Good to know
Good to Know
- Oslo's public (municipal) schools are free and generally high quality, and international children who learn Norwegian within roughly 1–2 years are commonly integrated into the free state system, especially for families staying 3+ years — international/bilingual private schools are the practical choice mainly for shorter postings or older kids unlikely to switch language quickly.
- Beyond tuition, budget for extras that catch families off guard at the larger IB schools: a one-off enrolment/capital levy, school bus (Oslo is spread out and public transport with young kids is hard in winter), hot lunch programs, and IB/IGCSE exam fees in the final years.
- No scholarships or financial aid are offered at Oslo International School, and most of the established international schools require payment in full even if a child starts mid-term.
- Because Norway is a high-cost posting, most multinational employers expect to contribute to or fully cover international school fees — it's worth negotiating this into a relocation package rather than assuming it's standard.
- Fee levels vary hugely by school type: fully independent English-medium schools (OIS, British School of Oslo) charge far more per year than state-subsidised 'friskole' options like Norlights, and public IB programs (Manglerud, Blindern, Bjørnholt) are free.
- OIS's admissions timeline is really governed by its March re-enrollment cycle for existing students — applying in autumn or winter for the following August gives the best shot, since places firm up only after that.
- NLIS runs a hard cut-off: pre-applications submitted before October 1st simply aren't considered by its admissions committee, so mark that date if targeting NLIS.
- Both schools require a non-refundable application fee and, if admitted, an additional deposit/registration fee — budget for these as separate, non-refundable costs before tuition itself.
- If relocating mid-year, NLIS's high-school application portal only works for those who already hold a Norwegian residence permit or don't need a visa — plan visa timing accordingly.
- Homeschooling in Norway is a genuine legal right, not something requiring approval — but it is unusual in practice, so expect Oslo's municipal supervisors to have relatively limited routine experience with home-educated children compared to countries where homeschooling is more common.
- There is no dedicated, verified Oslo-based homeschool co-op we could confirm — families considering this route should expect to build their own social/activity network (sports clubs, libraries, other expat parents) rather than relying on an existing local homeschool group.
Schools And Curricula
Schools
Oslo International School (OIS)
- Founded
- 1963
- Location
- Bekkestua (Bærum), approx. 8 km / ~20 min from central Oslo
- Curricula
- International Primary Curriculum (IPC) for younger years; IB Diploma Programme (IBDP) for Upper Secondary; Pre-IB preparation for Lower Secondary
- Ages Served
- 3 to 18/19
- Notes
- OIS states no scholarships or financial aid are offered, and fees are non-refundable once invoiced.
Tuition
- Bus One Way Annual
- NOK 15,100
- Pre School Monthly
- NOK 1,200
- Years1 To Ib2 Annual
- NOK 288,700
- Bus Round Trip Annual
- NOK 25,800
- One Off Enrolment Fee
- NOK 10,000
- One Off Application Fee
- NOK 5,000
- Registration Fee New Students
- NOK 25,000
British School of Oslo (BSO)
- Location
- Oslo (central-accessible, exact neighborhood not confirmed in sourcing)
- Curricula
- National Curriculum of England and Wales through to GCSE and A Level
- Notes
- Described as the largest English-medium international school in Norway.
Tuition
Annual Range
- Amount USD Low
- 13390
- Currency Local
- NOK
- Amount USD High
- 19055
- Amount Local Low
- 130000
- Amount Local High
- 185000
Norlights International School Oslo (NLIS)
- Founded
- 2015
- Location
- Skådalen district, Oslo
- Curricula
- Full IB continuum: Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP), Diploma Programme (DP)
- Ages Served
- 6 to 18
- School Type
- State-funded private school (friskole)
- Notes
- Being a state-subsidised 'friskole' rather than a fully independent fee-based school, tuition is far lower than OIS or BSO.
