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SIS Swiss International School - Berlin
Berlin outpost of the Swiss-headquartered SIS network, on Heerstraße 465 in Spandau. Bilingual German-English from age 3 through 18, around 225 students, leaving qualifications in either the IB Diploma or the Berlin Abitur.
In brief
Berlin outpost of the Swiss-headquartered SIS network, on Heerstraße 465 in Spandau. Bilingual German-English from age 3 through 18, around 225 students, leaving qualifications in either the IB Diploma or the Berlin Abitur.
Mix is roughly sixty percent local German families to forty percent international, with French as an additional language. Class sizes average fifteen, capped around twenty-two, taught by native German and English speakers in parallel. The dual-pathway exit, IB Diploma alongside Abitur, is a genuine differentiator at this size and fee level.
Parent voice is consistently warm. Families talk about engaged teachers, intensive parent communication, and a small-school atmosphere where children feel known. The full-day model with shuttle, after-school care and clubs is a structural fit for working-parent households. The honest considerations are scale and location: a small student body limits class option choices in upper years, and the Spandau site is a real commute from central or eastern Berlin.
Fees
Annual fees
| Year level | Age | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Preschool (€1,085/mo ×12) | 4 | €13,020 |
| Preschool (€1,085/mo ×12) | 5 | €13,020 |
| Grade 1 (€1,253/mo ×12) | 6 | €15,036 |
| Grade 2 (€1,253/mo ×12) | 7 | €15,036 |
| Grade 3 (€1,253/mo ×12) | 8 | €15,036 |
| Grade 4 (€1,253/mo ×12) | 9 | €15,036 |
| Grade 5 (€1,253/mo ×12) | 10 | €15,036 |
| Grade 6 (€1,253/mo ×12) | 11 | €15,036 |
| Grade 7 (€1,399/mo ×12) | 12 | €16,788 |
| Grade 8 (€1,399/mo ×12) | 13 | €16,788 |
| Grade 9 (€1,399/mo ×12) | 14 | €16,788 |
| Grade 10 (€1,599/mo ×12) | 15 | €19,188 |
| Grade 11 (€1,599/mo ×12) | 16 | €19,188 |
| Grade 12 (€1,699/mo ×12) | 17 | €20,388 |
| Grade 13 (€1,699/mo ×12) | 18 | €20,388 |
| Books and Lesson Material (G1-13) | €100 |
One-time fees
| Item | Age | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance Fee | €850 |
Reviews
A bilingual all-through school on a wooded campus on the Spandau side of Heerstrasse, run as a joint venture between Kalaidos Education in Switzerland and the Klett group in Germany. The Berlin site opened in 2016 and offers a path to the Abitur, the IB Diploma, or both. Public sentiment is polarised. Working families with younger children tend to be positive about the immersion model and the all-day structure; concerns sharpen further up the school, where staff turnover and Abitur-stage preparation come up repeatedly.
Positives
- Genuine bilingual immersion. Parents say children leave primary genuinely fluent in both German and English. Kindergarten and primary run on one-person-one-language, and the workload of acquiring both reads as the school's clearest strength.
- All-day model suits working parents. Kindergarten through secondary on one site, with all-day care built in. Families with two full-time jobs flag this as a practical reason the school works for them.
- Small classes and individual attention. Class sizes are small enough that teachers know the children well, and parents describe the day-to-day pastoral tone as warm.
- Spandau campus and grounds. The site sits in 60,000 square metres of wooded parkland off Heerstrasse, with two libraries, science labs and music and art studios. It is a quiet, green setting by Berlin private-school standards.
Considerations
- Teacher turnover, especially in secondary. Parents talk about classes cycling through multiple teachers in a short stretch. One account mentions a child sitting with six different class teachers, and another describes a stretch with no German teacher for a full half-year.
- Communication and organisation. Information doesn't always reach families promptly, and changes to staffing or timetables can land late. The complaint is consistent enough to read as a pattern rather than a one-off.
- Academic stretch and Abitur preparation. Some parents say report cards at SIS did not match how their children fared when they moved on, and there are sharper criticisms about Abitur-stage rigour. The all-through bilingual offering does not seem to land equally well at every stage.
- Fees against perceived value. Tuition runs to around EUR 9,000 to 16,000 a year depending on stage, with shuttle and materials on top. Income-based reductions are available. Whether the price reads as fair tends to track how each family rates the academic and organisational side.