← Back to the rankingSt. Kilian's Deutsche Schule
Dublin, Ireland · est. 1952 · Private
Illustration · Dublin
St. Kilian's Deutsche Schule is an Irish-German co-educational school in Clonskeagh, south Dublin, from Kindergarten at age 4 to graduation at 18. It began in 1952 as a Sunday school offering German classes to children who came to Ireland through the Save the German Children Society; in 1974 it moved to its current campus and in 1976 it was recognised by the Irish Department of Education. The school follows the Irish curricula (Irish Primary Curriculum, Junior Cycle, Leaving Certificate) and is also part of the network of German Schools Abroad supported by the ZfA: everyone learns German from day one, secondary students get more German periods than in a typical Irish school, and some subjects are taught through German. In 2023, after a German government inspection, the school received the quality seal Excellent German School Abroad. Since 2005 the Junior Cycle has been shared with the French school LFI in the Eurocampus on the same campus. The school has 880 students, 401 in Kindergarten and Primary and 479 in Secondary and Eurocampus; 47 nationalities, 13% German, 56% Irish and 31% international students. Students go on exchanges to Hamburg, Würzburg, Cologne and The Hague and take part in Erasmus+ projects.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $8 682–9 236 a year
7 685–8 175 EUR
Programmes
German language diploma · National programme
Admits from
4 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English, German
Languages taught
Irish, French, Spanish
Class size
no more than 26 children, an average of 15 in the German Curricular Stream
Registration fee
≈ $113
100 EUR
About the fees Fees for the 2026/2027 school year, in euro per year: Kindergarten 7685, Primary School 8175, Secondary School 7870; Transition Year supplement 795. Family rebate for families paying on time: 10% for two children, 12.5% for three, 15% for four or more (not applied to the Transition Year supplement). Fees can be paid per year, per term or by monthly direct debit. Students who choose the Bilingual Leaving Certificate qualify for a fee remission. After School Care in Primary and Supervised Study in Secondary are paid separately.
Admissions The school admits children of any nationality: it "welcomes boys and girls of all nationalities, cultures and religions", and "Knowledge of German is not a requirement to enrol". Admission follows the Department of Education rules on age and previous schooling. Pupils entering Kindergarten (Junior Infants) must be 4 years of age by 31 May of the year of entry. Primary School can be entered at all levels without German; pupils who join later than 1st class without German attend extra German support from class 2. Entry into 7th Class (1st Year) without German is possible if places permit; 8th-11th Class requires German at the level of the class. Kindergarten and Primary use a waiting list open at any time, with a copy of the birth certificate and a non-refundable administration fee of 100 euro; offers are made in October before the start, and the Admissions Policy criteria apply if oversubscribed. Applications to 7th Class for 2027/28 are accepted only from 1 to 22 October 2026, under the School Admissions Act 2018. The school does not offer scholarships at the moment.
Stages and year groups Grades Junior Infants - 12th Class (6th Year). Kindergarten (Junior and Senior Infants, ages 4-6, four mixed groups), Primary School 1st-6th Class (ages 6-12, two groups per year) following the Irish curriculum with enhanced German, Secondary School 7th-12th Class: Junior Cycle (classes 7-9, shared lessons with LFI in the Eurocampus) leading to the Junior Certificate, Transition Year (class 10), Senior Cycle (classes 11-12) leading to the Leaving Certificate. Qualifications: all students sit the Junior Certificate and the Leaving Certificate; there is also a Bilingual Leaving Certificate (History plus German Language and Literature) recognised by the Department. German language diplomas Deutsches Sprachdiplom DSD I (B1) and DSD II (B2/C1), the latter meeting the language requirement of German universities; around 80 students sit them every year. Since 2015 there is a German Curricular Stream (Sek-I): from 5th class some subjects are taught through German, and in class 10 students sit exams for the Mittlerer Schulabschluss or entry into the upper classes of a German Gymnasium. The school does not award the German Abitur or the DIA: it describes the Leaving Certificate as equivalent to the Abitur.
