Sandnes International School (SDIS) is a small private, not-for-profit international school for children aged 6-16 (grades 1-10) in Sandnes, near Stavanger. It operates under the private schools act (privatskolelova) as an approved alternative to the Norwegian curriculum: grades 1-6 follow the IB PYP and grades 7-10 the IB MYP. The language of instruction is English; Norwegian is taught to all students at every grade level, and Spanish is added in the middle years. About 85% of costs are covered by the state through Utdanningsdirektoratet, so fees for families are moderate. The school is approved for 200 students, puts social-emotional development at the centre and names its low student-to-teacher ratio as one of its strengths. Teachers and leadership come from more than ten countries.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $4 285–4 655 a year
41 245–44 800 NOK
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Norwegian, Spanish
Students per teacher
low, no number given (per the head of school)
About the fees Fees for 2026-2027: grades 1-7 3749 NOK per month, 41245 NOK per year; grades 8-10 4072 NOK per month, 44800 NOK per year; invoiced over 11 months. Fees are reviewed every January under Utdanningsdirektoratet rules. The sibling discount is 10% for the second child and 15% for the third and further children. If an invoice is unpaid 30 days after the due date, the school may revoke the place.
Admissions The school is open to anyone who meets the conditions for admission to a Norwegian public school (that is, is entitled to attend school in Norway); the grade is set by year of birth: in 2026-2027 children born in 2020 start grade 1 and those born in 2011 are in grade 10. Applications are made online; main admission runs in four rounds of offers: the last Friday in January, the first Friday in March, the last Friday in April and the last Monday of the school year. During the year places are offered when available, and supplementary admission ends in April. If there are more applicants than places, priority goes to children of staff, then siblings of students, then children with previous IB education, then children with more than 6 months in an English-language school or preschool, then children with at least one non-Norwegian parent. A place is secured with the completed offer form and payment of the first invoice; decisions can be appealed to the school board and then to the Statsforvalteren in Rogaland. Children with limited English get intensive lessons of 30 minutes a day.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-10. IB PYP in grades 1-6 (PYP1-PYP6) and IB MYP in grades 7-10 (MYP2-MYP5). The school is approved under privatskolelova as an alternative to the national curriculum. The MYP has eight subject groups: language and literature (Norwegian or English), language acquisition (Spanish, Norwegian or English), individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics, arts, physical and health education, and design. Norwegian: 2 lessons a week in grade 1, 3 in grades 2-3 and 4 lessons of 45 minutes from grade 4. The school ends at grade 10.
Address Prinsens vei 8, 4315 Sandnes
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP, MYP · authorised programmeCIS · listed in the registry with no status grantedThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Primary Years and Middle Years programmes.
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), MYP (ages 11-16). 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. MYP is the middle stage, ages 11 to 16. There are no exams here either; at the end an optional electronic assessment of pupils' work is possible.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →CISCouncil of International Schools
It accredits international schools and is a paying association at the same time. It examines governance and ownership, the curriculum, teaching, student wellbeing, staff and premises; a team of volunteers from other CIS accredited schools visits the school. Membership and accreditation are different things here, and schools confuse them more often than anything else.
What the badge means for this school. The school appears in the organisation's directory, but the organisation has granted it no status at all. At the Council of International Schools such an entry is called a Prospect and means a potential client in their system: the school may have made an enquiry, may have been added from outside, or may not know about the entry at all - on the websites of three such schools out of five the organisation is not mentioned once. An entry like this brings a school into the ranking but scores the minimum on that criterion, exactly as membership and candidacy do. It is neither an accreditation nor candidacy, and it says nothing about the quality of the school. The entry stands in the organisation's open directory, and no status stands behind it there.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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
·Cateringnot stated on the website
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: A small school in Sandnes approved for 200 students. It has a library with printed books, audio books and e-books in English, Norwegian and other languages; it is run by a teacher-librarian and also serves as a place to study and socialise. The SFO before and after school care runs for grades 1-4, and for children with individual needs also in grades 5-7. Two dedicated Kolumbus school buses, SK222 and SK223, serve the school's students; free transport is given to those living more than 2 km (grade 1) or 4 km (grades 2-10) away. It is a day school with no boarding.
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
The staff page names 26 teachers and assistants in the PYP and MYP teams, plus the leadership (head of school, MYP principal and coordinator, PYP coordinator, learning support coordinator) and the SFO team; each entry gives a country of origin - USA, Australia, Spain, the UK, Canada, India, Belgium, Norway, Brazil and others. The head of school writes that staff represent more than ten countries and that the low student-to-teacher ratio is one of the school's main strengths.
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 policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
A Sandnes municipality school nurse is available on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The school has a School Environment Plan under chapter 12 of the Education Act, a code of conduct, an inclusion policy and a child protection policy; in its inclusion statement the school commits to addressing bullying, prejudice and discrimination through awareness and training. A behaviour technician works in the primary years, and there is a learning support coordinator.
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 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
Sandnes, Norway · Private