← Back to the rankingInternationella Engelska Skolan Järfälla
Järfälla, Sweden · est. 2002 · Private
Illustration · Järfälla
Internationella Engelska Skolan Järfälla is a bilingual, free, independent school (friskola) for years 5-9 in Järfälla near Stockholm, opened in 2002. About 560 students attend. The school follows the Swedish national curriculum, but up to half of the lessons are taught in English: roughly half of the teachers are Swedish and half come from English-speaking countries, each teaching in their own language. The school motto is Stronger Together; it emphasises a calm, orderly classroom environment and high academic expectations. According to the school, 99% of year 9 leavers qualify for Swedish upper secondary school. Of the Cambridge International programmes, the school names IGCSE: in 2021 students sat IGCSE exams in English and maths, and in 2023 the school introduced IGCSE maths for years 7 and 8. In autumn 2025 the Swedish Schools Inspectorate rated the school highly in all four areas reviewed: leadership, teaching, safety and study environment, and grading. The languages of instruction are English and Swedish: the school states that half of the lessons are in English and half in Swedish.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
English, Swedish
Languages taught
Spanish, French
About the fees Education is free: the school states that there are no fees to attend and that it is funded in the same way as municipal schools, through the Swedish tax system and the school voucher (skolpeng). Lunch and fruit during the day are also free.
Admissions There are no entrance exams or selection tests: places are allocated by queue time, with priority for children whose siblings already attend or have been accepted at a school of the same operator. Children can be placed in the queue from 1 February of the year after they were born, through SchoolSoft with BankID, or without BankID through a form on the website. Families living abroad may join the queue, but places are offered only to students registered as residents in Sweden (folkbokförda); families without a Swedish personal identity number who plan to move are asked to contact the school directly. Admission for the next school year starts in November: an information evening, then place offers by email with a reply deadline; in spring admitted children attend an introduction day. The school does not require good English before entry: for most students it is a second or third language. Students wishing to join in year 7 or 8 are offered a short tour of the school.
Stages and year groups Grades 5-9. Swedish compulsory school (grundskola), years 5-9, following the national curriculum Lgr22; up to half of the lessons in English, the rest in Swedish. There are 31 students per class. In year 5 progress reports are given four times a year, from year 6 grades twice a year. A third language is compulsory: Spanish or French; French students take DELF exams. Cambridge International course - IGCSE: in December 2021 the school wrote that students had sat IGCSE exams in English and maths; in January 2023 it announced IGCSE maths for students then in years 7 and 8; in June 2023 it noted students' strong interest in IGCSE (Cambridge English and maths) and great results. The school does not say whether the course is part of the timetable or outside lessons; there are no later mentions of IGCSE on its pages.
Address Hästskovägen 76, 176 65 Järfälla
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeInternationella Engelska Skolan · school is part of the networkThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE.
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: IGCSE (ages 14-16). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate.
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.
Internationella Engelska Skolanschool network
Internationella Engelska Skolan (IES) is a Swedish network of tuition-free independent schools (friskolor). The network says it is one of Sweden's largest operators of compulsory schools: about 30 thousand students in 46 schools from Trelleborg in the south to Skellefteå in the north. The schools follow the Swedish curriculum and teach about half of their subjects in English. The schools are owned by Internationella Engelska Skolan i Sverige AB; since 2020 the majority of it has belonged to the investment firm Paradigm Capital. Some schools of the network are Cambridge centres and run separate IGCSE courses.
What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.
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
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school library with a librarian is open on weekdays from 9:00 to 14:00. Lunch is cooked on site by Eatery: several dishes every day, including a vegetarian option, with special diets on a doctor's certificate; lunch is free, and free fruit is served in the cafeteria every day. For year 5 students the Junior Club runs after school until 16:30 with an afternoon snack, homework help and monthly outings. The bus stops outside the school and the train station is about 8 minutes away. It is a day school with no boarding.
Clubs and activities: Junior Club (after-school club for year 5) · Sports clubs · Music Clubs · Book club · Master Chef (cooking contest) · Student council
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 sizein the key facts above
What the listings show: 85% of teachers qualified (figure for all schools of the operator, 2024/2025)
About half of the staff are Swedish and about half come from English-speaking countries, many of whom have worked at the school for years. The staff page lists the management (principal, two assistant principals, academic coordinator) and the departments of aesthetics, English, mathematics, modern languages, music and home economics, PE, science, social science, Swedish and special education. Across all schools of the same operator, 85% of teachers are qualified (2024/2025), roughly 6 out of 10 of them in Sweden; on average there is one adult to 10 students, including support staff.
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 policynot stated on the website
✓Staff training
✓Anti-bullying policy
The Student Care Team meets twice a week: assistant principals, school nurses, school counsellor, special pedagogue, Life Skills teacher and careers counsellor; when necessary the school works with Järfälla municipality, health services and social services. School rules explicitly prohibit harassment, discrimination and abusive treatment; students and staff are regularly trained on these issues. Life Skills lessons twice a month cover friendship, conflict, racism, prejudice and substance abuse. Once per term students give anonymous feedback on safety at school. Adults are present in all common areas.
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