Norway · Bekkestua
The oldest international school in Norway sits west of the city, in Bærum, and it is honest about money. The Board prints one annual fee for Year 1 through IB2. Pre-School is a different story, because Stortinget sets that monthly price.
Dieses Porträt steht noch auf Englisch. Die anderen Sprachen kommen Schule für Schule.
Curriculum laut Schule:International Primary Curriculum · Lower Secondary programme · Pre-IB · IB Diploma Programme
Unterrichtssprachen:English, Norwegian for Years 1–10
Oslo International School is a not-for-profit foundation on Gamle Ringeriksvei 53, 1357 Bekkestua, about 8 km west of Oslo centre. The official website is oslointernationalschool.no. General email: ois.main@oslois.no. Admissions: admissions@oslois.no, +47 407 65 907. Switchboard: +47 678 18 290. Postal box: Postbox 53, 1318 Bekkestua.
It is a day school. The admissions FAQ is blunt: no boarding house. A child cannot move to Oslo alone and “just attend.” If the posting has not found a flat, this campus will not absorb them.
This is not Lycée français René Cassin on Skovveien and Vulkan, and not Deutsch-Norwegische Schule Oslo on the Akerselva. Three official climates. Three papers. One capital.
The homepage says OIS was established in 1963 and serves students aged 3–18 from international and Norwegian families. The About pages add the later chapters: British GCE A Levels in the 1960s, IB approval in 1989, CIS and NEASC accreditation under Barbara Carlsen, a Primary wing in 2008, a sports and multi-purpose hall in 2013, and a new Upper Secondary building in 2017. Treat those as the school’s own history, not a census we counted.
The useful questions are Norwegian. Can this child work in English at the year you want — especially from Year 8 up, where the admissions policy prints CEFR bars? Will they actually learn Norwegian, or only hear it on the T-bane? Can you pay 288,700 NOK plus the one-time fees, because OIS is not subsidised by the Norwegian state? And do you understand that children at OIS are not covered by the ordinary rights to PPT special-needs funding, special language instruction, or school transport?
The admissions process page is clear about the founding mission: serve international families, and “prioritize such families as much as possible.” The admissions policy then sorts the queue into three categories.
Category 1: expatriate families relocating to Norway.
Category 2: internationally minded families already living in Norway.
Category 3: a reduced-tuition category that is being phased out. Students already in it stay in it. New families in categories 1 or 2 cannot move into category 3 later.
That last sentence matters if a Norwegian friend told you “there used to be a cheaper track.” There was. The policy says it is closing.
OIS seeks students of all nationalities who can access an English-medium international curriculum. It does not discriminate on race, nationality, sex, orientation, or religion. It does look at whether the year is full, whether the school can meet the academic need, whether English is strong enough for Secondary, whether Support for Learning has a seat, and whether the family will uphold the Statement of Community.
It is a school for families who can pay the full published bill, or whose employer will. The fees page says OIS is funded 100% by school fees. The 2026–27 terms repeat: no Norwegian government subsidy, no other organisation covering the running costs. The FAQ asks about scholarships and financial aid; the honest reading of the published documents is that you should not budget as if a grant will appear. Upper Secondary students can apply to Lånekassen. The school says the decision sits with Lånekassen, not with OIS. We are not printing a grant figure here because the live FAQ we could use still pointed at an older year. Ask Lånekassen for the current maximum.
Bekkestua is Bærum, not Frogner. The contact page says it is well served by public transport; drivers get parking at school and nearby. The driving notes send you off the E18 at Lysaker, then through Bekkestua to Gamle Ringeriksvei, first right after Coop Mega.
Two buildings. Classrooms, science labs, a library, an innovation space, study areas, a sports hall with a balcony, and a multi-purpose hall with retractable seating. The library is 300 square metres, more than 15,000 books, a full-time librarian and a teacher librarian, and a young-readers corner themed on Norse mythology — a fabric tree and crawl-in pods. Beside it, the Innovation Space has laser cutters, vinyl cutters and 3D printers. Inside that, The Cube is a recording studio for podcasts and digital storytelling. Computer science teacher Angus Reith is the name on that paragraph.
Outside: two large playgrounds, two inner courtyards, a dedicated Early Years patch with tricycles, a sandpit and playhouses, a nearby artificial-turf football pitch used sometimes for PE, and a large public park within walking distance.
Ask to see an ordinary Year 4 classroom and the Year 11 corridor, not only The Cube. Ask where Year 1 plays when November is doing its Bærum act. “Nearby pitch” is a gift until it is booked.
The front office is open 08:00–16:00. Standard start 08:45, finish 15:00, supervised playground in those hours. Upper Secondary may begin and finish outside that. The office closes in the holidays.
Think in four bands, as the homepage does.
