This call covers only named international/bilingual schools, curricula, and tuition — not local state education, universities, or other Education subtopics.
Good to know
Good to Know
- No international or bilingual school is actually located in Valletta itself — all options are a 15-30 minute drive away in towns like Pembroke, Swatar, Mosta, or Cottonera, so factor commute time into any housing decision.
- Verdala International School is the only school on the island offering the complete IB continuum (PYP through Diploma) in one campus; most other 'international' options mix British/Cambridge curricula with IB only at the senior level.
- Quoted tuition figures rarely include one-time registration/application fees, uniforms, books, transport, or lunch — budget noticeably above the headline tuition number.
- Popular schools (especially Verdala and QSI) can have waiting pools for certain year groups, so early application is strongly advised if relocating with school-age children.
- Some employers offer relocation packages that include education allowances — it's worth negotiating this explicitly, as several schools also offer sibling discounts or merit scholarships on request.
- If you want your child in one of Valletta-area's popular international schools (e.g. Verdala, QSI) for a September start, it's safest to apply in spring — schools warn that new-student space is tightest right at the start of the school year.
- Because Malta's international schools each run their own admissions process (some with entrance tests, some with wait pools, some rolling), get the specific school's documented policy in writing rather than assuming Verdala's wait-pool rules apply elsewhere.
- Have documents translated into English in advance if they're not already — schools like Verdala require official translations by a recognised authority before they'll process an application.
- Homeschooling is technically legal in Malta but is tightly regulated and, in practice, very rarely used — as of the most recent official figures, essentially no families were doing it, so most nomad families in the Valletta area use international or state/church schools instead.
- If you're seriously considering homeschooling, budget time for the licensing process itself: you'll need a warranted teaching qualification (yours or a hired educator's) and DQSE approval before you can legally start, which is not a quick or informal process.
Schools And Curricula
- Overview
- No international or bilingual school actually operates inside Valletta itself — the historic city is tiny and almost entirely residential/administrative. Nomad and expat families with school-age kids live in Valletta but send children to schools clustered in nearby towns (Pembroke, Swatar/Kappara, Mosta, Cottonera, and the L-Imselliet/Mġarr valley), all roughly 15-30 minutes away by car.
Schools
Verdala International School
- Ages
- 3 to 18
- Location
- Fort Pembroke, Pembroke (approx. 20-25 min drive from Valletta)
- Notes
- Malta's oldest and most established international school; the only one offering the full IB continuum from early years through diploma. Founded in 1976, originally for expatriate oil-industry families.
Tuition
- Pre Kindergarten
- €9,450
- Grades 11 12 IB Diploma
- €14,500
- Application Fee One Time
- €300
- Registration Fee One Time
- €5,000
- Annual Capital Contribution
- €1,875
Curricula
- IB Primary Years Programme (PYP)
- IB Middle Years Programme (MYP)
- IB Diploma Programme (DP)
- IB Career-related Programme (IBCP)
QSI International School of Malta
- Ages
- 3 through secondary
- Location
- Mosta (approx. 25-30 min drive from Valletta)
- Notes
- Part of the global Quality Schools International (QSI) network. Uses a mastery-learning model where students progress at their own pace rather than by fixed grade timelines.
Tuition
- Age 5 And Older
- €17,100
- Age 3 4 Full Day
- €8,010
- Age 3 4 Half Day
- €7,110
- Capital Fund Fee Annual
- €1,440
- Registration Fee One Time
- €270
Curricula
- American-style curriculum
- Advanced Placement (AP) courses
St Edward's College
- Ages
- 2 to 18 (boys-only from age 5-15; moved to full co-education from September 2025)
- Location
- Cottonera / Vittoriosa area (approx. 15-20 min drive from Valletta)
- Notes
- A private, not-for-profit day and boarding school; one of Malta's oldest independent schools, founded 1929, with a strong sports and boarding tradition.
Tuition
- Lower Range Annual
- €1,900
- Boarding Fee Annual
- €19,500
- Upper Range Annual IB Sixth Form
- €26,602
Curricula
- Cambridge IGCSE (early/middle years)
- British-style bespoke curriculum
- IB Diploma Programme (Sixth Form)
Chiswick House School & St Martin's College
- Ages
- 3 to 18
- Location
- Kappara and Swatar (approx. 20 min drive from Valletta)
- Notes
- Malta's largest independent co-educational school group across two campuses; positioned as Maltese-independent rather than purely international, with lower fees than Verdala or QSI. Strong modern-language programme (French, Italian, German, Spanish, Mandarin, Maltese).
Tuition
- Annual Range Estimate
- €6,000
- Annual Range Estimate Upper
- €9,000
Curricula
- British National Curriculum / Pearson Edexcel IGCSE
- IB offered in senior years
- MATSEC and UCAS pathways in Sixth Form
San Anton School
- Ages
- 18 months to 16 years
- Location
- L-Imselliet, near Mġarr (approx. 30 min drive from Valletta)
- Notes
- One of Malta's larger independent schools, founded 1988, known for an early adoption of holistic learning; more bilingual/local-international hybrid than a fully international school.