Tuition
Annual Range
- Amount USD Low
- 3095
- Currency Local
- NOK
- Amount USD High
- 3210
- Amount Local Low
- 30040
- Amount Local High
- 31185
Lycée Français René Cassin d'Oslo
- Location
- Sporveisgata / central Oslo area
- Curricula
- French national curriculum (maternelle through baccalauréat), part of the AEFE network
- Ages Served
- 3 to 18
Tuition
- Note
- Specific current NOK tuition figures for this school were not found in available sourcing; AEFE-network schools are generally described as offering more affordable tuition than the English-medium international schools in Oslo.
Deutsch-Norwegische Schule Oslo / Deutsche Schule Oslo – Max Tau
- Location
- Oslo
- Curricula
- Bilingual German–Norwegian program; students earn both the German Abitur and the Norwegian Vitnemål
- Ages Served
- 1/3 to 18
Tuition
- Note
- Specific tuition figures were not found; the school is partly funded via a bilateral Germany–Norway contract, and fees are described as subsidised for German nationals.
Asker International School (AIS)
- Founded
- 2013
- Location
- Asker, roughly 20–25 min by train from central Oslo — outside the immediate city center but a common choice for Oslo-area expat families
- Curricula
- IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) and Middle Years Programme (MYP); working toward Diploma Programme authorization with first DP teaching planned for August 2027
- Ages Served
- 6 to 18
Tuition
- Note
- Specific current tuition figures were not found in available sourcing; contact the school directly.
Manglerud Skole – International Classes
- Location
- Manglerud, Oslo
- Curricula
- Public IB program: PYP for Grades 1–6, MYP for Grades 7–10, taught in English with Norwegian language acquisition
- Ages Served
- 6 to 16
- School Type
- Public (municipal)
Tuition
- Note
- Free — funded by Oslo kommune, no tuition fees, open to Oslo residents.
Blindern Videregående Skole
- Location
- Blindern, Oslo
- Curricula
- IB Diploma Programme (DP) and IB Middle Years Programme (MYP), taught in English
- School Type
- Public upper secondary school run by the Municipality of Oslo
- Founded IB Program
- 1978
Tuition
- Note
- Free — public school, no fees.
Bjørnholt Videregående Skole
- Location
- Bjørnholt, Oslo
- Curricula
- Public IB Diploma Programme
- School Type
- Public (municipal)
Tuition
- Note
- Free — public school, no fees.
Frogner International Pre-School (FIP)
- Size
- Small (around 48 students)
- Location
- Frogner, Oslo
- Curricula
- Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum from England, English language of instruction
- School Type
- Private, self-owning, non-profit parent association
Tuition
- Note
- Specific tuition figures were not found in available sourcing; contact the school directly.
Enrollment And Homeschooling
Homeschooling
- Legal Basis
- Home education (privat hjemmeundervisning / privat grunnskoleopplæring i hjemmet) is permitted under Norway's Education Act (Opplæringslova); the current Act (in force from 1 August 2024) sets this out in §22-5, replacing the near-identical provision in the prior Act.
- Supervision
- The municipality has a legal duty of supervision (tilsyn): an appointed supervisor arranges evaluation meetings with the family roughly once or twice a year, usually held at a school, library or community location, and in agreement with the parents. If progress is in doubt, the municipality can require achievement tests, and in cases of inadequate education it can direct the child back into school.
- Financial Support
- Norway provides no financial support, subsidies, or free educational materials for homeschooling families; some municipalities informally allow borrowing of textbooks but are not required to.
- Curriculum Standard
- The legal standard is 'equivalence': the child's learning must correspond to what they would receive in public grunnskole and align with the national curriculum (læreplanverket) and its competence goals. No formal teaching qualifications or fixed instructional hours are required of parents.
- Prevalence In Norway
- Homeschooling is legal but genuinely rare in Norway: in the 2022/2023 school year only 241 children nationwide were officially registered as homeschooled, according to Grunnskolens Informasjonssystem (GSI) data.
- Oslo Specific Community
- We could not find a documented Oslo-specific homeschooling co-op or in-person meetup group. The main organized community resource identified is national rather than Oslo-specific: the Norwegian Association for Home Education (Norsk hjemmeundervisningsforbund, NHUF), which families nationwide — including in Oslo — use for informal networking, and general online/social-media homeschool groups exist, but no verified dedicated Oslo chapter or physical co-op was found in our research.
