Skt. Josefs Skole is a private Catholic school in Roskilde, 25 minutes by train from Copenhagen. It was founded in 1904 by French nuns of the order Les Filles de la Sagesse as the French School with three pupils; boys have been admitted since 1924, and since 1964 it has been a self-governing institution, a gift from the Catholic Church. The school has two departments. The Danish department runs børnehaveklasse and grades 1-9 under the Danish curriculum with FP9 exams, plus grade 10 with FP10. The international department, opened in 2012, teaches children aged 5 to 16 in English under the Cambridge International curriculum: Cambridge Primary in Year 1-6, Cambridge Lower Secondary in Year 7-9 and Cambridge IGCSE in Year 10-11, with Cambridge exams and certificates. The international department has about 230 students from more than 40 countries. Danish is taught to all international students at four levels. The school is certified by the national science centre Astra as a science talent school and takes part in the Unge Forskere and Min Vildeste Idé competitions. It also has a kindergarten (børnehave) and an after-school club (SFO).
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $4 837–6 008 a year
3 200–3 975 DKK a month
The year is counted as ten payments: the school does not say how many payments it takes.
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE · National programme
Admits from
5 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English, Danish
Languages taught
French, German, Spanish
Students
about 230 in the international department; the school does not state its total enrolment
Class size
no more than 24 students per class, no more than 20 in the first class of the international department
Registration fee
≈ $76
500 DKK
About the fees Fees in the international department, per the price list for 1 January 2025 to July 2026, are paid 11 times a year (July free): Year 1-6 3200 DKK per month, Year 7-9 3725 DKK, Year 10-11 3975 DKK; the school states that fees rise by 50 DKK from August 2027. In the Danish department from 1 August 2026: grades 0-3 1950 DKK per month, grades 4-7 2000 DKK, grades 8-9 2250 DKK, grade 10 2300 DKK, 11 payments a year. The SFO after-school club costs 1940 DKK per month for 11 months. The science talent group in grades 7-8 adds 400 DKK per month. There are discounts for a fourth child at the school, SFO sibling discounts for the second and third child, an income-based fee subsidy (fripladstilskud) and a transport subsidy.
Admissions Applications to the international department are accepted at any time, including from abroad when the child does not yet have a Danish CPR number; by the start of school the student and parents must have a CPR number or proof that it is being processed. Steps: application form, a non-refundable waiting list fee of 500 DKK, an interview with the child when a place becomes available (ideally with recent school reports), a written offer, then acceptance and payment of the deposit and first fees. Priority: baptised Catholics, siblings of students and children of staff, children returning from abroad or who attended international schools or kindergartens; class balance by gender, nationality, age and special needs is also considered. The grade is set by age and previous schooling; for Year 1 the child must turn 5 before 1 September. Danish families may apply, but children from international schools abroad have priority. Families do not need to be Catholic, but all students take part in the school's shared traditions, some held in church. The Danish department has a separate waiting list.
Stages and year groups International department (Skt. Josef's International School): Cambridge Primary in Year 1-6 (English, Mathematics, Science, Global Perspectives, PE, Digital Literacy and local subjects), Cambridge Lower Secondary in Year 7-9 (adding French, Art and Design, Home Economics, Project X), Cambridge IGCSE in Year 10-11 (English as a First Language, English Literature, Mathematics, Co-ordinated Science, 20th Century History, Global Perspectives, Spanish, optional PE or Environmental Management, Additional Mathematics for strong students) with exams at the end of Year 11 and Cambridge certificates. Cambridge Progression Tests are used in Year 4-6 and checkpoint tests later. Selected students can take the Danish FP10 in Year 11. Danish department: børnehaveklasse, grades 1-9 under the Danish Fælles Mål curriculum with FP9 exams and grade 10 with FP10 exams.
Address Frederiksborgvej 10, 4000 Roskilde
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre: the international department teaches Cambridge Primary, Lower Secondary and IGCSE, with exams in Year 11. A Danish department runs alongside.
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: Primary (ages 5-11), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14), IGCSE (ages 14-16). Primary is the primary stage, ages 5 to 11: English, mathematics and science to Cambridge syllabuses. At the end of the stage a school may run the optional Checkpoint test, which is marked in Cambridge. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end. 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.
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
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground
Campus: The school is in central Roskilde on historic grounds: the main building from 1910, a teaching building from 1971, a sports hall from 1983 and new teaching wings from 2007-2011 with a canteen. There are a gymnasium and a multi-purpose hall, ball courts by the school, a new nature schoolyard with a playground (2024) and a new school kitchen for cooking lessons. The small canteen sells sandwiches, pasta and salads; most children bring a packed lunch. Some PE lessons for older students take place in Roskilde Hallen and swimming in the pool in Jyllinge. The after-school club SFO Labyrinten is on site.
Clubs and activities: STEAM-klubben (STEAM club) · Band · Årbogen (yearbook group) · Skolekor (school choir) · Talenthold (science talent group)
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
✓Number of teachers23
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
The teachers page lists 23 teachers for the international department. The school aims for classes of no more than 24 with an equal number of boys and girls and a mixed cultural composition; in primary Danish lessons each class has two teachers and students are grouped by language level.
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 policy
The school publishes policies against bullying (including online bullying), against alcohol, smoking and drugs, and a dress code; repeated bullying can lead to expulsion. There is a behaviour and well-being team (AKT), a school psychologist, a health nurse, a speech consultant and an education counsellor; the school works with the youth service Headspace in Roskilde and runs the Cool Kids programme for children with anxiety. Student well-being surveys are carried out every year, including separately in the international department.
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 data75 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data73 "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
Roskilde, Denmark · est. 1904 · Private