← Back to the rankingSEK Budapest International School
Budapest, Hungary · est. 1997 · Private
Illustration · Budapest
SEK Budapest International School is a private, fee-paying day school in District 2 of Budapest: a kindergarten from age 3, eight years of primary and four years of secondary school. It opened in 1997; it belongs to the Spanish SEK education group and since 2006 has been part of its international branch IES, which runs the group's English-language schools outside Spain and Latin America. It is registered in Hungary as a kindergarten, primary school and gimnázium. The curriculum is mainly the Hungarian National Curriculum with IES adjustments; the school calls itself trilingual: English and Hungarian are teaching languages, from grade 1 all subjects except language classes are taught in both, and Spanish is studied as a second language from kindergarten. In grade 11 students can choose the IB Diploma Programme instead of preparing for the Hungarian érettségi. There are up to 500 students from over 30 countries and 73 teachers, including native speakers of English from England, of Spanish from Latin America and of Hungarian. Uniform is mandatory for all.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $7 907–14 904 a year
2.6–4.8 million HUF
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English, Hungarian
Languages taught
Spanish, Chinese
Class size
around 15 per kindergarten group (12 to 18), around 20 in primary, around 23 in high school, at most 24 per class; usually about 18 in grade 1 pupil
Registration fee
≈ $123
40 000 HUF
About the fees Education fees for 2026-2027 paid annually (for registrations before 23 August 2026): kindergarten 2571000 forints, grades 1-4 2959000, grades 5-6 3201000, grades 7-8 3444000, grades 9-12 3667000; IB grades 11-12 add 1179000 forints, 4846000 in total. Payment in 10 instalments (for example 265000 forints in kindergarten) or 8 instalments in grades 9-12 (472500 forints plus 151875 for IB) costs more. Also compulsory: the annual development levy of 262000 forints, meals from 428000 to 718000 forints a year, books from 10000 to 225000 forints and school materials 79000 forints. Invoices are issued in forints only. Large family discounts: for the youngest child in a family of three, 25% off education and meals; of four, 40% off education and 25% off meals.
Admissions The school admits both Hungarian and expatriate children; non-Hungarian students present a residence permit at enrolment, and families needing a visa arrange the procedure with the Admission Manager. Admissions are open all year. The process starts with a meeting with the Admission Manager and payment of the admission fee; kindergarten and grades 1-4 have an interview with the School Psychologist, grades 5-12 an interview with the Admission Manager and entrance tests in English and Math, plus Hungarian for Hungarian speakers, and a Learning and Behavioral test. After successful tests the child spends two trial days in the prospective class, and the Director decides. Fluent English is required except for preschool-aged children; children without Hungarian get personalised tasks. Where there is a waiting list, siblings have priority. For children with special educational needs the school recommends specialised institutions.
Stages and year groups Kindergarten for children from 3 (toilet-trained) to 6, with weekly themes in Hungarian, English and Spanish. Grades 1-8 (általános iskola) and 9-12 (gimnázium) follow the Hungarian National Curriculum with IES adjustments, taught in English and Hungarian. In grades 11-12 there are two pathways: preparation for the Hungarian érettségi in groups of 5-10 (usually with higher-level exams in English and Spanish) or the IB Diploma Programme. IB subjects: Hungarian, English or Chinese Language A Literature, English and Spanish Language B, Business Management, Economics, History, Psychology, Environmental Systems and Society, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Computer Science, two mathematics courses and Visual Arts.
Address Hűvösvölgyi út 131, 1021 Budapest (II. kerület)
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeSEK · school is part of the networkThe IB register lists the Diploma Programme at the school; it is taught in grades 11-12 alongside the Hungarian gymnasium programme and the érettségi exam. It is a SEK network school.
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 →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.
SEKschool network
A Spanish organisation, founded in 1892; the site calls it Institución Internacional SEK, and signs the network of schools and universities "SEK-IES", International Education Systems. The numbers diverge: the home page names 26 schools, 2 universities, 17 countries and more than 25,000 pupils, while the "Red educativa internacional" page lists the same 26 schools - 14 "Colegios SEK" and 12 "Colegios IES" - and three universities. The Portuguese school stands among the "Colegios IES"; the history page puts its purchase in 2022. Whether the organisation owns the schools or manages them is not said. Not to be confused with SEK Education Group: that one has its own site, sek.es, and Portugal is not in its list of countries.
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
Where leavers go: HAN University of Applied Sciences · Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences · AFA Amsterdam · University of Chester · Radboud University · Modul University Vienna · International Business School Budapest · Tilburg University · Leiden University · Jinan University · KU Leuven · University of Groningen
and others, 22 universities in the school's list in allThe IB university list is from the May 2022 cohort; for érettségi graduates the school says that all of them study at prestigious universities, naming SOTE, BME and Corvinus.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The kindergarten, primary and secondary school share one building on Hűvösvölgyi út in District 2 of Budapest, with two entrances (Hűvösvölgyi út and Alsó Völgy street) and a Kiss & Drop area; a bus stop is in front of the school and a tram stop at the back entrance. The school has subject rooms, including a chemistry lab. Three meals a day (breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack) are compulsory, with three menus: traditional, international and vegetarian. Swimming is part of PE lessons in grades 1-4. There is no school bus and no boarding.
Clubs and activities: Akrobatikus Rock and Roll (acrobatic rock and roll) · Basketball · Sakk / Chess · Crafty Club · Drama Theatre Club · Football · Karate · Matematika felzárkóztató / Math Reinforcement · Fejlesztő torna / Physiotherapy & Motor Development · Spanish Reinforcement · Swimming · ESL
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 school has 73 teachers for up to 500 students. English, Spanish and Hungarian are taught by native speakers from England, Latin America and Hungary. In primary each class has a main teacher; older students learn from subject teachers in specialist rooms. The team includes a school psychologist, a special teacher and a speech therapist; there is a separate IB department and an IB Coordinator.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
✓Access control
✓Nurse or medical room
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school psychologist and special teacher help students and tutors with individual and collective problems; medical care is provided by the school paediatrician: compulsory screening, neurological and orthopaedic screening, vaccinations; mental health education is part of the curriculum. Entrances open only at morning and afternoon times, parents do not enter the building during arrival and departure, and grades 1-2 are met and accompanied by a teacher. The school has a whistleblowing channel (Whistleblowing Policy).
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 data75 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 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