Pre-School. Interactive, hands-on, aimed at independence and curiosity. The admissions policy places Pre-School 1 at age 3 by 31 August and toilet-trained, Pre-School 2 at age 4. Fees are not the Year 1–IB2 tariff. Stortinget regulates the monthly price. More below.
Primary, Years 1–6. A literacy scheme, a maths programme, and the International Primary Curriculum as an enquiry-based thematic frame. Year 1 is age 5 by 31 August; Year 2 is 6. From Year 3 the school looks at age and successful completion of the previous year or its equivalent.
Lower Secondary. The school describes a programme that wants ethical students and global citizens — the sentence on the homepage. Placement ages run Year 7 at 11–12 through Year 10 at 14–15.
Upper Secondary. A three-year course: Pre-IB, IB1, IB2. The IB Diploma is the leaving exam. Because the Diploma is two years, applicants must enrol no later than 30 September of their Year 12 / IB1. Direct entry to IB2 happens only when a child is already on an IB Diploma elsewhere and the subject map lines up. The school calls that unusual. Typical graduation age, the policy says, is 18 or 19.
OIS places the child. Parents do not get to pick the year because a previous school used a different August cut-off. Read the age table in the admissions policy PDF against your child’s birthday before you pay the application fee.
The learning pages talk about small classes and university counsellors. We are not inventing a class-size number; the FAQ has a question on average class size, but the live accordion did not give us a printed figure we could quote. Ask in the room.
Instruction is in English. That is the easy sentence.
Norwegian is the host-country language for Years 1–10, at three levels, beginner to native speaker. Students on Norwegian A sit the Norwegian National Tests in Years 6, 8 and 9. If you want a child who can live in Bærum rather than only commute through it, this is the paragraph to test on a tour. Ask how many hours, how sets are made, and what a January arrival is doing by June.
EAL is withdrawal (pull-out) in small groups. Primary EAL works listening, speaking, reading and writing, and the vocabulary needed for the mainstream classroom. The pace is meant to match age and development. There is no minimum English for Primary. Secondary is a different gate.
The admissions policy requires a CEFR assessment, sat under the current school’s supervision, for Secondary applicants whose mother tongue is not English:
A child who cannot meet those levels is not a “we will catch them up in IB1” story. Ask for the current interpretation before you resign a flat in another country.
Mother tongue in the Diploma can be School-Supported Self-Taught or Special Request Language A. OIS says it works with external language teachers when it can. That is not a promise that your language has a teacher this year. Ask.
The Education Act paragraph in the fee terms is the other half of the language conversation. Children at OIS are not covered by the right to special language instruction, Sami, sign language, or a special Norwegian plan for linguistic minorities. If you were counting on kommune language support, you are in the wrong queue.
Applications run year-round, but offers wait on March re-enrolment. The school wants to know how many seats are coming back before it fills them. You create an account, apply online, and pay 5,000 NOK per applicant, non-refundable, card. Payment does not guarantee a place. If you applied before, email admissions@oslois.no to reopen the file.
The policy’s review list is holistic: space in the year, academic fit, English, learning-support capacity, and whether the family will add to the international culture. Hide a learning need and the school may close the file — including after an initial yes.
Support for Learning is limited. OIS will take a limited number of students with mild learning difficulties who can access the programme with up to four lessons a week. Primary: up to four lessons in class or small groups. Lower Secondary and Pre-IB: four lessons, split between mathematics and literacy. Upper Secondary: up to four lessons as tutorials. The school says it cannot effectively serve low cognitive functioning, conduct disabilities, or the combination of a learning disability and limited English.
Parents must declare SEN in the first submission: previous records, achievement and cognitive assessments, IEPs, psycho-educational evaluations. OIS has no legal right to Norwegian PPT funding for Year 1 and above. That is in both the admissions policy and the fee terms. Bring the reports to the first meeting and ask, in the room, whether four lessons is enough — and what happens if it is not.
Once offered a place, you pay the registration fee to hold it. Enrolment can be cancelled if that invoice is late. New Term 1 joiners then pay the enrolment fee, which is applied to Term One tuition. Re-enrolment is online by the end of February; the (re)enrolment fee is due mid-March and holds the seat only if nothing else is overdue. Full Term One tuition by mid-May secures the year.
Mid-year entry is possible if a vacancy exists. The school typically does not enrol after April. From August to December you pay Term One plus registration and enrolment before the first class. From January you pay Term Two plus registration. No pro-rating. The full term is due even if the child starts in week six.
Withdrawal needs a written notice to admissions at least one month ahead, dated, with the child’s name, last day, and a reason. Fees already paid are not refunded.
IB2 fees must be paid in full by 15 November of the graduation year. The school may disenrol an IB2 student during the year if the schedule is not kept. Reports and transcripts can be held for unpaid balances.
The Board of Trustees adopted the schedule on 12 February 2026. These are the school’s numbers, in kroner. They will move. Confirm the live PDF before you budget.
