Växjö Katedralskola is the municipal upper secondary school of the City of Växjö and one of the oldest schools in Sweden: the Cathedral School was established in 1643 on an earlier school founded in 1340. It is a large university preparatory school: the economics, arts (with dance, music, theatre, visual arts, fashion and media), humanities, natural science and social science programmes, a specialist music programme, introductory programmes for newly arrived students, and the three-year IB Diploma Programme, which the school has offered since 1999. The national programmes are taught in Swedish and the IB track in English, except for other language lessons. The school is the only one in the county certified by the German cultural ministries to examine the German language diploma DSD, and a regional centre for the Cambridge C1 Advanced exam; French DELF/DALF can also be taken. IB graduates are accepted into universities in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Scandinavia, the UK and the US. The school works with Linnaeus University (Linnéuniversitetet) and takes part in Erasmus+.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Swedish, English
Languages taught
German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Latin
About the fees Tuition is free: the school itself describes the IB as a programme of its municipal school, and students sit the DSD exam free of charge. For students transferring into the IB the school provides financed transportation, lunch and a laptop.
Admissions Applications for the IB preparatory year (the first year of upper secondary) go through the Växjö municipal admissions by 15 February, with changes by 15 May. Grades from nine years of school are required; applicants from other countries do not need a grade in Swedish. Those choosing the IB as first or second choice take Mathematics and English placement tests and a brief group interview in English at the end of March (or the end of May for late applications); overseas applicants may take them online. DP1 (second year) applications are accepted directly by the school from 15 October based on grades, interview and placements; occasional transfers into DP2 are accepted. The school welcomes holders of an EU passport and non-EU citizens with permanent residence or a work visa; applicants under 18 must be registered in the region with a guardian or contact person resident in Sweden. The admissions policy describes IB admission as open access. National programmes follow the general Swedish upper secondary admission rules.
Stages and year groups Grades 10-12. Upper secondary school, three years (ages 16-19). National programmes in Swedish: Ekonomiprogrammet (economics, law), Estetiska programmet (visual arts, dance, aesthetics and media, fashion design, music, theatre), Humanistiska programmet (culture, languages), Naturvetenskapsprogrammet, Samhällsvetenskapsprogrammet (including behavioural science), specialist music education (spetsutbildning) and introductory programmes, gymnasieexamen. The IB Diploma Programme lasts three years: a preparatory year of Swedish national courses taught in English (equivalent to Year 10 or MYP5) with a social science or experimental science profile, then the two-year Diploma: six subjects, three at Higher and three at Standard Level, plus CAS, the Extended Essay and Theory of Knowledge. DP subjects: English, Swedish or literature in the student's own language; English B, German B, Spanish B, Swedish B and Swedish ab initio; Geography, Global Politics, Psychology; Biology, Chemistry, Physics; mathematics at three levels; Film. Separately the school administers the DSD (German), Cambridge C1 Advanced and DELF/DALF language exams - these are exams, not programmes.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmePASCH · takes part in the programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Diploma Programme. The IB track runs inside a Swedish upper-secondary school, alongside the Swedish national programmes. The school is part 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
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 →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 →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 hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Art studio
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
What the listings show: many with post-graduate and research qualifications
The school says many faculty hold post-graduate and research qualifications and have received national teaching prizes. The IB programme has support teachers, academic coaches, weekly pastoral care team meetings, a librarian and a Study Centre. The student health team: the principal, a special needs teacher, a special education teacher, a counsellor, a nurse and a careers adviser.
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 policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The student health team: the principal, a special needs teacher, a special education teacher, a counsellor, the school nurse and a careers adviser. In the IB programme there are weekly pastoral care and coaching meetings, progress talks with parents each term and class conferences with all teachers. New students meet the nurse and counsellor and get peer mentors in their class; school regulations are available in English.
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 data55 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 data65 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
Vaxjo, Sweden · est. 1643 · State