoga · Chinesisch als Fremdsprache (Chinese as a foreign language) · Little Picassos · KI Führerschein (AI basics licence) · Capoeira · Musikschule Bilan (music school) · Programmieren (programming) · Chess · Chorsingen (choir singing) · Maschinen Nähkurs (machine sewing course)
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 sizein the key facts above
Each class has two teachers, native speakers of German and English; the team is young and international. The school is led by a headteacher named on the site. The school does not publish teacher qualifications or the total number of teachers.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
The school says nothing on its website about security, medical care or pupil support.
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 data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 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