One-time and annual pieces
| Fee | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Application (per applicant, non-refundable, card) | 5,000 NOK |
| Registration (on offer; not for Pre-School joiners; billed when a Pre-School child enters Year 1) | 25,000 NOK |
| Enrolment / (re)enrolment (part of the annual fee, paid separately; non-refundable) | 10,000 NOK |
| Year 1 through IB2, annual tuition | 288,700 NOK |
For Year 1–IB2 the two payment dates are 15 May 2026 (129,900 NOK, which includes the 10,000 enrolment piece due mid-March) and 15 November 2026 (158,800 NOK). New students starting in August pay Term One before they attend, whatever the invoice date says.
Pre-School is regulated by Stortinget and can change. The live fees page and the PDF both print 1,200 kroner a month over eleven months. OIS invoices a 5,000 kroner re-enrolment fee in March 2026, then 1,000 on 15 May 2026 and 7,200 on 15 November 2026 — 13,200 kroner for the year, marked subject to change. That is not a hidden Year 1 discount. Year 1 is the 288,700 tariff plus registration.
Optional bus, from the admissions FAQ for 2026–27: 25,800 NOK round-trip, 15,100 NOK one-way, billed per term. Routes lean toward Oslo, Bærum and Asker. Availability is not guaranteed. Cancel or switch to one-way mid-term and the paid term is gone. The terms say bus prices are set by the Board and posted on the website; confirm the live FAQ before you count on a stop near your building.
After-school activities are extra, paid online by card through the Community Portal. Optional trips are billed at cost; withdraw after you commit and the payment stays. Force majeure — weather, epidemic, government action — does not refund tuition.
Parents are jointly and severally liable, even when an embassy or company is on the invoice. Late payment can attract Norwegian penalty interest (forsinkelsesrente). Unpaid accounts can stop the next term and the next year. Bank transfer to Stiftelse Oslo International School, Danske Bank, with the KID number; the payer covers transfer charges. IBAN printed in the PDF: NO 25 86019268723.
A first-year Year 6, paid by a family who is not in the phased-out reduced category, is not “about 289,000.” It is application + registration + the 288,700 (which already includes the 10,000 enrolment piece) — 318,700 NOK before the bus, a ski week, or lunch. We are not adding a lunch price because the back-to-school FAQ describes an outside caterer, Barn til Bords, two or three days a week, on a portal we could not price from the public page.
Four lessons a week is the published ceiling. Combined learning disability and weak English is a stated no. PPT will not follow the child into Year 1. If your child’s successful year depends on something heavier than that, say so on day one. The school reserves the right to withdraw a student if it later cannot meet the need.
Ask which category your family is in, in writing. Ask how many seats in this year are still open after March re-enrolment. Ask to see the CEFR expectation for the year you want, and who marks the test. Ask how Norwegian is grouped, and whether a child can still make a joke in the corridor by Easter. Ask whether Support for Learning has capacity this year, not in principle. Ask what happens if the posting ends in October (one month’s written notice, no refund). Ask whether Lånekassen is even relevant for this passport. Ask to see Year 6 and Pre-IB, not only the innovation space.
If you live in Oslo and were counting on kommune transport or PPT, ask that twice. The fee terms have already told you those rights do not travel with the child.
We are not saying OIS is the best school in the Oslo area. We are not guessing a waitlist. We are not inventing a class-size number, a 2027–28 fee, or a current Lånekassen maximum. The school talks about strong IB and OECD comparisons on the learning pages; that is the school talking about itself.
Read the current fees PDF and write to admissions before you resign a flat in another country. This is a map. The school still has to be the right Tuesday.
Offizielle Seiten und Dokumente, die wir gelesen haben. Wenn eine Zahl für Budget oder Bewerbung zählt, öffnet den Link und prüft, ob er noch gilt.
Freundliche Orientierung, kein Antrag. Termine, Gebühren und Programme ändern sich. Alles bei der Schule prüfen.
Oslo is not one international campus in Bærum. It is an IB house in Bekkestua, a French AEFE week on Skovveien and Vulkan, and a German-Norwegian encounter school in Sagene. Ask which paper the child will hold, and which dark Tuesday you can live with.
16 minDie Buchstaben auf dem Abschlusszeugnis zählen. Sie sind nicht das ganze Kind. So unterscheidet ihr sie ohne Kopfschmerz — und ohne so zu tun, als bliebe jede Tür offen.
16 minIhr braucht keinen perfekten Algorithmus. Nur ein paar wahre Dinge über euer Kind, eine langweilige Liste am Kühlschrank — und den Mut, einen schönen Campus zu ignorieren, der nicht passt.
15 minDas Schulgeld ist die Zahl auf der Startseite. Das PDF ist die Zahl, die im März kommt. Hier steht, wie ihr die zweite lest, ohne einen Euro, eine Krone oder eine Frist zu erfinden.