Schule Schloss Salem is a private, state-recognised (staatlich anerkannt) boarding Gymnasium on Lake Constance, founded in 1919 by Prince Max of Baden and the educator Kurt Hahn and opened in 1920. About 600 students from more than 45 countries attend, about 95% of them boarders; a limited number of day students from the region are admitted. Lower grades study at Schloss Salem, upper grades at the Salem International College on two sites in Überlingen. Up to grade 10 teaching follows the Baden-Württemberg curriculum in German, and from grade 8 students can join the international classes, which teach the same curriculum in English, mostly by native-speaker teachers. In grades 11-12 students choose the German Abitur or the IB Diploma Programme in English; the school has offered the IB since 1993, and Kurt Hahn was involved in the first ideas for the IB. For students coming from a Realschule or from abroad there is the three-year Aufbaugymnasium 10PLUS leading to the Abitur. The school's pedagogy rests on responsibility: from grade 9 all students serve for three years in the school fire brigade, the THW technical relief service, the Red Cross first aid service, the water rescue service or the social service; the school has its own constitution, elected student self-government, an Outward Bound expedition to Norway in grade 9 and the Duke of Edinburgh programme. About 20% of students hold merit scholarships. There are four students per educator, and classes have 10 to 20 students.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $60 328–67 106 a year
53 400–59 400 EUR
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
German, English
Languages taught
Latin, French, Spanish
Students per teacher
1 to 4
Class size
10 to 20 students, on average 14-15 pupils
Registration fee
≈ $2 259
2 000 EUR
About the fees School and boarding fees for the 2026-2027 school year (1 September 2026 - 31 August 2027): grades 5-10 and 10PLUS 4450 EUR per month, 53400 EUR per year; grades 11-12 and international classes 8-10 4550 EUR per month, 54600 EUR per year; IB Diploma 4950 EUR per month, 59400 EUR per year. Fees cover tuition, accommodation, meals and pastoral care. Payment is monthly or annual; credit cards are not accepted. There is a 10% sibling discount and a 1.5% discount for children of alumni. Day students from the region pay no more than 160 EUR per month for tuition (1920 EUR per year), the cap set by the state for private schools; with the all-day programme 2120-2275 EUR per month. Parents are invited to make voluntary additional payments of 250 to 4450 EUR per month to the scholarship fund.
Admissions Applications are made in the school year before entry, for students from visa-requiring countries by the end of March. Steps: contact with the admissions office, documents, a placement test if needed, a family visit with an interview and tour (the whole process can be done online). There is no classic entrance exam; the test is used for class placement. Entry is possible into grades 5-11 at the start of the school year, into grade 12 or mid-year only in individual cases. For the German classes foreign applicants need a German certificate: grade 5 can be entered without German (integrated language school), grades 6-8 require B1, grades 9, 10 and 10PLUS B2, grade 11 C1. For the international classes and the IB an English certificate is required: grade 8 B1 (for example Cambridge PET), grades 9-10 B2 (FCE), grade 11 and IB C1 (CAE), plus subject tests. Graduates of Realschulen, comprehensive and Waldorf schools and applicants from abroad can take the Aufbaugymnasium 10PLUS. There is a dedicated page for expat families; students come from more than 45 countries.
Stages and year groups Grades 5-12, 10PLUS. A Gymnasium on the Baden-Württemberg curriculum: Juniorenstufe grades 5-7 (from 2025-2026 the nine-year G9 Gymnasium is being introduced in grades 5-6), Profilstufe grades 8-10, Kursstufe grades 11-12 with the Abitur. From grade 8 International Classes 8-10 run in parallel: the full state curriculum in English as preparation for the choice between Abitur and IB. Languages: English from grade 5 (also for native speakers), Latin or French as the second language from grade 6, Spanish or French as a third language from grade 8 or a science or music profile; German as a foreign language for non-native speakers. In grades 11-12 (Salem International College) students choose the German Abitur or the IB Diploma Programme in English (since 1993): Language A English, German, Spanish (on demand), self-taught mother tongue; Language B English, German B and ab initio, French B (on demand), Spanish B; Business Management, Economics, Global Politics, History; Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science, Environmental Systems and Societies (ESS); Mathematics (Analysis and Applications, HL/SL); Visual Arts and Theatre Arts; plus the Extended Essay, Theory of Knowledge and CAS. Individual IB certificates are also possible. In the upper school about 170 students take the Abitur and about 110 the IB. Aufbaugymnasium 10PLUS: a three-year route to the Abitur after an intermediate school certificate, with Spanish as a late-start second language.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeCIS · accreditationRound Square · part of the associationThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Diploma Programme. The school is accredited by CIS. The school is a member of Round Square.
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: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
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 has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Round SquareRound Square
A network of about three hundred schools in some fifty countries, built on the ideas of the educationalist Kurt Hahn: internationalism, democracy, environment, adventure, leadership, service. On joining, representatives of the network visit the school and write a report, and the school then spends up to two years as a candidate.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to the network. The check on joining is a real one, but what is examined is fidelity to the six principles rather than the quality of teaching, safeguarding or governance. Reports are not published, and the five-year review is one the school carries out on itself. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
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
Where leavers go: University of Cambridge · University of St Andrews · Durham University · University of Edinburgh · University of Manchester · King's College London · University of Bath · SOAS University of London · Technical University of Munich · Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) · Heidelberg University · Utrecht University
and others, 22 universities in the school's list in allThese are universities from which May 2025 IB graduates received offers; the school lists them with fields ranging from history and politics, medicine and economics to architecture, engineering and music production. Among graduates' paths the school also names ETH and St Andrews.
Facilities from the school's official website
✓Swimming pool
✓Sports hall
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
✓Boarding
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Makerspace
Clubs and activities: Feuerwehr (school fire brigade) · Technisches Hilfswerk (technical relief service) · Sanitätsdienst (first aid service) · Nautischer Dienst (water rescue service) · Sozialdienst (social service) · Naturschutzdienst (nature conservation service) · Round-Square-Dienst (Round Square service) · Hockey · Basketball · Segeln (sailing) · Seekajak (sea kayaking) · Fechten (fencing) · Reiten (horse riding) · Golf · Judo · Model United Nations · Jugend Debattiert (debating) · Chinesisch (Chinese) · Robotics · Fluglabor (aviation lab) · Choir · Orchestra · Schulband (school band) · Theater (theatre) · Schreinerei (carpentry workshop) · Fotografie (photography) · Duke of Edinburgh's International Award
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
School and boarding together name about 250-280 staff; educators work both as teachers and as students' mentors in the boarding houses, and most teachers in the international classes are native English speakers. The staff page lists leadership, teachers and mentors by name, marking whether they teach in the German or the English track. Three in-house advisers provide careers counselling.
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
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school has a sick bay (Krankenquartier) as the first point of call in case of illness, psychological counselling and prevention programmes, and a Child Protection Policy. Younger students are looked after by mentors and educators who live nearby and keep in touch with parents. All students complete first aid training with the school's first aid service.
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%)82 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data70 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data70 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 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
Salem, Germany · est. 1920 · Private