Address Roebuck Road, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14, D14 P7F2
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
ZfA · accreditationWDA · part of the alliancePASCH · takes part in the programmeThe Central Agency for German Schools Abroad (ZfA) lists the school as a German school abroad (Deutsche Auslandsschule). The leaving qualification is the Irish Leaving Certificate; the German language diplomas DSD I and II are taken at the school, and it does not award the Abitur. The school is a member of the World Association of German Schools Abroad (WDA) and of the PASCH network.
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
ZfACentral Agency for German Schools Abroad
A German federal agency. It recognises a school as a German school abroad, funds it and grants the right to award the German leaving certificate. Quality is examined by a state inspection about once every six years, and schools that pass receive the mark of an excellent German school abroad.
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 →WDAWorld Association of German Schools Abroad
An association of the owners of German schools abroad: in essence an industry lobby and a service organisation. It runs no inspections. The condition of admission is a recognised German certificate, but that recognition is granted by the German state, not by WDA.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to an association of school owners. There is no inspection of its own behind it: the badge rests on a decision of the German state and adds nothing to it. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →PASCHSchools: Partners for the Future, an initiative of the German foreign ministry
More than two thousand schools in about 120 countries. A school cannot apply for itself: participants are chosen by German agencies in agreement with the embassy. Very different schools sit under one mark - full German schools abroad, and ordinary national schools that simply teach German well.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to a German support programme. By itself the mark means neither a German curriculum nor the right to award a German certificate: of the two thousand PASCH schools, about seventeen hundred hold no such right. Look for a ZfA status next to it - that is the one that is about this. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →German language diploma
The Deutsches Sprachdiplom, the German language diploma. The federal agency ZfA grants a school the right to prepare pupils for this examination and to sit it; the conference of state education ministers oversees the work, and Germany signs the diploma. There are two levels: DSD I is B1, DSD II is C1, and the latter admits a holder to a German university without a further language examination.
What this means for this school. This is the right to run one language examination, not a school programme: the other subjects follow the national curriculum of the school's own country, and no inspection of the school as a whole stands behind the DSD. It does not lead to a German leaving certificate; that is awarded only by recognised German schools abroad, which hold a different recognition from the same agency.
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
Exam results Leaving Certificate 2025: average score 515 points (514 in 2024), 21% of students scored over 600 points, the highest individual score was 625. In 2024 a student achieved 10 H1 grades, the highest score in the school's history.
Where leavers go: University College Dublin (UCD) · Trinity College Dublin (TCD) · Maynooth University
According to the school, 98-100% of graduates progress to third level education (another page says 90-100% over four years). Graduates win university entrance scholarships: in 2023 eight UCD scholarships and two Trinity College Entrance Exhibition Awards, in 2024 seven scholarships from UCD and TCD, in 2025 scholarships from UCD and Maynooth University. The DSD II also opens German universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio
Clubs and activities: Art classes · Board Game Hour · Chess Club · Primary School Choir · Debating and Public Speaking · Deutschstunde (German through play) · Drama · Fencing · Film Club · Green School Project · Hockey · Junior Orff (Orff method music classes) · LAUT Student Blog & Magazine · Linguistics Club · Multisport · Soccer · Speech & Drama Club · Tennis · Gaisce (President's 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
Kindergarten class teachers are native German speakers, two teachers per group; Montessori rooms are run by native English speakers. All language teachers (German, English, French) are native speakers. Secondary German is taught by native speakers or teachers with a proven C2 level. The German Government supports four seconded teachers. Classes have no more than 26 children, with an average of 15 in the German Curricular Stream. The school does not publish its total number of teachers.
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 roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school publishes a Child Safeguarding Statement and Risk Assessment for the Primary and the Secondary School, a Child Safeguarding Declaration of Guiding Principles and the national Children First guidance, as well as an anti-bullying policy under the Irish Bí Cineálta programme and codes of behaviour for Primary and Secondary.
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%)60 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 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