Tuition
- Annual Range Estimate
- €6,000
- Annual Range Estimate Upper
- €9,000
Curricula
- Bilingual Maltese and English
- Broad, holistic independent curriculum
San Andrea School
- Ages
- Up to 16
- Location
- Imselliet Valley, near Mġarr (approx. 30 min drive from Valletta)
- Notes
- Rural-campus school known for integrating technology (VR/AI) into its British-style programme; girls and boys up to age 16.
Tuition
- Annual Range Estimate
- €6,000
- Annual Range Estimate Upper
- €12,000
Curricula
- English National Curriculum-based, broad and innovative
Homeschooling
- Legal Basis
- Home education became lawful in Malta under the Education Act, Chapter 605 of the Laws of Malta, Part V (Articles 46 and 47), which came into force around October 2021 after years of lobbying dating back to 2013.
- Legal Status Malta
- Fully legal and regulated
- Practical Reality And Uptake
- Uptake has been extremely low: as of January 2024, Malta's Education Minister confirmed in Parliament that only one application for homeschooling had been made since the practice was legalised in 2021, more than two years after the law took effect.
How It Works
- Article 46 allows a parent to apply to the Division of Education (now the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education, DQSE) to provide home education, provided the application is not made on improper grounds and home education is judged to be in the child's best interest.
- Article 47 sets conditions for authorization, including that the family provide social experience and facilities broadly equivalent to a school setting and follow an accredited programme approved by the Division.
- A key practical barrier: the home educator must hold a teaching warrant (or be a warranted teacher in the Maltese system) and obtain a licence — a requirement homeschooling advocates criticized as restrictive when the law passed.
- The DQSE monitors licensed home-education provision through onsite visits and issues reports on programme quality that the licence holder must act on.
Documented Local Community
- Name
- Malta Home Education Association (previously operating as 'Malta Homeschool Families')
- Caveat
- This is a small, volunteer-run parent community rather than a formal co-op with scheduled group classes; given how few families actually hold a home-education licence, the active membership and meetup frequency at any given time is likely modest.
- Exists
- Yes
- Description
- An informal parent-run support network (originally a blog/Facebook group called Malta Homeschool Families) that rebranded into the Malta Home Education Association, offering peer support, a lending library of curriculum materials, and a Facebook group connecting homeschooling parents in Malta.
International Bilingual School Admissions
- Overview
- Valletta itself has no major international schools inside the old city walls, but nomad families in the Valletta area typically enroll at international schools clustered in nearby Pembroke, San Ġwann, and Swieqi (a short commute from Valletta), such as Verdala International School and QSI International School of Malta.
- Assessment And Interview
- Entrance requirements vary by school: some international schools require an entrance test or interview, while others rely mainly on previous school reports and a discussion with the family; this is decided school by school rather than uniformly across Malta.
Waitlist Reality
- At Verdala International School, applicants who cannot be immediately placed enter a 'wait pool' for the specific academic year applied for, and a student's position in that pool can shift if later applicants have higher priority under the school's admissions policy.
- If no seat is found within that academic year, Verdala parents may request a rollover to the next academic year starting October 1st, but rollover is not automatic and must be actively requested.
- Once an offer is made, Verdala requires a non-refundable registration fee to be paid within 15 days to confirm the place, or the offer is withdrawn.
- QSI Malta's registrar typically responds within a few days of a completed application, and accepts students on a rolling basis subject to space, so timelines can be faster than schools with a formal wait-pool system.
Application Timing
- Most international schools accept applications year-round, but seats are most constrained at the start of the academic year, which begins on the last Wednesday of September.
- QSI International School of Malta explicitly states that while applications are accepted throughout the year, space for new students is limited at the beginning of each school year, and encourages families to begin the enrollment process as soon as possible.
- For families going through the state/church system instead, one relocation account reported that a public-school application was processed in about three weeks after submission, though this can vary.
Required Documents
- Completed school application/registration form (usually online)
- Previous school reports/transcripts
- Birth certificate
- Passport copies (child and often parents)
- Possible reference letters from the previous school
- Medical information relevant to the child
- All documentation must be provided in English, with translations completed by a recognised authority if the originals are in another language, per Verdala International School's admissions policy
State And Church School Route For Foreign Families
- Foreign/non-EU families placing a child in the state or church school system (a lower-cost bilingual English/Maltese alternative to private international schools) submit a pre-registration application for non-EU learners to the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation on Great Siege Road, Floriana — a short distance from Valletta.
- The International Learners Directorate (ILD) is the designated first point of contact for newly arrived foreign families navigating registration, exemptions from school fees, and free school transport.
- Primary-level registration is handled directly by the primary school serving the family's residential area, while secondary-level registration goes through the Head of College for that locality, which then directs the family to the appropriate school.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
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Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.