← Back to the rankingPrimary Progressive School 2 Varna
Varna, Bulgaria · est. 2018 · Private
Illustration · Varna
Primary Progressive School 2 Varna (in Bulgarian, Osnovno progresivno uchilishte 2 - Varna) is a private primary and lower secondary school in the Chayka district of Varna for children from the pre-school class (ages 5-6) to grade 7. It has operated under a certificate from the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science since 2018 and issues Bulgarian education documents, including the primary education diploma after grade 4. Teaching follows the Bulgarian state curriculum, extended by the school's own progressive model: transdisciplinary units of inquiry, JUMP Math, Responsive Classroom and Let's Think. According to the school rules, from the second term of the 2024-2025 school year it has been the first IB PYP school in Varna, having completed IB authorisation in March 2025. The language of instruction and communication is Bulgarian; English is taught as the main foreign language and brought to level B2 by the end of grade 7, and in grades 5-7 Design and Technology is taught in English. The school day runs from 8:30 to 16:00: compulsory lessons until 14:00, then inquiry projects and independent study, with optional activities until 17:30. The school belongs to the non-profit Foundation for Educational Transformation (Fondatsia za obrazovatelna transformatsia), which runs several other progressive schools in Sofia and Plovdiv and makes no profit.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $6 304 a year
5 580 EUR
Programmes
IB · PYP · National programme
Admits from
5 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Bulgarian
About the fees Fees for the 2026-2027 school year for 10 months, in euro: tuition 2480, inquiry programme (afternoon part of the day) 2480, summer induction and closing activities in early September and late June 620; in total 5580 euro paid in one annual payment, 5715 euro in three instalments and 5850 euro in equal monthly instalments. The school also recommends a donation to the foundation for developing the educational model (620, 635 or 650 euro); with it the price list totals are 6200, 6350 and 6500 euro. Meals and transport are not included. A deposit equal to two monthly instalments is due on enrolment; second and third children receive a discount. No VAT is charged on tuition.
Admissions The school follows an open and inclusive admissions policy and does not select pupils by results. Admissions for the next year open in February: the family submits an enquiry through the website form, visits the school and fills in a parent questionnaire; applicants to grades 5-7 meet the admissions panel, work in a small group with teachers and take a pedagogical assessment (Bulgarian and English, mathematics, reading comprehension, learning skills). The main criteria are shared values between family and school and the school's ability to give the child the support needed; for children with special educational needs the school considers class composition and the parents' readiness to provide an additional specialist. Siblings of pupils have priority. For the 2026-2027 school year the school is admitting the pre-school class (children aged 5 and 6) and grades 1 and 5. By law at least 20% of places in the pre-school class and grade 1 are tuition-free (paid by the state) by decision of a committee: for families in financial difficulty, children with special needs or outstanding abilities, and in other cases. The school does not state directly whom it admits by citizenship; its language policy says that children with other home languages (for example Ukrainian and English) study there and that those not fluent in Bulgarian receive individual support; a separate phone line is given for information in Russian.
Stages and year groups Grades pre-school class, 1-7. Pre-school preparation (preparatory group, children aged 5 and 6) and basic school under the Bulgarian state curriculum: primary stage grades 1-4 and lower secondary stage grades 5-7, with Ministry of Education and Science documents. The primary stage is built on the IB PYP model: transdisciplinary units of inquiry and the IB learner profile; in lower secondary subjects are taught separately, and grade 7 prepares for the national external assessment (NVO) and the Cambridge English: First (FCE) exam. Besides day attendance, the school runs individual, self-study and combined forms of education.
Address ul. Vasil Drumev 73 (BMKTs, vhod ot Planetariuma), kv. Chayka, 9000 Varna
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP · authorised programmeThe IB register lists the Primary Years Programme at the school, taught within the Bulgarian national programme for grades 1-7. The school is part of the network of progressive schools run by the Education Transformation Foundation.
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 hall
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school occupies the second floor (wing B) of the BMKTs building at 73 Vasil Drumev Street in the Chayka district, on the grounds of the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy, with the entrance by the Planetarium. The school's virtual tour shows classrooms, a music studio, a sports hall and a dining room. The school library also holds books in pupils' home languages. Meals and transport are provided by outside catering and transport companies for an extra fee. There is no boarding.
Summer programme away from campus: . The school runs no camp of its own on campus
The school does not describe a summer camp open to outside children. The school rules list autumn, winter, spring and summer trips and camps for classes outside the city, depending on each class's possibilities and interests; in early September and late June all pupils attend compulsory summer induction and closing activities.
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 school principal also leads the lower secondary stage, and a separate pedagogical coordinator leads the primary stage. According to the language policy, the school support team includes the principal, the PYP coordinator and the school psychologist; the school also has a speech therapist and a resource teacher. Teachers design the learning process themselves and train regularly with the foundation's methodology centre. The school does not publish teacher qualification requirements or the number of teachers.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
✓Security staff
✓Access control
✓Nurse or medical room
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
According to the school rules, a staff member is always on duty on the ground floor and access control is installed on the second floor; visitors enter only by prior arrangement, and children move between floors only with a teacher. Tuition covers medical care and building security. The school has an anti-bullying and anti-violence policy: daily morning class meetings, activities chosen by the psychologist, specialist monitoring of class relationships and a mediator in conflicts; there is also a positive behaviour policy and a code of ethics.
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 data90 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 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