- Notification Not Approval
- Parents do not need permission to start: they only need to notify their local municipality (kommune) — in practice usually via the principal of the child's local school — that they intend to provide home education, and teaching can begin once that notice is given.
- Legal Status Plain Language
- Legal and permitted nationwide, including for foreign/expat families resident in Norway, but subject to municipal oversight rather than a pre-approval process.
International Bilingual School Enrollment
- Overview
- Oslo has two main options for English-medium schooling: Oslo International School (OIS), the long-established IB school in Bekkestua, and Norlights International School Oslo (NLIS), a newer IB World School. Their enrollment calendars differ significantly, so timing an application depends on which school a family targets.
- How Far In Advance To Apply
- For a school-year (August) start, families should apply as early as possible in the preceding autumn/winter and no later than spring, since both schools tie new-student offers to how many spaces open up after current students re-enroll. Arriving mid-year is possible at both schools but space is far less predictable.
Schools
Oslo International School (OIS)
- Timing Detail
- Although parents may apply at any time, the admissions process is connected to OIS's current students' annual re-enrolment, which is initiated in March each year. Once the school has an idea of the number of returning students and spaces available, it begins to offer places.
- Waitlist Reality
- Because places depend on how many current students re-enroll (confirmed each March), OIS does not run a single published annual waitlist opening date — instead, availability firms up through spring, and families applying outside that window may be held pending space.
- Application Window
- OIS accepts applications year-round, but new-student offers are only made once the school knows how many returning students it has for the coming year.
- Required Documents
- A recent head-and-shoulders photo of each applying child; a passport copy showing date of birth and nationality for each applying child and each parent; the completed OpenApply application form; a teacher recommendation form and school-records request form; and, once admitted, a Student Health form with vaccination/immunization records and any year-level-specific forms.
- Language Assessment
- Prospective Secondary students whose mother tongue is not English take a CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) assessment, completed under supervision of the applicant's current school, used to evaluate suitability and whether English-language support is needed.
- Decision And Deadlines
- Once an applicant's file is complete it goes to the Head of the relevant school section for review; the Admissions Office communicates the decision via the OpenApply portal, and if admitted, families must confirm enrollment within 14 days, complete health/vaccination forms and any year-level forms by July 1.
- Start Of Year Scheduling
- For students starting at the beginning of the academic year, the Admissions Office schedules a family/child intake appointment for May, June or early August; for a mid-year arrival, the appointment is scheduled around the family's actual arrival date in Oslo.
Fees
- Enrollment Fee
- NOK 10,000
invoiced after accepting a place (or mid-March for re-enrollment); applied to annual tuition, non-refundable
- Application Fee
- NOK 5,000
per applicant, non-refundable
- Registration Fee
- NOK 25,000
new students Year 1 and above, invoiced on acceptance, non-refundable
Norlights International School Oslo (NLIS)
- DP Window
- For the Diploma Programme (DP), applications start on October 1st each year, with decisions sent once interviews and documentation review are complete.
- Application Window
- For the PYP and MYP (no kindergarten at NLIS), the application process starts on 1 October each year, and pre-applications submitted before that date are not considered by the admissions committee. Admissions for the following year begins February 1st.
- Deposit To Confirm
- If admitted, parents are asked to pay a one-month school-fee deposit to accept the offer of enrollment, which is applied to the first month of fees but is non-refundable if the application is later withdrawn.
- Annual Reapplication
- Families must apply for a school place every year, even if their child's information has already been added to a waiting list from a prior application year.
- Placement Offer Timing
- Families can expect to receive a placement offer during the month of February.
- Visa Note
- NLIS's application portal for high-school-age applicants is exclusively for individuals who already hold a Norwegian residence permit or who do not require a visa to stay in Norway — relevant for families still mid-relocation.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
This section has no cited sources.
More About Oslo
Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.